His family is finally getting R10 000 after a 10-year battle, but Anton Fransch’s brother says he will never forgive his sibling’s betrayer.
|||His family is finally getting a payout after a 10-year legal battle, but the brother of Anton Fransch - killed in November 1989 by police and the SA Defence Force - says he will never forgive his brother’s betrayer.
“I don’t even want to think about what would happen should I come face to face with that man,” said Marc Fransch this week.
Anton, 20, was an Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) commander killed after a seven-hour gun battle with authorities at the house in which he was staying in Athlone.
Fransch is one of the 25 claimants from Khulumani, a group representing apartheid victims, that recently received $1.5 million (R11.2m) in a lawsuit against US car manufacturer General Motors.
It has been 10 years since Khulumani launched the lawsuit, and two of the claimants have since died, leaving 23 of the original applicants in the case.
Fransch gave testimony in front of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 1995, where he represented his 70-year-old mother, Georgina.
He says his mother has been suffering from depression as well as heart problems since losing Anton.
Sitting at his home in Bonteheuwel this week, Fransch said he was glad that they would be receiving R10 000.
“She is very sickly and not receiving a pension at the moment because she was told that she is not eligible,” he said.
“This money is going to help her out a lot because every little counts.”
He said it was still hard to bring up the subject of Anton with his mother, and they hardly ever talked about him. The last time he saw his brother was in 1987.
“He was already a wanted man at the time.”
He said they were at their home in Bonteheuwel one day when they saw his brother’s face on Police File, a television show for missing people or wanted criminals.
“They were saying he had skipped the country, but he was standing right next to me.
“We knew he had to go, and I drove him to a house in Observatory.
“He hid in the back as we drove and when I dropped him off, I said he should leave the country.
“That was the last time I saw my brother.”
Two years later, Fransch was made aware of his brother’s death when he received calls from journalists asking for comment.
He said he later found out that his brother had been killed after a seven-hour gun battle at a house in Athlone with the police.
“The police bombed the house, and that is how he died.”
In 1995, when Fransch testified on behalf of his mother at the TRC he said they had visited the house where Anton was killed shortly after they found out what had happened.
Anton’s remains were buried at Maitland Cemetery in 2005.
When asked at the TRC what he wanted the commission to do for him and his family, he replied:
“What I’d like them to do is find the guilty parties and let us know who they are.
“For my mother I would like the commission to see that she gets some compensation for Anton.”
Yassie Henry, Anton’s comrade in MK, was later revealed as the man who had told the police where Anton was hiding.
Henry claimed the police had threatened to kill his mother and four-year-old nephew if he did not betray Anton.
Fransch said he was disappointed with the TRC process because nothing had happened afterwards.
“We expected the perpetrator to be brought to justice.
“But he is free and we haven’t got any closure.” - Cape Argus
neo.maditla@inl.co.za