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TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION
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TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION

DAY 1 - MONDAY 14 OCTOBER 1996

 

CASE NO:&#9;&#9;&#9;&#9;CT/00441

VICTIM:&#9;&#9;&#9;&#9;SARAH VILJOEN

NATURE OF VIOLENCE:&#9;SHOT & KILLED

TESTIMONY BY:&#9;&#9;NICOLAAS VILJOEN

 

DR ORR:

The following witness is Mr Nicolaas Viljoen. Mr Viljoen before you swear you in, there is an announcement that there’s a vehicle parked in someone’s driveway. It’s a Toyota 4x4 with a registration number CJ 79990, so if the owner of that vehicle is here, please could they move it. 

&#9;Mr Viljoen can I ask you to stand to take the oath please.

 

NICOLAAS VILJOEN&#9;&#9;Duly sworn states

 

DR ORR:

I am going to speak English, would you like to use the headphones? Can you [indistinct] the headphones? Are those working? Mr Viljoen can you hear me threw the headphones, okay.

&#9;We have some technical problems, I believe the vegetation blocks out the signals from - from the equipment so that’s what’s causing the problems. 

&#9;Mr Viljoen thank you very much for coming here today. You are also going to tell us about an incident which affected you and your family in 1976 and you’re going to tell us about the day on which your wife was shot. So I’d like you to first tell us a little bit about your family, then tell us what was happening in Paarl in 1976 and tell us your story.

MR VILJOEN:

On this particular day I was ill in bed with a stomach problem. I was working at the post office but that particular day I was at home. My wife had been working at the police station in Paarl for years and years. She was the main chef there and on this day of this incident they brought her home in a police vehicle and I was laying there and she served me my food. 

And my daughter in law then came and she came to inform my wife that my oldest son, that was her husband, had just been detained. She was so upset about that, that the two of them left immediately, not to where the police were - it was far from where the police were. The reason for that was that she wanted to find out why they had arrested him. She wanted to go to the police station. 

On the way there they met up with a taxi driver that was standing there and I believe that that taxi driver had been warned that he should not move around in that area, picking up commuters, but he ignored that warning. My wife and daughter in law got into the taxi and she was sitting on the left side and my daughter in law on the right hand side. 

And in front of her was another person in the taxi, a certain Mr Basson who was a bus driver. When they got into the taxi the taxi had took of and the started shooting at the taxi. And I could [indistinct] that it was a powerful weapon that they had used because the bullet penetrated my wife’s body and the passenger who was sitting next to the - the taxi driver the bullet lodged there so they never got to the police station because Mr Basson had to be dropped of first and when he got out he realized that his back was bleeding.

And they immediately took another road and rushed of to the hospital. On their arrival at the hospital they found that his bullet was lodged in his body. And they removed the bullet and when they came back, they found that my wife was no longer seated in the taxi but that she was laying down and she was covered in blood.

I was at home, unaware of anything and I lay aware all night wondering where my wife was sheltering. At approximately 3 am there was a knock at the door. And I did not want to send my children to see so I went to go and peep at the door and I saw this person had a long thing in his hand which looked to me like a gun and it was not that but it was my oldest daughter’s father who had come to tell me that my wife had been shot. 

And I lay there with my broken heart and grieve until daybreak so we could go to the police station to identify the corpse. The inquest found that her heart and longs had been shattered by the bullet - the gun that was used. So it wasn’t an ordinary rifle but what amazes me is that the same white and Coloured that she had cooked for, for years did not have the heart to come to me and say can we be of any assistance with the funeral arrangements or anything, nothing. 

This matter was handed to an attorney who was in America, but it never ever went to court. It never ever became a trial, never went to trial and I had to bear the costs by myself, pay for everything and up until now nothing has happened.

DR ORR:

[indistinct] that you have 5 children. It must have been very difficult for you to be left alone to bring those children up. How did you manage? Would you like me to ask the question again?

MR VILJOEN:

Yes please.

DR ORR:

Earlier this morning you told me that you and your wife had 5 children. When you were left alone with them - to bring them up - it must have been very difficult. Tell us how it effected you and how you managed.

MR VILJOEN:

It was a very difficult situation for me because I worked at the post office and I had to be up at 4 o’clock in the morning to report for duty at 5 am. I had to prepare my own breakfast because we used to work shifts and at 11 o’clock I would come of duty and in that short while until 1 o’clock I would have to cook a piece of meat - start cooking a piece of meat.

&#9;And also prepare my clothes and when I reported at work at 1 o’clock I would work until 6 o’clock and when I got home the meat would be halve done and at that time I did not know how to cook - it would be a piece of meat and some time a piece of bread but we survived. 

&#9;And some of my children were already married at the time and one of them is here in this hall today. 

DR ORR:

How old were the kids [indistinct] ?

