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people's warExplanation I don”t want to be involved in a semantic level regarding the meaning of certain words in this document. I want to emphasise that words like ”eliminate” and ”take out” for the members on the ground, who were in a war situation, referred only to killing people. We’ve come to the end of our Special Report. This coming week the Truth Commission will investigate the seven day war in the Natal midlands in 1990 in which some 200 people died. Key figures such as Brigadier Oupa Gqozo will also give evidence on the Bisho massacre. The Special Report will be ... ... ‘Year of Great Storms.’ During the early nineties when most political players were sitting at the World Trade Centre negotiating their way towards change the Pan Africanist Congress was playing a different sort of game. While liberation armies like Umkhonto we Sizwe laid down arms, the PAC ... Some of the saddest stories in history are of those who died as the freedom they fought for became a reality, the casualties of the last day of war. Bisho, 1992 was such a story, actually 28 of those stories. Freedom and democracy were upon us when those people were gunned down by Ciskei’s ... ... section 29 to subpoena people but bring them to a public hearing. // You have worked well with the Attorneys-General in pushing people to come forward and apply for amnesty in the case of the police and you are also working with the Defence Force. You don’t get that idea, that there is a ... Zambia they’d pass through Botswana but without the Botswana government’s knowledge. We had to do this, we had no other alternative, because the war was not waged in Zambia, it was not waged in Botswana but it was waged inside the country. And so we had to find ways of infiltrating these ... I would like to express my unqualified regret towards any person and or organisation which was innocently disadvantaged or prejudiced by my actions. In the cruel struggle for survival it was often the case that there was no mercy shown and unacceptable things were done and mistakes made. I also ... Monstrous times, monstrous deeds. State violence brought violence in reaction. The ANC’s explanation that they fought a just war against apartheid is probably acceptable to most South Africans. But sometimes one wonders if the guerrillas remembered that the people they killed were more than enemy ... It was one of the strategies to suppress the UDF beliefs. The regime was at war with the black people and they knew which areas were very vigilant and the only way they could actually try and cut down on numbers was to kill, destroy those townships. And that is why the A-Team had to be helped all ... Shaun and John who fought this war were told they were protecting their country and their people against the threat of communism. The church and its chaplain said they were fighting for the Christian faith. The politicians said they were killing and dying on foreign soil because their country ... ... if one can learn from other countries, and certainly the Chilean Truth Commission, they took the position that the recommendations that went forward was that people should not hold public positions where they were involved in gross human rights violations. // Even if they were fighting a just ... ... continue unabated. Third force activities and divide and rule policies by former governments are perhaps part of the reasons for the low-key civil war in this province. It certainly is not ideology or class. The disturbance of natural divisions of political support through the homeland policy ... ... AK47, hand grenades, landmines, anti-personal mines, explosives, different explosives, TNT, plastic explosives? I’m mentioning now weapons of war, not police weapons. It was military training, that’s all I can say. If the Defence Force can say there was no secret, it was an open thing, no ... ... with. It was a very messy situation and we had to, as we saw it, apply messy legislation without any particular crusading zeal to fight a just war or anything like that. It was a very unfortunate situation we landed ourselves in. ... The war in Tokoza started in 1990 but most of us were not yet involved in yet, we started taking heed of the violence in 1991. We then realized that people were dying where we stay. It was said that only Xhosa were being killed, but it was not the Xhosa only. People from our areas were also being ... That the whole of South Africa and the people of Natal can see that there was a war against the ANC. That there really was a third force… there was a third force. Senior officers can deny it but those of us who were involved in it can testify. There is no other word for it. // People who still ... In war, truth and morality are the first casualties. In South Africa the brutalised sometimes became the brutalisers. // Teddy Williams, a former member of Umkhonto we Sizwe, was sent to the ANC’s Quatro rehabilitation camp for taking part in a camp mutiny. // What traumatized me most is to see ... It was a brutal and chaotic war that lasted for nearly five years and many of its battles were fought in and around the hostel compounds of the South African townships. Many people have told the Truth Commission about the terror associated with these fortresses and their inhabitants. ... landed. Another came painted with army colours and dropped off some more police on the opposite side of Ngquza hill. They then all started coming towards us. We did not even expect any clashes, because none of us had weapons except Wana Johnson had a gun. He had come with his revolver, our ... In war there are two aspects that are involved, if not three. One is the physical involvement where people are stabbing or shooting one another. Secondly is the question of the moral or spiritual involvement where your heart or your spirit will tell you that you’ve got to do this. So the trend ... |
