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people's warExplanation I thought I knew what happened in this country. I was involved, so when I was appointed I didn’t expect surprises. But I was shocked again and again and again as I sit at hearings to realize how little I knew. I was deeply touched by people who refused to be crushed. Deeply moving moments, which ... Sophiatown was representative of freedom, to live with whoever was your neighbour. // It was too much of a threat. In February 1955 trucks rolled into Sophiatown, loaded its inhabitants and moved them to a place called Meadowlands. Griffiths Mxenge, did you do that because you were under duress? // Yes, it was in 1981. // Yes, and in 1985, in this matter, you got involved because you were acting under duress. // Yes if I had not killed these people I was going to be killed. It’s a fact. More than 10 askaris were killed for ... The Truth Commission can, according to the Act of Parliament that governs them, investigate the gross human rights violations perpetrated by Vlakplaas, but there are other apartheid practices that did even more damage to generations of our people that cannot be narrowly defined as individual human ... They must choose whether they’re Africans or still Europeans and it takes a lot of courage to make that choice. It takes a lot of courage, because you are saying, I am no longer European and I’m saying that to Indians as well. Those people who continue to call themselves Indians in Africa. If ... As far as our collaboration and resistance to the system is concerned there is the community at large. In truth, the community at large was a complacent community, feeble in its responses and going whichever way the wind was going at that particular moment. In 1979 Imam Abdullah Haron was murdered ... ‘Kaffir! Waar’s jou pas?’ [Where’s your pass?] // ’17 745 741 people arrested’ // If I think about that I feel my heart inside and my brains is like water, boiling. // And now was trying to make the people refugees of South Africa. // Sorry to say it but when I try to think about us, I ... But the message that was given many people was you’re a coward or there’s something wrong with you, and again there was the attitude of almost a joke, bossies was a sort of a joke. People joked about whether they were or weren’t or whether other people were or weren’t, without really ... It’s again the deep conviction on the part of the Afrikaner people. You have to do your duty, especially to those in authority. You hear, you listen, you obey and you’re not critical enough to ask the question. But why do I necessarily need to obey? The decision will not necessarily be a popular one. // Here they want to enforce a name onto the people that’s staying in the area … no, but that’s in the past. // You say they’re enforcing the name onto the people. How can enforce a name … they’re just reinstating the name that was ... We want the truth, nothing else but the truth comrades and while that Botha does not want to go to the TRC or the court the truth is going to come out comrades, because our people want to know what happened to their sons and daughters, the mothers and fathers, Maqabane. what I think is important is that we have to take that example as a lesson and say it can go wrong elsewhere in the country as well unless we work towards getting ourselves together as different communities, as different individuals, as people belonging to the same nation. So the moral fibre is a ... This episode begins with some background to right winger Leonard Veenendal, who gave testimony at the HRV Committee hearings in Newcastle (11 to 12 September). The following segment focuses on the first part of the Bisho massacre special hearings (held in Bisho, 9 to 11 September) where we hear ... The request that I want to make is that in all that I have done I did it because I was tempted by a very clever person who was older than me. And after such a long time that the Asvat family has been troubled, wanting to know as to the circumstances surrounding their relative, their father or their ... The conflict of the past is not only about white oppressors. When we talk of reconciliation there are so many shades of the past that now have become levels for reconciliation. What about black informers, black policemen, black councillors, black collaborators? What about the ongoing strife between ... From Monday I have been listening with my open ears trying to tolerate what was happening, but from today nothing has been done. That is injustice, today, there is no justice in that. When other people ask questions there are harsh answers to them but when she speaks nobody’s putting pressure on ... Badenhorst said Webster’s killing came up again, often. // I began to take it seriously when he told me in about 1995 that Calla Botha was the driver of the car. He said Calla was so shocked that he had to threaten him with a gun to get him to drive away. He told me Webster was an ANC activist ... But there have also been many lows. // I remember at a hearing when somebody talked about just walking daily with her child down the street and so on and this most overwhelming sense of sadness… I just felt I wanted to weep no end. And often I think it’s when things resonate with one and often ... The names of some policemen keep coming up during the Commission hearings. This is warrant officer Joe Mamasela. He’s already confessed to being part of the murders of three Port Elizabeth community leaders and Durban lawyer, Griffiths Mxenge. He was mentioned again by the relatives of three ... 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. |