 

 

MR VILJOEN:

The eldest child was approximately 28 years old and the others were a bit younger.

DR ORR:

And you said there was a court case to investigate your wife’s death - an inquest. Do you know what the outcome of the inquest was?

MR VILJOEN:

The finding was that her heart and longs were shattered by the shot and that was heartbreaking for me that a human could shoot another person like that - worst that a animal. And they could see my wife getting into the taxi, still they did not care what they did. They used that weapon not to worn but to shoot to kill and that is what happened.

DR ORR:

[indistinct] like to just read something from our investigators report. They went and retrieved various records around the inquest into your wives death and found that the Captain who was in charge that day - who actually gave the order to shoot, Captain ND Slabbert, was in fact the same Captain who was in charge of the operation on the day that Ronald Carollisen was killed. I have no further questions and will hand you back to the Chair.

CHAIRPERSON:

Order please, any further questions, Denzil Potgieter?

ADV POTGIETER:

Thank you Chairman. Mr Viljoen, the attorney you mentioned who is in America now, was he from Paarl?

MR VILJOEN:

I know that he worked for a firm here in Paarl but I don’t know whether he was in Paarl. He worked for the firm Faure and Faure for years and he was one of the people who took up the matter. 

ADV POTGIETER:

So when you approached him to consult about the matter he worked for Faure and Faure?

MR VILJOEN:

Yes.

ADV POTGIETER:

What was his name?

MR VILJOEN:

I really cannot say what his name was because I seldom dealt with such matters. Even the court cases I didn’t have much to do with, because I worked at the post office for years.

ADV POTGIETER:

So when you consulted with the attorney, why did you consult with the attorney. What did you say to him?

MR VILJOEN:

I asked him to please take the matter further for me and he agreed. And he wrote letters, I’m not sure who he addressed them to but the result thereof was that it never ended up in court - never went to trial. They did make a payment of R1 000.00 to him and out of the R1 000.00 he withheld R400.00 as his fee and gave me R600.00 which I gave to my children.

ADV POTGIETER:

So the compensation for your wife’s death was R1 000.00?

MR VILJOEN:

That was all I got. And out of that he withheld R400.00 and sent a cheque with the difference.

ADV POTGIETER:

One more thing, you said that there was a - an inquest into her death and that is where they mentioned her heart and longs which were so badly damaged. What did the court say about that matter with regards to the person who had actually fired the shot? Did the court find that person guilty, did anything happen to that person?

MR VILJOEN:

No, the case never ever went to trial - it just ended there. I was never called to court, I was merely informed that there was a cheque for a R1 000.00 and that he was withholding R400.00. And the R600.00 that I received I dished out to my children.

ADV POTGIETER:

So nobody was found guilty or sentenced or anything?

MR VILJOEN:

No, not at all, although she had worked for them for years, non of them had the decency to come to me and apologize and say we are sorry, you know, we did not realize that this was somebody that had worked for us.

ADV POTGIETER:

Thank you very much.

CHAIRPERSON:

Mr Viljoen it is almost ridicules - the - the claim - the compensation that they gave you. To think that they could give a R1 000.00 for somebody’s life and then still you’d only get R600.00 out of that.

It is very difficult to fathom. I mean anybody that listened to that story like us and many others which we have listened to. People say that it is unbelievable, it’s incredible, it could never had happened that people could just shoot others at - randomly and you would say yes, it did happen and you would hear the evidence of people coming to testify. 

And you think that people still say no-no-no it’s impossible, we cannot believe that. And when you add that Ms Viljoen was working for the police - she used to cook for them - and that nobody thought of having the decency to come to you and say look something has happened and we are so sorry for what has happened.

One always hopes that when there are - it there are people who remember that they were part of this incident, that God will touch their souls because we do not want to talk about hatred and bearing grudges. We are talking about peace, forgiveness and reconciliation. And something that could touch a person and that - that person could say that I do not want to be acquitted but I would like to destroy my part or my contribution to this incident by going to apologize.

Because one still has to appear before God even if we as people never realized what the hole truth is, and we say to people like these that if you want to be healed spiritually, this is not about whether you were found guilty in a court of law or not, but knowing what you have done and to please come forward and come and ask for forgiveness. 

To ask for forgiveness and - people will see a miracle. You will see people who are willing to forgive but we thank you for having come and we hope that God will bless you and that he will be with you. He has blessed you and he has been with you. Thank you very much.

MR VILJOEN:

Thank you for those beautiful words because as I have said you have repeated what I am so grateful for that we read in The Bible you must be willing to forgive. If you cannot forgive the next person - although I do not know who it is - God will not forgive you either. And hence I have forgiven them because I know they cannot give that live back to me. Thank you very much.

CHAIRPERSON:

Thank you.

 

