Prosecution Witness – Temee
The final witness of the opening day of the trial was the one that everybody had been waiting for, especially the gathered press corps. Temee was the first of the Basarwa hunting party to give evidence and so was the first witness to describe in detail what had happened to the missing airmen. This was done through two interpreters, the first translating to Setswana and the second from Setswana to English. Temee was still only 16 years old at the time of the trial:
I am Temee, the son of Resetora and Micke. Keree is my uncle, but I am not related to Twai Twai or Tammai. At the beginning of the summer I went with Tammai and Keree as part of a hunting party and we met with Twai Twai’s group at Kuaxaxa. All of the accused were part of this enlarged party.
On the 4th of October I was at Kuaxaxa when I saw a plane fly over in the late afternoon. We were all at the camp, although Twai Twai, Tammai and Keree were taking the donkeys to the well when this happened. We all slept at the campsite at Kuaxaxa. At daybreak the following morning we heard the aeroplane’s engines. Twai Twai, Orai, Toi Toi, Tammai and myself went to look for the aeroplane. We all travelled on donkeys except for Tammai who used the horse. We found the aeroplane on open ground near the pan, but, although there was spoor, there was nobody there. We decided to follow the spoor and we came across two white men just before we reached the village of Ramatamoli. There was a tall man and a short man.
Temee was then asked to describe in detail what the men were wearing and carrying. This took some time and it became obvious that Temee, or the interpreters, did not have words for all that he wanted to say. Descriptions of colours and materials involved pointing at various people wearing similar items in the courthouse. The description of the jackets was particularly problematic as it could not be made clear whether Temee was referring to shirts and jackets or vests and shirts. This must be remembered when reading the next section, where repetition and confusion have been removed:
The tall man had a hat with metal on – like a button or a badge – the hat was like the WNLA peaked caps, it was khaki in colour. The tall man had long trousers on and the short man was wearing shorts, both men were wearing a shirt and a jacket. One of the men had a mark on his arm like the soldiers wear. One of the men was carrying an axe, it was an unusual axe with a hole in the head. That was all I saw the men carrying.
We took them to the campsite at Kuaxaxa and they rode there using the horse and one of our donkeys. It was in the afternoon when we returned to the camp. When we got there we gave the white men giraffe meat to eat but they did not eat it.
That night the white men settled down to sleep first, they went to bed in Twai Twai’s shelter. The rest of us men and some of the women stayed around the fire longer. While we were around the fire, Twai Twai suggested that we should kill the white men so we did not get into trouble for killing the giraffes. Tammai agreed with Twai Twai. Tammai and Keree were next to go to bed. I went to sleep in Twai Twai’s enclosure along with Orai, Toi Toi, Twai Twai and the two airmen. Keree lived with Autwa, Morobe and Chikawe stayed in another shelter, and the three other women all slept in Rekisang’s shelter.
I was lying down but was not fast asleep when I saw Twai Twai stand up and then Tammai arrived with a Martini Henry rifle that he normally kept in his shelter. Twai Twai had his muzzle loader. Twai Twai shot one man and he died. Tammai shot the other man but he struggled so Tammai took his axe and used the sharp end on him to kill him. Blood came out and stained Tammai’s trousers. By this time Keree had arrived and the noise of the shooting brought the women too. Twai Twai and Tammai then took the boots off the two airmen and then Twai Twai ordered Keree to help him carry the tall man’s body away. Tammai told the women to help him carry the other body, so Anchere and Haukwe helped him and Keree to carry the short man away. They carried the bodies into the bush in the direction of Cutico. I stayed in the camp and saw Morobe come back to carry some coals, then I saw a big fire in the direction they had carried the bodies.
