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people's warExplanation Phila Ndwandwe was a University of Durban-Westville student in 1985 when she was recruited into ‘Operation Butterfly,’ a unit of the military wing of the African National Congress, by this man. Phila was a comrade with outstanding qualities, although she was young, she was exceptionally bright. ... I see my case as a political one. It is because of the meetings we were attending and the decisions taken there. Yes, I played a role because we were told that we should defend ourselves should we be attacked. // The instructions he gave you, as I understand them and as you wrote out in your ... The Commission has documented volumes on the activities of white policemen who were hated and feared in the townships, but this week in Grahamstown it was the actions of the black municipal policemen known as kitskonstabels that came under the spotlight. // These municipal police, we know who they ... People who must have an opportunity to register their regret at not preventing human rights violations and also to give them an opportunity to register their commitment to reconciliation. We are looking for measures which will restore people’s dignity which has been lost. We felt, we are looking for measures which will somehow assist people to more or less be able to live a life they would have lived was it not for the violation. 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 ... ‘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 ... 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 ... Chief Lebone Molotlegi returned to a changed South Africa in 1994. He died a year later, before he could witness the reconciliation of his people. His eldest son, Chief Lebone II now has to unify the Bafokeng. // This is the first amnesty hearing in the whole South Africa and this is the time to ... Initially I felt a bit sorry for him, on the first day when I saw him because I thought that he had a lot on his shoulders. Ja, he went through a lot himself and he had a lot of things to speak about and he seemed such a lonely figure because there wasn’t anybody with him. He didn’t have any ... 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. One disappointing thing for many people in George is the fact that PW Botha, after the magistrate had made his ruling, went on record as saying that he doesn’t feel it necessary to apologise for anything outside the courtroom where people from Lawaaikamp, from Pacaltsdorp, from Thembulethu from ... 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 ... 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. Ironically, a few hours after this interview Niewoudt was sentenced with two other former policemen for the murder of four of their colleagues. De Bruyn stressed in his argument and litigation that his clients believed they acted in the interests of the country. // The argument was that you have ... When I came onto the Commission one of the things that shocked us was the fact that there is no requirement in the Act for the applicant to express remorse. It is not a requirement and we were bald over actually and some people had almost a traumatic experience. 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 ... Can a Truth Commission be an effective instrument to extract the truth about the past? // That depends on what powers the commission is given. In some cases there’s great frustration, you can have a commission that’s very effective but in the end it really only has the powers to speak to ... Having been overcome by the colonialists because of their superior weapons, mobility and fire power the African people correctly decided to resist the unholy alliance by setting up political organisations, drawing up petitions, organising protest marches as well as involving students and workers in ... Steyn was worried that the two gang members would escape from custody, as had happened in the past and so would never be brought to justice. // I told the Defence Force people that they should shoot and if there were any queries about the deaths they should just say that they had died on their way ... |
