 |
News | Sport | TV | Radio | Education | TV Licenses | Contact Us |
|
News | Sport | TV | Radio | Education | TV Licenses | Contact Us |
people's warExplanation The year is 1993. South Africa was on the eve of a remarkable negotiated settlement. One area was clinging steadfastly to the old order, Lucas Mangope’s homeland of Bophuthatswana. The people of the homeland mobilized for their freedom but Mangope’s security forces did not let go easily. At the ... know that there were hundreds of children that were killed and when we make a finding, are we only saying that it’s only those 15 that can come forward, and get whether it’s urgent interim relief, or can all those people and I think the pendulum if you like is swinging to the position that we ... We drove through Bronkhorstspruit. We drove past the business centre to see whether there were any people around. There were no people around, so we drove past and planted the bomb. The 1953 Bantu Education Act, separated schools and curricula for white and black, inferior education for black communities. It began with the National Party’s rise to power and the policies this man, Dr Hendrik F Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid. He was determined to deny black people, ... We found the fire arms, the two fire arms. There were three, including ours. We also took clothing and we took old coins. // The car was to be sold in Lesotho so that the money that we get from that should be used to buy arms in order to further the struggle for APLA. // So, the money remained with ... To qualify for protection witnesses have to fulfil certain requirements. // The requirements are that the evidence which the person wishes to place before the Commission must be truthful. Secondly, the person must be in danger as a result of that evidence. // When a person’s life is in danger the ... I haven’t even reached 12 yet. I wasn’t even in standard five yet. That’s when I became wanted by these people who call themselves the justice system, but we all know that they were the injustice system. In 1987 nearly the whole organisation I represent here today was arrested. I was still on ... ‘On Interrogation…’ // I had two sort of major sets of interrogation. The first was the old statue one, draw a line and Swanepoel sat there with the various other people and said ‘Jy gaan praat’ [You will talk] and you know you stand there until you talk. And within, I think maybe it ... There was more to that, the existence of separate apartheid style newspapers necessitated the demarcation of news rooms on racial lines, even if it was not said so in words in practice it was there. The staffing of the segregated newsroom was also on racial lines and I’m speaking from experience ... Jacques Hechter of the Northern Transvaal security branch said then that he did not know the ins and outs of the assassination plan, but this week things started becoming a little clearer. The killing of Fabian and Florence Ribeiro here in Mamelodi was in fact part of the broader cooperation plan ... Many people took surnames when you knew the man is black because you went to school together. We grew up together. But now the man is a Pietersen or a Hugo or he simply made himself Coloured. Forgiveness does not come cheaply. It is something that comes deeply from the heart. And I can just ask the people that were involved directly or indirectly and who have been affected by this case to consider forgiving me. The Ciskei puppets skilfully undermined all those litigations by arresting and detaining the lawyers who were defending those people or some who actually had civil claims against the Ciskei government. Of course when they were told, it was interpreted in a political way that you are taking the ... You know when you heard it you thought it was absolutely impossible, here she was ready to come home in two days and of all the times she’s been in and out of Africa the last four or five years that this happened. And I think, you know, we were totally devastated… // What Linda says is true. If ... Not all self defence unit action was this benign. In the townships around Johannesburg self defence units were involved in day to day combat with amongst others Inkatha members and the internal stability unit. Many people lost their lives in the ever spiralling violence and for many the self ... I’m glad that our generation could call the disease by a name. That if something like this ever happened again that our children or their children need not go through the same hell we did. Remember this PTSD did not only break people – it broke families and households. It caused death. It ... According to Hechter the youths had already gone to KwaNdebele to escape harassment by the security police in Mamelodi. Mamasela knew where to find them. Mamasela took us to the address. Mamasela, Gouws and Oosthuizen then entered the house and the next moment I heard gunfire. It was organized, it ... The problem was, the communities, the people themselves felt they’ve been oppressed by the apartheid government. At the same time, when they go back to their place of living, they are now under threat from the witches. So you can see that in the course of that struggle, people have two opponents ... ... but I don’t need to be noisy about it and I think that’s also a very big and important strength. My daughter gives to me a very strong sense of warmth and I don’t want this to be a gender thing, I don’t want it to be understood as a gender issue. But there’s a sensitivity about her, you ... I cannot specifically say the number and I won’t be able to know that, because I didn’t count them. I only looked at the place and I saw that there were people inside and there were many. I don’t know how many there were. |
