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people's warExplanation The policy of apartheid has made South Africa much poorer than the country and its people could otherwise have been. Lost and unutilized human potential, wasted resources, people and capital that left the country, growth that did not occur and jobs that were not created; all these, and many more ... June 17, 1992. About 300 residents at the Kwamadala Hostel and members of the security forces turned Boipatong into a place of terror. 49 people died that night. News of the massacre reverberated throughout South Africa and the world. This week, some of the survivors told the Truth Commission their ... ’12 Months of Truth’ // In the middle of the night under cover of darkness disguised camouflaged men with silencers on their guns burst into Jacky’s home and murdered her, an unarmed defenceless woman in the supposed sanctuary of her home. They murdered Joe too. // ‘4261 Killings ... The Bonteheuwel Military Wing started precisely because we needed to respond to the manner in which the state operated. We needed to one, defend ourselves, defend our community, because it appeared as if our community were under siege. We had a situation where there were, police put patrols – and ... ‘Unearthing the Truth’ // Perhaps the most disappointing part of the Truth Commission has been its investigations unit. They were handicapped from the start by rules restricting the kind of investigators it could employ. The regional head of investigations in the Eastern Cape was fired from ... You have to see the state’s relation with the media as a macro continuum. It goes right from the owners of the media, the people that own the newspaper, the editors who control the policy of the newspaper, right down to the chap who can clean the dustbin at night and stuff it all in an envelope ... Twelve years, Mr. Mamasela you were part of the security police in South Africa. Is that right? // I was made part of I was not part of, I was made part of against my will, against my political conviction. // Yes, we’ll get to that … against you political conviction. // Yes. So what was your ... Col Van Rensburg words to me were that a drastic plan should be made very quickly with these particular people and that I accepted to mean that they should be eliminated. The shocking images of Sophiatown, people just being uprooted and carted away much against their will and quite hopelessly struggling against this thing, the machine of the National Party Government at the time was just simply too strong. One was of course aware of certain steps that were being taken, people who were being murdered. We did know about it, and we were very upset and worried about that, because we didn’t think that that was the way to go about. // Did you at any stage give this information directly to Mr. Botha? // ... There were strong men but at night people cry. When you ask them why are you crying they said I was dreaming I’m on my way to the death row. Apartheid was an option or a choice for death, carried out in the name of the gospel of life and that is why it was an issue of faith, for people of faith, to say no to apartheid. It was a spiritual question in its most fundamental form. There was this particular police who was always everywhere especially among the blacks. A certain group that would be victorious out of all this groups he would be … this policeman were just shooting at the children and he was accompanied by other police. // Are you saying some of the children ... One of the stories that I heard is that when these people were taken to Ulundi they were found to be weak, they were asked to go back to Wesselton, to kill women, to come back with their private parts, to be used as muti. It’s then that for the first time the local police told us to stop calling ... On Tuesday morning the TRC led an emotional return to the scene of the shooting. // There should never be a repetition of an act such as this one. So we asked you to pour your holy spirit upon the hearts of your people. // ‘Doreen Rousseau, wounded and crippled.’ // … Do not yield by running ... Reference book, pass book, dompas, stinker, different names for the same thing. The hated document that determined the life of every black South African for decades, where they could sleep, live, work, visit and for how long. The main aim of the pass laws was to control the movement of black South ... A lot of the evidence I have listened to at the Truth Commission hearings were really heartbreaking. But when the testimony is about the human rights violations of children, it is more than disturbing. The Truth Commission recently held special children’s hearings in East London and Bloemfontein. ... There is a perception amongst NGO’s and amongst certain members of the legal fraternity that a large degree of impunity exists in KwaZulu-Natal in terms of the lack of prosecutions and a lack of convictions. What’s your response to that? // I would like an opportunity to discuss that with the ... And at night you’d lie in your bed and you’d listen to these bizarre screams and shouts and behaviour and people going quite mad in the ward next door. And it was kind of, well ‘daai klomp is bossies’ [that lot is ‘bossies’]. And it was sort of left at that you know. And I don’t think ... But maybe the most useful to the Truth Commission’s search for truth was the ANC’s list of more than a 1000 ANC members who died in exile. This included the names of 34 people executed by order of the ANC’s military tribunal. But questions around the mysterious death of MK commander Thami ... |