The next morning, just as it was getting light, the women came back into the camp. Chenda was carrying some of the white men’s clothes, including a shirt and a pair of short trousers. She told me that they had burnt the bodies. Orai, Twai Twai and Tammai then returned from the direction of last night’s fire. Twai Twai brought with him hair from the bodies and he was also carrying the white man’s genitals. That morning, the party left the campsite with Bene, Anchere, Autwa and Haukwe going to Cutico and the rest of the party going to Kombe. Twai Twai and Tammai carried the possessions taken from the white men with Twai Twai having a shirt, a pair of shoes, trousers, jacket, and a hat. Tammai took with him the axe from the airmen, shoes, trousers and a shirt. I never saw a water container.
Tammai gave some white material to Chenda to make a dress. This material had been carried by the white men in a bundle fastened with a red belt. This material was a large amount. I saw Chenda wear this dress, but she hid it when Captain Langley arrived in a lorry and I never saw it again. I did see the airman’s axe at Nekate with Tammai. I also know that Matammai (Tammai’s mother) kept one of the pairs of trousers belonging to the airmen. Tammai turned the trousers he was wearing at the time of the murder into shorts. These trousers had blood on them.
This dramatic evidence brought the first day to a close. As Justice de Beer adjourned for the day, the press hurried away to wire the latest developments around the Commonwealth and the prisoners were taken across the courtyard, back to the cells.
TUESDAY 26 SEPTEMBER
With news of Temee’s evidence being the talk of the whole country, it was no surprise that the crowd surrounding the courthouse was even larger the following day. Before the case started for the day all the court’s windows were opened wide, giving some opportunity to those straining to hear the proceedings from outside. Temee was back on the stand, under oath, to face his cross-examination. As usual, Fraenkel was first up. He walked Temee through the evidence he had given the previous afternoon before questioning him on the clothing and appearance of the airmen:
The short man was wearing shorts and had on black shoes. I cannot describe his socks, but they were not black or brown. This was the man who was carrying the axe. The tall man wore brown shoes and had black socks. He carried the material with a belt around it. Both men wore shirts and jackets.
The questioning then moved to the events at Kuaxaxa:
We arrived back at the campsite at about four or five o’clock. When it got dark the white men went to go and sleep. They took off their hats, but did not undress. I do not know if they took their shoes off but they kept their axe next to them. The belt from the material was removed and the white men slept on the material. The coals of the fire were still alive when the rest of us went to bed.
The first shot woke me up and I saw Tammai take the second shot. I know Twai Twai fired the first shot because there was still smoke coming from his gun. This was the gun he had shot a kudu with, before we found the white men. I did not see the wounds, but I saw blood over Tammai’s clothing. There was lots of blood when Tammai used the axe on the back of the white man’s neck. By this time the women had arrived. When the bodies were carried away the socks and shoes had been removed. I never went to the fire. When Twai Twai came back he was carrying dark hair – this included part of the scalp.
Finally, the questions turned to the events after the murder:
The clothes of the airmen were clean; I did not notice any blood on them. These clothes were shared out at Jaire before the party split up. The material that was given to Chenda was the material I saw the white men with. After the dress was made, Tammai had the material that was left over. I did not see Tammai hide anything before the police lorries came. Tammai did cut his own trousers down to shorts, but this was because they were old and had been torn riding. The police never beat me to make me say these things.
Kelly then asked very brief questions about the events at the fire before Temee had slept:
Only Twai Twai, Tammai an
d Keree were involved in the conversation about what to do with the white men, but when I went to bed I knew murder would be done.
The prosecution then re-questioned Temee to clear up some points:
When I woke up I saw Twai Twai stood over the tall white man with his gun just discharged. I did not see any blood or a hole in the white man’s clothing. There was blood on the floor of the shelter. Twai Twai had shot a kudu with this gun, but this was many days before. Tammai had used his gun to kill a giraffe a couple of days before. The meat in the camp was dried meat, or biltong, from this giraffe. The animals had been shot from the horse.
Tammai changed the handle of his axe later because it had broken in the murder.
The court then confirmed that Temee had stayed in Nata after the murder and also asked him to clarify some of the relationships in the hunting party. Temee said that Chancha was concubine to Tammai, Keree was Chenda’s brother and that Keree was married to the sister of Anchere. Finally, Temee described the piece of white material he had seen as being about 10 feet long, but this was when it was folded.
