TRUTH BE TOLD

Prisoner In My Mind

DATE OF INCIDENT
December 1987
THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE
37 years
CRIME
Alleged murder

Tumelo Richard Motasi was a policeman based at the Hammanskraal Police College. The Northern Transvaal Security Police compiled a file on him which suggested that he was an ANC agent giving sensitive information over to the ANC in Zimbabwe and Johannesburg. His activities were apparently the subject of discussions at the Northern Transvaal Divisional Crime Meeting. The evidence from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Amnesty Hearings, indicates that General Jacob Gabrielle Roux Stemmet (the Divisional Commissioner of the Northern Transvaal Division), General Ras, Brigadier Jack Cronje and Colonel Kloppers instructed Captain Loots, Captain Hechter and Warrant Officer Van Vuuren to eliminate Motasi as he was a threat to the Security Branch of the South African Police (SAP) and the government of the day.
Loots then requested Mamasela (a Vlakplaas askari) to establish the actual address of Motasi. Mamasela did so and reported back to Loots. On the evening of 1 December 1987, Loots, Hechter, Van Vuuren, Mamasela and the driver Danny Selahle, went to the Motasi home. Mamasela knocked on the Motasi home front door and spoke to Mrs. Irene Motasi who told Mamasela that Motasi was not at home. Mamasela then took Mrs. Motasi and her small child into the bedroom and kept them captive in the bedroom awaiting Motasi. Both Richard and Irene were executed. Five year old Tshidiso was in the home miraculously survived by hiding in a cupboard.


Investigation by the Hawks is ongoing.

Today, married with two children, Tshidiso tries his best to shield them from the trauma he experienced, but it is bubbling ever present under the surface because when Death Came Knocking it scarred him for life.

“My recollection of my parents was you know the normal family, that is when I knew my dad and my mother because I was the only child. The recollection is just that, I can’t say anything specific of the happy days or what because it all comes back to that fateful event, so whenever I think of my parents I just don’t want to think about it because that picture, it comes every day because it is the last picture I have of my parents”.
Tshidiso Motasi

“I can’t necessarily explain the trauma that I grew up with because I can’t define it but I always knew that I ‘m a bit of abnormalish, I wanted my space, I didn’t want to interact more with friends”.
Tshidiso Motasi