Kellunck
Shoosh
Wham
I looked back at the Palace of Justice as we went round the Square. It stood serene in the afternoon light and gave no hint of the history that had played itself out within its walls. In the taxi I closed my eyes and tried to think of ships and shipping and of boys running on the beach.
The flight attendant on the Boeing handed me the paper. An elderly couple had been murdered on their farm. Two men had shot dead a taxi driver. There were rumours of a battle in Angola, with many casualties. A policeman had shot his wife and children and then turned the gun on himself.
On page three I found the names of the men who were in the Pot when we had our second inspection. They were the ones who must have felt the tremor in the walls when we had the Major push the lever and let the trapdoors slam against the stoppers:
MORE EXECUTIONS AT CENTRAL
The following men were executed on Wednesday in Pretoria Central Prison: Damon Willemse, Japie Samuels, Willem Lewis, Abraham Koelman, Tholi Selby Mnguni, Alpheus Banda.
Willemse, Samuels, Lewis and Koelman were sentenced to death in Cape Town on 2 February last year. Mnguni was sentenced to death in Durban on 29 January this year and Banda in Vanderbijlpark on 21 April this year.
There are more than 200 prisoners still awaiting execution at Central.
In the cycle of killing there is a beginning, but no end.
Glossary
17: Pak! Pack!
18: Trek jou dagklere aan! Geen onderbroek of kouse en skoene nie! Put on your day clothes. No underpants or socks and shoes!
Maak soos ek sê en maak gou! Do as I say and hurry up!
Dit is tyd om te gaan. It is time to go.
20: Staan stil en staan regop! Stand still and stand up straight!
Ruk jou reg, man! Staan stil! Pull yourself together, man! Stand still!
26: Staan vorentoe! Stand towards the front!
Ek wil niks van julle kak hê nie! I don’t want any of your shit!
32: Trek hom op! Maak gou! Maak gou! Pull him up! Hurry! Hurry!
Een, twee, drie! One, two, three!
68: Jammer, Baas. Ek rus net hier. Sorry, Boss. I am just resting here.
72: Aan die tou. Van die tou af. On the rope. Off the rope.
83: Roer julle gatte daar onder! Kry hierdie fokkers van die toue af! Move your backsides down there! Get these fuckers off the ropes!
97: Moenie vir my vertel perdedrolle is vye nie! Don’t tell me horseshit is fruit. Literally: Don’t tell me horseshit is figs. A colloquial Afrikaans expression for bullshit.
121: Ag kak, man! Oh bullshit, man!
155: Uit met jou skoene! Off with your shoes!
Sit jou hande hier, teen die muur, palms oop, vingers uit. En bly hier tot ek sê jy mag roer. Verstaan? Put your hands here, against the wall, palms open, fingers out. And stay here until I say you may move. Understand?
Het jy gevoel? Presies sewe-uur? Did you feel it? On the stroke of seven? Did you feel the trapdoors slamming against the wall?
Vat hom terug na sy sel toe. Take him back to his cell.
Ek wil nie weer kak van jou hê nie, verstaan? I don’t want any more shit from you, understand?
199: Julle sallie vir my kry nie. Frikkie Muller is te slim vir julle, my Kroon. You won’t get me. Frikkie Muller is too clever for you, my Crown. My Crown is a mocking and sarcastic mode of address by coloured people for a white person.
Dood is Muller. Dead is Muller.
201: bakkie. pickup.
202: Ek sal gaan soos Jesus. I’ll go like Jesus.
As ek gaan soos Jesus sal God my vergewe. If I go like Jesus, God will forgive me.
Ek sal gaan soos Jesus, vir ander se sondes. I’ll go like Jesus, for the sins of others.
262 and 266: Trek hom op! Maak gou! Maak gou! Pull him up! Quickly! Quickly!
281: Ja, my Kroon … Yes, my Crown …
My Kroon se gat. My Crown’s arse.
Wat sê jy? What did you say?
Niks nie, my Kroon. Nothing, my Crown.
312: Fok daai liefde! Fuck that. Literally: Fuck that love. A colloquial expression.
393: pak. Pack. Used as a verb.
409: EK SIEMON IS NIE SKELAG NIE. I SIMON AM NOT GUILTY. Written in pidgin Afrikaans.
Author’s Note
In July 1989 Nelson Mandela, a survivor of Cell 6 and Court C above it, was released from prison for the day to meet the State President P W Botha. Mandela asked Botha to release all political prisoners but Botha refused.
In August 1989 F W de Klerk became the new State President.
In October 1989 de Klerk released the first batch of political prisoners in the sweep of reforms that led to the end of apartheid. Negotiations for a handover of power to South Africa’s black majority began in earnest. Years before, the names of some of those who would take up the reins of power four years later had been scratched into the walls of Cell 6.
In November 1989 de Klerk announced a moratorium on executions.
The moratorium came a week too late for Kukaleni Solomon Ngobeni, destined to be the last man to be hanged in Pretoria:
SERIAL NO NAME V-NO PLACE SENTENCED DATE JUDGE OUTCOME DATE
4965 Kukaleni Solomon Ngobeni V4906 Tzaneen 28.2.88 J. J. Strydom Executed 14.11.89
In February 1990 Nelson Mandela was released by de Klerk. On 10 May 1994 Mandela was sworn in as President, the first African to hold that office, exactly as Dr Verwoerd had reportedly told Dimitri Tsafendas nearly thirty years earlier.
During the moratorium judges around the country continued to impose the death sentence until June 1996 when the Constitutional Court held it to be incompatible with the right to life guarantee of the Constitution negotiated between de Klerk and Mandela. Special legislation was passed and those awaiting execution were given long terms of imprisonment instead.
By then more than four thousand men and women had been hanged in Pretoria, the first on 12 August 1902 and the last on 14 November 1989.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following persons for their assistance: my nephew and now my colleague Etienne Botha of the Pretoria Bar, for finding and copying the Capital Cases registers and the trial records of the thirty-two men who were hanged between 26 November and 10 December 1987; Johan Steinberg, once an escort in Maximum Security Prison, for sharing the secrets of the execution process with me; my friend and colleague Fanie Olivier, for reading the manuscript, then raw and unsophisticated, and for encouraging me to send it to Umuzi; Frederik de Jager, my editor at Umuzi, for his fearless editing, for smoothing the rough spots, and for his expert advice; my wife, Ansie, for suffering my pursuit of the subject matter of this book with such grace and tolerance, and for proof-reading it more than once.
CGM
6 March 2008
Shepherds and Butchers Page 49
