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people's warExplanation This hostel on the other side of town housed a gang called the Toasters. They were young IFP members who got out of hand. Their political and criminal activities included murder, rape, assault and robbery. The Toasters left a trail of destruction behind them. Their signature: burnt houses, property ... ... correct. I accept responsibility because I was the political head of the department and I’m not going to run away from my responsibilities. Not towards the people out there who actually put me in that position and who had trust and confidence in me. And I will accept the responsibility also ... as a principle must be accepted by South African society, believe that in fact young people in this country and in general what you call children of wars have been highly militarized precisely because of where this country comes from. The key challenge that faces this country is to create ... ... a chairperson I had to investigate what was happening. Then, I handed over to Mister Denis Echuba who was the secretary at that time. As I walked towards that door there, as I opened the door a teargas canister hit that door and so I had to push back. It was that time that I noticed that on this ... ... next? Madikizela-Mandela consulted with her lawyer, but clearly she had no choice, she had to offer some form of apology. But as people asked afterwards, how much does an apology mean when you have denied so vehemently before that you had done anything wrong. ... The TRC is the only forum with some credibility and acceptability available to us in which we can publicly apologise to all those who had been hurt by the travesties of the past. It is the most effective way available to us which we can use to offer help and healing to those who had committed ... Are you saying you never did anything wrong, that’s why you won’t apologise? // No but you are always in front to do wrong things. I know that gentleman, I know that gentleman. He’s one of the gentlemen I don’t like. // Are you going to apologise for the people who died in jail, who died in ... The highs have really been very individual things and I think of specific events like workshops that I ran for victims in Port Elizabeth - also very early on in the process when I was learning and they were learning - and Brandon Hamber from the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation ... They were fellow Afrikaners, part of my people. I knew many of them. And I have asked myself, was it possible, how is it possible that they could have done what they did and that some of them seemingly could have enjoyed what they did. Were they so deeply impregnated by this ideological concept of ... I became known, especially in the Western Cape, as the person to contact if cadres got injured or people were in danger in some kind of way. As you know many people couldn’t go to hospitals because they were at risk of being arrested. So, my little house became a little hospital or clinic and ... I had gone there to shoot any living thing. It was my aim to shoot anybody within the tavern // The rifle grenade that was fired in by Mr. Madasi, why did that have wire nails either glued or fixed to the head of the rifle grenade. Can you explain that to us? // We decided to make it so, so that as ... And out of the blue one day in 1995 Barney Pityana phoned me and said Wendy can the Human Rights Commission nominate you for the TRC? And I said Barney I’d be honoured, but surely there are other people who are far more appropriate and suitable. And he said, no we think you should be on it so I ... The women always come there talking about what happened to their sons, to their husbands. They hardly tell us about what has happened and yet when you probe deeper you also find that they also experienced violations and some of them more terrible than some of the people they have come to talk ... I think with Magoo’s, you know we had a certain philosophy – after every activity that we did, after every action we would tell ourselves that it never happened, it was just a nightmare – it never happened. And you would sort of conscientise yourself to deaden that memory. It was a horrible ... One small question, when you accept I think moral responsibility, what does that mean? // As I understand it I can’t run away from those occasions where somebody as a result of my action and as a result of misunderstanding my words, committed an offense. I am morally obliged to stand by him and ... He again said today he doesn’t owe anybody an apology. He stands by the policemen and soldiers who killed people in the name of the previous government. So he makes no apology. For a person to be guilty of a crime there must be intent and we cannot therefore say citizens who had no intention to set up Vlakplaas and kill people that they should carry the burden of this. We cannot hold responsible ordinary shunters, farmers and so on who supported apartheid because they ... Siphiwo Mtimkulu was the charismatic leader of the Congress of Students in Port Elizabeth in 1980. In May 1981 he was detained by the security police and only released five months later. // He admitted that he was ill. I wanted to know what was wrong with him. He stated that he had an excruciating ... Hello. Thanks for joining tonight’s Special Report. The Truth Commission process this past week was dominated by the 1993 APLA attack on a pub in Cape Town and by a special hearing into the past role of the legal profession. Tonight we bring you the full drama of both these hearings as well as ... In Vryburg we met with known vigilante members, but none of them was prepared to admit to being a vigilante. For them the past is best forgotten. // And now, we don’t want to think even about what happened in 1984 and 1985. Because the people of Huhudi, we have buried our differences. 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