Prosecution Witness – Rekisang
Perhaps surprisingly, the next witness was the daughter of the main accused. Rekisang had decided to turn King’s Evidence against her father, Twai Twai, who she still lived with. She too was a member of the party that had been illegally hunting giraffe at the time of the pilots’ disappearance:
I was part of a hunting party that started from Nata. I travelled with Twai Twai, Toi Toi and Kitso to Nekate where we met Tammai’s group. Tammai was travelling with Morobe, Temee, Chikawe and Resetora. From Nekate we went to Kuaxaxa where we were joined by Keree. Keree had Autwa and Orai with him.
On the 4th of October 1943 I saw an aeroplane flying towards the east. At this time the three hunting parties were together as one. Later that day Bene, Chenda and Anchere joined us. The next morning we heard the aeroplane and Twai Twai, Tammai, Orai and Toi Toi left the campsite on the horse and donkeys.
Later that day, they returned with two white men in soldiers uniform. They were both wearing shorts and shirts, and both shirts had badges on the arms with stripes on them. They only had shirts and not jackets. They were carrying an axe with a black handle, like the one in the court.
That night I heard Tammai and Twai Twai discussing what to do. Twai Twai asked Tammai, ‘As you have brought these white men here, what are you going to do with them?’ Tammai replied that he did not know what they could do with them. I thought they were talking about taking the white men home. Keree was present at the fire when this conversation happened and must have heard, but he said nothing. Twai Twai then said, as they were on the veld, they should just murder the white men and take their money off them. Tammai agreed. This happened around the camp fire, the white men had gone to Twai Twai’s shelter, but I do not think they were asleep. After this everyone went to sleep in their respective shelters.
At night I heard and I saw Tammai pass by with a rifle in his hand on his way to Twai Twai’s shelter. Keree also went to Twai Twai’s. I saw Twai Twai with a rifle in his hand, he had shot the tall man. Tammai then shot the other man and when he still struggled he passed his gun to Keree and he took his own axe and hit the shorter man on the back of the neck. This axe stayed in Twai Twai’s shelter. I could not see what the white men were sleeping on as I was too far away, but I could see that they had slept in their clothes and then I saw Twai Twai take their shoes off. Twai Twai and Tammai then carried away the body of the tall man with help from Bene. Keree was told by Tammai to help carry the bodies, Keree did not object but he had to be ordered to carry the short man. Keree was helped to carry by Chenda and myself.
At this point lunch was taken for the second day, once again giving a hurried opportunity for the defence to explain to the accused what had happened over the course of the morning. This was an easier task due to the fact that that the defendants could at least understand all of Rekisang’s responses. Rekisang then started the afternoon session by describing the immediate aftermath of the murders:
The type of crash axe that was missing from the recovered Oxford. There was an identical axe in court. (Adrian Stevenson)
We carried the bodies to the place that I had pointed out to the police. Twai Twai and Tammai undressed one body each before they cut off the private parts. Twai Twai then removed the hair from his body. I did not see Tammai remove any hair but I did see him remove fat from the loin of his body. This fat, along with the hair and genitals, were the only parts that were removed. Twai Twai and Tammai then cut the bodies into bits, starting by cutting them in half at the waist and then chopping the legs off. I saw blood on the floor where this was done. All the women helped by collecting wood, Keree only helped by putting the wood into the fire. Tammai ordered Autwa to bring coals from the campsite so that he could light the fire. The bodies were then burnt. When the bodies were fully burned and there was only some bones left, I went back to the camp with the women. Orai, Tammai, Twai Twai and Keree stayed at the fire for a while longer. Twai Twai had made a parcel of the hair and fat using leafs and branches, I carried this back to the campsite. Chenda carried the fat Tammai had cut out. The other women carried nothing.
