BUKELANI MBONISWA | ‘They have destroyed me’: Apartheid police violence reverberates decades on

De Aar, a small town in the Northern Cape, is best known for being one of the crucial railway junctions in South Africa. But beyond its renown for the railway station, which has since fallen into partial ruin, and its slow development, it has a history that is written in blood; a history visible in the scars of its people.

Being a small town, it was somewhat easy for the apartheid government to contain any pressure of resistance that was spiralling up from the masses. This was partly due to prolonged inaction such as the lack of urgency, strategising and militancy, resulting in rampant political sterility.

Perhaps being the second-largest railway junction in the country was another reason PW Botha’s administration did not allow De Aar to be a playground for the ‘communist agenda’ that was opposed to apartheid. There was a heavy police presence in the townships. But when this political sterility finally fell away in 1984, with the influence of popular uprisings throughout the country, the politics of resistance were sharpened and shaped; De Aar became another notable hotspot for riots in the Northern Cape.

I sat down with Lesley Kelemi, who was greatly affected by these riots.

In 1987, on July 17, a 15-year-old Lesley Kelemi was shot by the police in the right eye, leaving him blind. Now 51, Lesley opens up about what happened to him 36 years ago. The day he was injured, he was still in primary school. He saw a large group of people passing by on the street as children followed. “As kids, we were only enthused by the singing and loud movement of the crowd not realising the dangers of being part of that crowd.”

People were burning tyres and houses followed. It was chaos. The police dispersed the protesters by throwing tear gas. The people scattered as the police shot at them. Kelemi was chased by the police from Street 2 to Street 12, where he stayed, running and hiding in between houses. “At that moment I was praying to at least be closer to home,” he said.

He ran in the dark towards the clinic behind his house, not knowing it had been burnt down and the police were standing next to it. He was shot at close range with a rubber bullet in the backyard of one house away from his own , by a policeman who came from the direction of the clinic.

“After being shot I was lying unconscious on the ground.” He was discovered the following morning. When the police came they wanted to know what happened to this 15-year-old boy, so they asked around. They found out that Lesley was one of the people who was part of the protest. The police took him to hospital, where his bed was later surrounded by police.

He only remembers waking up in a hospital in Bloemfontein, where he spent four months, and a month or two in Kimberly and De Aar hospitals. After he was discharged from the hospital he appeared in court. His case only lasted a few days. Having no legal representative, Lesley was found guilty of burning down a clinic and was given a five-year suspended sentence.

Lesley feels he has not been well-compensated and prays that he lives to see the day he gets compensated for the great loss he suffered. This prayer is what gives him and his family hope

“I wanted to know why I was found guilty, but I was not told.” After returning home he realised he would not be able to continue with school because of poor concentration and focus, and because people were laughing at him.  

“They have destroyed me.”

This was the most painful thing he had to endure, as it turned his life upside down. On October 7 1996, Lesley testified at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). He received R30,000 in compensation. He now works as a gardener. The ANC, he says, has made many promises to him that it has not fulfilled to this day.

“The ANC has neglected me.” Lesley says he does not want a food hamper but a job to sustain his family. Due to the severity of his injury, Lesley sometimes suffers from memory loss. When it is hot he gets tired.

A few years after his appearance at the TRC, Lesley found out who shot him. “I see him in town, but we never spoke.” Lesley feels he has not been well-compensated and prays that he lives to see the day he gets compensated for the great loss he suffered. This prayer is what gives him and his family hope.        

• Bukelani Mboniswa is an essayist and author of Paint Me White: The Black Man’s Tragedy, Rainbow Nation: The Propaganda of Democracy and The Season of Whiteness: A Biography of Nothingness.