Truth Games: Joyce Mtimkulu – to ash – Col. Nic van Rernsburg

Sue Williamson
Truth Games: Joyce Mtimkulu – to ash – Col. Nic van Rernsburg, 1998
Colour laser prints, wood, metal, plastic and perspex
Work: 84 x 121 x 6 cm

Siphiwo Mtimkulu was an Eastern Cape student jailed for his consciousness-raising activities. He was fed rat poison in jail, his hair fell out, and he was made to stand on two upended bricks for hours on end. He was hospitalised, then released. Soon after his return to home in 1982, he disappeared, and his abandoned car was ‘discovered’ by the police near the South African border. At the TRC, the police admitted responsibility for killing him and burning his body, but his mother, Joyce, still did not believe she had heard the whole truth.