The men arrived back after sunrise and Twai Twai and Tammai carried with them the white men’s clothes as well as the private parts. Twai Twai took the fat off me and melted it with zinc over a fire, when it was melted he added the hair to the mixture and then poured the liquid into a bottle. Some medicine and a sixpence was added to the bottle. At first I thought Twai Twai had got the sixpence from his hunting, but then I thought he must have taken it from the white men as I had not seen it before. The bottle is the one in the court today.
Finally, Rekisang described what happened as the hunting party broke up:
At Kombe, Twai Twai gave me the bottle of fat with the sixpence in. He told me that I should put it on my face, but I do not think that Masarwa women can be made beautiful by fat and medicine so I did not use it. This was the bottle I later gave to Preston-Whyte, the policeman. Morobe had another bottle of fat, but I am not sure where she got this from – she will be able to tell you that.
We stayed one night at Kombe and then I went to Methlomoganyane with Tammai and Chenda. Tammai gave Chenda some white silky material that she made herself a dress from. I first saw this material in Chenda’s shelter at Kuaxaxa, the one she shared with Tammai, as we were getting ready to leave. This was the first time I had seen it.
After two nights at Methlomoganyane we went to Jarie for a couple of days. At Jarie, Twai Twai gave me nine shillings in loose coins that I put into my bag. The coins were all silver and some were foreign. I gave this money to Mr Batty.
Mr Batty was part of the British South African Police group that had helped with the search for the missing pilots. Despite their name, this was the police force for Southern Rhodesia and they had offered full assistance with the investigation. When Rekisang handed the money over there was only 8s in the purse:
I am sure that Twai Twai had no money when we left Nata to go hunting. Twai Twai was with us at Jarie and this was where the white men’s clothes were divided. I watched this from the shelter I was using, about twenty feet away (6 metres), and I could see the items come out of a box, including the water container that Tammai took. I could not see any bloodstains on the clothing from where I was.
Fraenkel was again the first to cross-examine the witness and as usual went through the timeline before going into greater detail, this time starting with what happened after the group left Jarie. As Rekisang described the journey back to Nata, this approach ran into a problem those with no experience of the region could have expected:
It took days to get back to Nata from Jarie and then many days later the police came.
Fraenkel wanted to know how many days, but the best answer Rekisang could give was ‘many’. This led to a short confrontation as Fraenkel tried to tie down a fixed date (how many days? how many weeks?) and it appeared that the witness was bei
ng deliberately obtuse. The translator then came to Rekisang’s aid by explaining to the court that ‘Rekisang cannot answer as Masarwa do not know how many days in a week’. Fraenkel then changed tack by going back to the events on the day of the alleged murder:
The party that went out to search for the aeroplane left before sunrise and returned around midday. The white men they found were both wearing khaki shorts although they wore different colour socks.
There was another break at this point as finding translations for colours was very problematic. Khaki was dealt with by pointing to a uniform in the courthouse, but describing the exact colours of the socks proved too much and the detail was left unknown. Fraenkel was forced to change tack again and immediately ran into more linguistic problems as he tried to tease out whether Rekisang was asleep at the time of the first shot:
At the time of the murder the fire near Twai Twai’s shelter had died down and there were no flames, but the coals were still red. I was not asleep but lying on the ground when people went to bed. I was not fully asleep at the time of the first shot.
This final point took nearly five minutes of questioning to establish as the translator could not find the necessary words to differentiate between lying down, being asleep, being awake and getting up:
The tall man was shot in the neck, the other man in the ribs. The men were undressed in the bush near the new fire and they both had vests on. The socks and shoes were left at the camp. Temee stayed in the camp and he was just waking when we returned, though he was fully awake when the men returned. I only saw hair cut from the white men, I did not see any skin with it. I did not see the private parts after they were brought back to the camp. The material I saw in Tammai’s shelter was folded – I know there was enough to make one dress. Twai Twai packed up that morning, putting all the clothing in one bag that was strapped to a donkey. Tammai and Twai Twai took one hat each at Jarie – I did not see any blood on the hats.
The Kalahari Killings Page 11
