SABC News | Sport | TV | Radio | Education | TV Licenses | Contact Us
 

Content

A listing of transcripts of the dialogue and narrative of this section.

Structure

The list provides the transcript, info about the text, and links to references contained in the text.

Special Report
Transcripts for Section 2 of Episode 80

TimeSummary
01:34March 3rd, 1986. A shootout at a Gugulethu crossroads leaves seven dead. Police alleged that the young men killed that morning were trained cadres of an ANC cell planning to attack a staff bus which regularly crossed this intersection. Finding themselves under attack, the police said, they were forced to defend themselves with lethal results. The families of the victims insisted that their loved ones had walked into an ambush. More than a decade later, after two inquests and a trial, crucial questions remained. Were the Gugulethu Seven set up for slaughter or were they killed in the crossfire of a bungled arrest? In November 1996 nine Cape security policemen were subpoenaed to appear at a special event hearing of the TRC inquiring into the deaths of the Gugulethu Seven. Tension and emotions ran high amid dramatic and revealing testimony. For the first time police told the Truth Commission that the cell of alleged ANC operatives had been infiltrated by Vlakplaas askaris and ...moreFull Transcript and References
03:22So is it correct then that your mission clearly was that you should go out there and that you should kill the Freedom Fighters? // According to the situation, yes it was so. // Bearing in mind what is in our opinion, when the opinion of the families a poor attempt to arrest these individuals and bearing in mind that in the opinion of the families you had set out to counter-ambush these individuals it would appear that you in fact succeeded in doing so. What do you say about that? // After we set up the original ambush for them we then withdrew from the operation. Thereafter they shot at us first, they attacked us and we must have been a lot more successful in actually countering this attack. That’s the way I see it.Full Transcript
04:32This week the Committee reconvened in Cape Town to hear testimony from this man, Xola Frank Mbane known as Jimmy. From 1984 to 1992 Mbane was a Vlakplaas based askari. He claims that his career spanned 40 missions; that he was responsible for at least ten killings and he also testified as Mr. X in a number of high profile trials, including giving evidence against Patrick Lekota at the Delmas trial. Jimmy Mbane testified that in 1986 he and fellow askari Eric ‘Shakes’ Maluleke were dispatched from Vlakplaas to Cape Town under the command of Riaan Bellingan. Upon arrival they were ordered by Rudolph Liebenberg to infiltrate a group of suspected terrorists in Kayelitsha.Full Transcript and References
05:20You were told by your commander that the reason why you had to infiltrate this group is because they were heavily trained and they were dangerous and they were destabilizing the area in and around in Cape Town. // That’s correct sir. I was instructed to train these people and when I reported that these people are untrained and harmless, there’s only one who’s locally trained. But because this person will train them you rather take over the training and assist him in training them and that’s exactly what I did. // Why were the police wanting you to train people that knew nothing? // They are the right persons to answer that question, I was just following orders. They would be the ones to tell you, the police. And thereafter I called Balletjies and Liebenberg and told them about this problem. The problem was this people have been trained and they want to ambush this kombi that’s using this route. The following day I sent Shakes and Rasta to check this kombi and they confirmed ...moreFull Transcript
08:52Mbane’s testimony was at times confusing. // You wanted to do it. // First of all I didn’t know that those people were going to be shot, because when I went to there to show Bellingam that point we were going to, they didn’t tell me that they were going to shoot them. They didn’t tell me that. // What did you think they were going to do when people came out of your kombi with AK 47s, pistols, hand grenades? How did you think the police were going to react? // I thought they were going to ambush the kombi; they were going to arrest these people, not to kill them. // For your own account you say that you realized that you were leading those men to their death on that morning. Am I correct? // That’s correct sir. Full Transcript
10:03Pieces of the puzzle are clearly still missing, but family of the victims expressed satisfaction at just how much of the picture has emerged.Full Transcript
10:13Time to cry is gone, time to weep is away. Now it is just our … we are happy, because what we really needed is the truth, nothing else but the truth.Full Transcript
 
SABC Logo
Broadcasting for Total Citizen Empowerment
DMMA Logo
SABC © 2024
>