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people's warExplanation Crossroads eleven years later has survived the social engineering that scorched its people and its land. Today, people live and people die, but that’s normal. In 1988 Durban policemen led by Col Andy Taylor blew up three members of the Umkhonto we Sizwe unit known as ‘The Swimmers’ here at Phoenix Railway Station. The dead were all KwaMashu student activists. Their names were Vusi Mtshali, Sibusiso Ndlovu and Mazwi Vilakazi. But the MK unit had ... Also, on the steering committee is Sylvia Dhlomo, who lost her son Sicolo. Sylvia works in the Khulumani office taking statements, setting up counseling and arranging weekly and monthly meetings for victims and their families. // We feel pity for our own people who have suffered. That is why it’s ... 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. And the ... 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. 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 ... ... 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. ... 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 ... 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 ... 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 ... 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 ... This is the Vaal Triangle, home of Eskom, Sasol and many other big industries. Also home to millions of people who work at these industries and their families. They live in grim townships such as Sebokeng, Sharpeville, Bophelong and Boipatong. For some, mostly men from KwaZulu-Natal, this is only a ... 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 ... ... well maybe once or twice, in Brandfort. I have immense admiration for her and there is no question at all that she was a tremendous stalwart of our struggle, an icon of liberation who was banned, harassed, under surveillance, banished. With a husband away serving a life sentence she ... 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 ... ... 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 ... 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 ... And in the morning the very same people came in the very same uniform. They were still like the previous day. They took my name. They said they needed some statements as to who had injured the people. I was quite scared to tell them that you are the ones that were here yesterday. |
