| Time | Summary | |
| 11:12 | Back to this week, the last hearings in Ladybrand. We thought it a good idea at the end of this part of the Truth Commission to give you an idea of a day in the life of the Human Rights Violations Committee. | Full Transcript |
| 11:28 | 06:25 and the Eastern Free State town of Ladybrand is sound asleep. Only these police officers brave the bone chilling cold; they’ve been on duty through the night keeping watch over the town hall where the last Human Rights Violations hearing is to be held. // ‘Botshabelo Location 7:00 am’ // My name is Thamsanqa Mfazwe. I am staying here at Botshabelo C Section. This morning I attend the TRC at Ladybrand. I was tortured by the apartheid regime. I think this day is … I was not actually waiting for. When I was informed that I must attend the TRC, to me it’s something new that today the whole world will know about the past. | Full Transcript and References |
| 13:15 | 07:53 and Human Rights Committee members Richard Lyster and Ilan Lax arrive for breakfast. Minutes later when most of the TRC staff members have joined them the conversation takes on a more serious tone. // ‘What Ilan and I talked about is that basically we should mark this, the end of the HRV hearings, because it is very…. I think, in my view it’s the end of a very interesting and I think very brave social experiment. There are no commissions that have ever been held anywhere else in the world that have done it in this way so it is really the end of an era. We won’t see this sort of thing happening again in South Africa. | Full Transcript |
| 14:01 | ‘Back in Botshabelo…’ // … also appealed to the interstate bus line the director, that I’m prepared to reconcile with him if he also is prepared to say the truth and what he has done to me. | Full Transcript |
| 14:50 | Meanwhile back at the Town Hall Superintendent Gerrit Fourie and his staff carry out the first security check of the day. // Every morning we had to come in and secure the building and bring in the dog unit and the explosive men, they had to sweep the whole building to ensure that there are no suspected parcels and that everything is secure for the … take place here. I don’t think it defer from any other duties we perform, our duty’s only to secure the place. // The police also provide security for the Committee members. Just before nine a team arrives to escort Lyster and Lax to the hearing. // It’s quite amazing that just when we thought we’ve heard everything that there was to hear, every sort of kind of story and kind of situation, we’re still hearing new stuff. | Full Transcript |
| 15:46 | ‘Ladybrand Town Hall’ // When he arrives at the Town Hall, Lyster who’s to chair the proceedings, makes a quick count of the witnesses and the hearing gets underway. // Good day Mr. Mfazwe. // Good day. // Mister Ivan Lax will help you take an oath before we start with your story. // Do you have any objection to taking an oath? // No. // Do you swear that the evidence that you will give before this Commission will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Please raise your right hand and say, I do so help me God. // I // They tied my two hands between my legs, he put two chairs. They put a stick and performed a helicopter method, so that I should linger around and that made me hurt on my shoulders and on my lower limb. I was detained again for the second time in 1988 when I was taken back to Grootvlei Prison. I was just taken. There was no question or information. They just said the minister of law and order who is Adriaan Vlok instructed them that I should be ...more | Full Transcript and References |
| 18:54 | Other witnesses of Ladybrand also speak openly about their suffering. Mokgesi Motheoane testifies that the tip of his penis had to be amputated as a result of torture by the police and a Free State farmer. // This white policeman said - he was a warrant officer, I was able to identify him as a warrant officer. Then he said. This ‘kaffir’ is pretending to be dead. // Khuthezile Thele was too emotional to relate her own story and her son had to testify on her behalf. // ‘So the intention was to kill all the people of …’ | Full Transcript and References |
| 19:37 | By lunchtime as the hearings draw to a close the Committee looks back at the Human Rights Violations hearings which started in April last year. // Over these past months we have been taken by victims like yourselves today, we have been taken into what I can only describe as the very heart of darkness, into the most cruel and lonely corners of the human temperament. We have heard terrible stories of assault, abduction, torture and death from every corner of this country. But we’ve also heard stories about the strength and the triumph of the human spirit over adversity. // In my personal discussions with people who’ve given testimony the vast majority are very grateful to have had that opportunity to be acknowledged and so as we have grappled our way through this process, from that first hearing in East London to this hearing in Ladybrand, we have slowly learnt more and more about the cruel past we’ve had to deal with. But also as Richard says about the incredible bravery and ...more | Full Transcript |
| 21:22 | When the hearing finally ends at around 01:30 it’s clear that nobody involved in the Truth and Reconciliation process is left untouched. | Full Transcript |
| 21:53 | Your role as an interpreter within the Truth Commission which is a unique role you play is to absorb the emotions and transfer the message which the witness is trying to put across to the Commission and to the nation at large. It is up to you at the end of the day how you deal with those emotions. // You see we do first person interpreting, you put yourself in the shoes of the victim. You don’t say the police took his child away and they brought him the next day and she was feeling very angry. No, you say I was very angry because they took my son away, they brought him back the next day and his body was full of bullet wounds. You know, I went to the mortuary to identify him, I mean those are very touching stories. You get emotional, we are human beings. | Full Transcript |
| 22:53 | I’ve always tried to wash this sort of thing off me after a hearing by just doing things that I like doing, some exercise, go surfing something like that. It doesn’t really work. I found that and other colleagues of mine have found that they’ve become very stressed, very withdrawn, withdrawn from their families and I think we could all do with a heavy dose of therapy. | Full Transcript |
| 23:20 | ‘Botshabelo 5:00 pm’ // It was very important to me the actual relation although people say I proclaimed myself, but I will say to the TRC what’s very important as the workers leader, because I was working for Transport and General Workers’ Union at that time, which the affiliate of COSATU and being the regional organiser. And then all the issues which I’ve given, the truth that I’ve given to the Truth Commission, even the TRC can make the follow up on those issues. I will be happy. Tomorrow I will be a free man, because the South African people support everything that has happened to me, as a free man now actually, in the mind also I’m relieved, because I said what was actually hurting me all the time. | Full Transcript |
| 24:31 | It’s been incredible. There are two impressions, one, how could we ever be so ghastly, the depth of depravity takes your breath away. That’s the one side. The other side is almost exhilarating, that people who have suffered as much as these should have this capacity to forgive, this magnanimity and the dignity that is being affirmed. We are asked by the Act to help in the rehabilitation of the human and civil dignity and I have seen it happen and it has been a great privilege to be part of this process. // These are people who for so long had stories that nobody heard, experiences that were ignored. Now they will be part of the official history of this country and a voice has been given to those who were imagined to be voiceless, those who were on the margins are now centre stage and they are a very, very crucial part of our being able to tell as complete a picture as possible of the gross human rights violations of this country in this period. // I am amazed, first of all at the ...more | Full Transcript and References |
