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people's warExplanation 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 ... 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 ... ... a chairperson I had to investigate what was happening. Then, I handed over to Mister Denis Echuba who was the secretary at that time. As I walked towards that door there, as I opened the door a teargas canister hit that door and so I had to push back. It was that time that I noticed that on this ... Mamasela spoke very little of his own actions during this torture. This man who by his own admission helped kill more than 35 people for the security police today insists that it was all against his will. Sophiatown happened almost by accident. The owner of the farm Waterval, one H Tobianski planned a private lease hold township for low income white people. He named the area after his wife, Sophia, but he failed to attract white buyers to the area. It became a place where black people could buy land ... 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 ... For a person to be guilty of a crime there must be intent and we cannot therefore say citizens who had no intention to set up Vlakplaas and kill people that they should carry the burden of this. We cannot hold responsible ordinary shunters, farmers and so on who supported apartheid because they ... On a Saturday night in September 1990 four young whites, including a woman drove into Kutloanong township. The first person they met was Philip Matela who is now asking for amnesty for their murder. // They said to me they were looking for the ANC comrades and we knew that the right wingers and the ... Should I begin with Dear Tata?’ Is that what I called you 19 years ago? It strikes me that now that I’m a man I do not have a name for you. You would have … me if I called you ‘daddy.’ You probably would have preferred something along the lines of Bra Steve, for that’s how you were. I ... The remains of a deceased person are very important to the family. People would want to know where their grave is, so that when the time comes for that family, members of that family to communicate with the dead people, the deceased, they will know where to go and stand or where to go and kneel so ... From late 1985 Mbokodo conducted a series of mass raids against the people of Moutse and their Ndebele allies. In December 1985 67 year old Mmusi Mathebe was one of those taken to this hall and tortured. // They were going to give me 28 lashes. It was not like that. The one was standing this side ... We talk of witchcraft, we don’t even talk of wizard craft, there’s nothing like that. It’s always witch craft. And the victims in the north have been mostly women, old women. // More than 200 people have died at the hands of witch hunters in the Northern Province. Belief in witchcraft ... Margo is right; there is no proof of the decoy beacon. But on the other hand there is no real proof that there wasn’t one. There is one odd aspect, local people reported that a big army tent was pitched near the crash site on the day of the crash but it wasn’t there the next day. It might not ... During the eighties the common purpose principle was widely used in our courts. Sharpeville, Upington and Delmas saw some of the high profile cases in which people were found guilty of murders they had not actually committed. But what exactly is common purpose? // // Common purpose is a principle ... This hostel on the other side of town housed a gang called the Toasters. They were young IFP members who got out of hand. Their political and criminal activities included murder, rape, assault and robbery. The Toasters left a trail of destruction behind them. Their signature: burnt houses, property ... as heroes. We salute them. We don’t regret their deaths, because they died for the people of this country. We’ll take it as their contribution towards the liberation of our people. I don’t regret it. I know wherever he is he doesn’t regret it. Whoever did this to him I’d like him to know ... But there were some people at the party who felt MK should do more to honour its fallen heroes. This week the Truth Commission heard from a number of families whose loved ones died in exile. How did so many sons and daughters of Welkom end their days in places as far from home as Zambia and Angola? Sekulu reserve near Empangeni is surrounded by plantations. The trees, like people, go through cycles of life and death; and in nature as in life death often comes before its time. On the 14th of August 1992 a group of policemen attacked the house of Michael Mthethwa. Three policemen were killed ... We are waiting as are many other people to see what the outcome of that case will be and judgement is expected fairly soon, later in September. And we will decide after judgement has been handed down as to whether we will subpoena those people. They may well apply for amnesty; one would expect them ... In many ways De Kock has merely confirmed what people like Dirk Coetzee had said seven years ago. One of the people who must take responsibility for the fact that politicians and generals could go on lying and denying until De Kock came clean is Mr. Justice Louis Harms. In 1990 Judge Harms led a ... |