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people's warExplanation On the night of 17 June 1989 the Van Straaten brothers, Adriaan, Willem, Gideon and Dawid went into the premises of a transport company in Vereeniging, stole a truck and murdered the two unarmed night watchmen on duty. They crushed the skull of the first guard with a rock and the other was stabbed ... The old symbols that we have, they are there, they are symbols, but they represent a particular history and a particular past that has not been associated with respect for human dignity and human rights, they are integrated. What we need are new symbols. // … And I think we should be able to use ... He was a great man and Victoria Mxenge as well, because they were both attorneys. They were just attorneys of the people. Money was not a first thing to Mrs. Mxenge but her duty was to complete and help that poor somebody, and number two, she thinks about the money. I mean they were very unique, ... George Mavundla’s wife and son were among seven people massacred by the IFP at Bhambule near Margate on July 4th, 1992. In that case five men, including the local chief, were convicted and sentenced. // The questions that are still difficult to me … this I don’t understand because when a ... ’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 ... ... those people whom he killed, it was IFP members. That’s when I shot him. // After he had been shot I felt relieved. I had made my contribution towards fighting the ANC which was our enemy and trying to stop it in its objectives. // The Amnesty Committee was told of their reasons for killing ... In 30 minutes’ time 15 people are already sentenced. You just come… Why? What do you want? Why do you come to this area without a permit? As if you can be given a permit if you want to. 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 ... Common purpose was particularly controversial at that time, because the mandatory death sentence for murder was still in place. Death sentences for the members of the Sharpeville Six and the Upington 26 sparked an international outcry. // To apply the principle of common purpose in a case of ... ... to kill people that you are defending your job is to kill him. // After so many years at the forefront of southern Africa’s secret and dirty wars Williamson is now preparing his submission to the Truth Commission. He wants to tell everything. We interviewed him a while ago in the presence ... 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 ... Solomon Mahlangu was one of the many UDF comrades who got a taste of Mbokodo’s venom. He too was taken to the Siyabuswa hall and tortured. // At about 6 pm. They came at the chief minister of that time, mister SS Skosana. Then he asked me several questions then he said to me. ”Mister Mahlangu ... Cape Town waterfront on a Saturday afternoon. I am talking to David Bilders, a convicted right wing terrorist, who has alleged to have confessed to killing my father. He does not know we are being filmed. // Did you ever come across a guy whose nickname was Rooibaard? // Most certainly. // You ... 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 ... We have seen very few former politicians, generals and foot soldiers expressing genuine regret for the evils of the past. The apologies we have heard so far mostly went along the lines of, if we hurt people, we are sorry, but we didn’t mean it. Adriaan Vlok and Pik Botha also expressed regret. And yet many of the files do remain. // It’s very difficult for any bureaucracy the size of the South African state to ensure that every copy of every document is destroyed. There is also evidence of certain people who just chose not to destroy documents, that’s all. They just didn’t do it. ... ... We told them we had come to find out why our son was in detention. They told us that our son was not detained. Of course, this was proved afterwards to have been a lie. Six months later, his wife phoned me to say TZ was now in an ANC cell and in solitary confinement. And that he was being ... 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 ... 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 ... In October 1990 three men belonging to the right wing Orde Boerevolk attacked a bus of black commuters. Seven people were killed and 27 injured in this racially motivated attack. Piet Botha, Adriaan Smuts and Eugene Marais had executed the attack. They wanted to kill black people in revenge for an ... |