 |
News | Sport | TV | Radio | Education | TV Licenses | Contact Us |
|
News | Sport | TV | Radio | Education | TV Licenses | Contact Us |
people's warExplanation This civil war that has become a reality of life in KwaZulu-Natal in the last decade has left many thousands dead. In areas like the south coast around Port Shepstone the concept of human rights has become as strange as killing has become familiar. People there are tired of the conflict. Yet when ... ... to kill my own people, the people that I devoted my life into liberating. // We believed in what we were doing as killers, we were seeing it as a war situation. // Our job was to hunt cadres, whether PAC or ANC, and we kill them. If we think they are useless, we kill them, but if we think we ... 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 ... After the six days war, then people said we no longer want the police in Alexandra. And there was a campaign launched, very peaceful one, to say we shall not be socializing with the police. And by socializing there were specifics: those who were in love, or fall in love with the police were told to ... 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. Church street, Pretoria 1983. Amanzimtoti, 1985. ANC bombs remind ordinary white South Africans there is war. // The bomb that caused the biggest emotional outcry exploded in Church Street, Pretoria, in the late afternoon of May 20. 1983. 19 People were killed and 219 injured. The ANC claimed ... ... the guerrillas, the booby trapping of portable radios given to black Zimbabweans and brutal executions. More than 55 000 people died in that dirty war. A real pity there wasn’t a truth commission in Zimbabwe after their liberation. This coming week there will be two days of hearings about ... It’s very difficult to know how many deaths are on the hands of these people and that’s because of the very nature of the secret war. The conflict in Matabeleland cost between 5 and 10 000 lives and at least one of the people who is in Chikurubi now as a convicted prisoner was very directly ... that many South Africans haven’t taken proper notice of, the tens of thousands of young white men who were forced by military conscription to wage war in neighbouring states and against their fellow citizens in the townships. Until then, good ... ... What is your personal feeling? // I am sorry for the victims and the family of the victims. Because at the end of the day they did not fight in the war. So in that regard I am sorry. I am sorry for them, for the people who had to suffer. And I apologise. // If you look back, was it worth it? // ... come you are looking for Glad here? Why don’t you go and look for him at his house? They said we are not here to play. I said, you are coming with war. // Mister Mokgatle came from the bedroom and he had a panga in his hands. It was sharpened on both sides. If I have to give the measurement it ... ... of about 20 policemen, people with counter insurgency training. // That’s correct. And I approached people who had fought in the Rhodesian bush war and perhaps also in Namibia and who had been in the task force; I didn’t go there with a group of administrative staff. I used people who had ... …because people wanted to make war, they’re fighting us. We were only SRC students, students speaking out, and now they were fighting us. So we had to retaliate. BMW was the Youth League of MK; we were the ones who did the fighting in Bonteheuwel. one we need to learn a lot about in our country because the parallels are very dramatic. Some things do seem to make it worse, being in an unpopular war, an unpopular conflict is a problem. Our men had a problem worse even in some ways than Vietnam in that I’ve seen a number of people who talk ... ... place and shoot the people, whether they were students or not was not the criteria, whether they were black or white. We were not fighting a racial war. Nobody was written on the forehead whether he was a white oppressor or black oppressor, an oppressor has no colour, no ... saying sorry and that everyone in South Africa is ... the conflict between the oppressed people and the oppressor. Now that thing now, I think that war is over. Thank you. // Please no killings, that’s not necessary. I know she died not for nothing, so please don’t kill ... ... 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 ... ... We should rather have stayed at home. Things would have gone better. It served no purpose. It was a waste. As far as I’m concerned the whole bush war in South West was also a waste of money and lives. They might as well have called a general election in 1948. What was the purpose? ... 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 ... …because people wanted to make war, they’re fighting us. We were only SRC students, students speaking out, and now they were fighting us. So we had to retaliate. BMW was the Youth League of MK; we were the ones who did the fighting in Bonteheuwel. |
