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people's warExplanation Showing 421 to 440 of 1000 First Page•Previous Page 18 •19 •20 •21 •22 •23 •24 •25 •26 Next Page•Last PageThis episode covers the HRV Committee hearings held in Upington (2 to 3 October) focusing on the ?Upington 26,? a group of people charged for murder under the ?common purpose? principle and sentenced to death. The episode also covers the HRV hearings held in Thohoyandou (3 to 4 October) where we ... ... to address those of you, especially the victims and survivors, who have come to the Commission. We want to thank all of you who have come forward to make statements about your experiences and those of others in your community. Thank you for telling your story so that the country could know ... 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 ... 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. ... explained to them what the problem was that we were faced with. I can just mention that Mr. Niewoudt and Mr. Van Zyl at that stage were completely aware of the activities of Pebco. // Is it your evidence that these three people, the so-called Pebco Three, that they were extremely dangerous? // ... With the birth of the Truth Commission last year a voice was finally given to the thousands of South Africans who’d been brutalized during the conflict of the apartheid years. For months people from every part of the country poured their hearts out before the TRC’s Human Rights Violations ... ... him from near and he fell down. What precisely happened there I can’t remember. At that stage I thought my life was in danger. // It’s a bit awkward but just give us the details. When you shot this man, what did you see, where did you shoot him? // I shot him on the side of his head; that is ... Apart from the moral repugnance with which some of us recoiled at the activities of what people in the township tended to generally regard as ‘Winnie’s boys,’ one of our major concerns at a political level, was the extent to which the activities of these ‘boys’ were beginning to detract ... I gave the instruction for them to flatten the huts with a casper and that we would open fire at the same time. It’s the overkill situation that was typically Koevoet. We would shoot as much as concentrated fire into a space as possible. We didn’t know how many people might be in there with ... A common worry is that the Truth Commission should not become the forgiveness commission. // You know, we have attended a case of, you know just recently, de Kock’s case. He didn’t appear sorry for what he did, and he expects people to say, okay we forgive him … which is very … you know we ... 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. You have to see the state’s relation with the media as a macro continuum. It goes right from the owners of the media, the people that own the newspaper, the editors who control the policy of the newspaper, right down to the chap who can clean the dustbin at night and stuff it all in an envelope ... The Bonteheuwel Military Wing started precisely because we needed to respond to the manner in which the state operated. We needed to one, defend ourselves, defend our community, because it appeared as if our community were under siege. We had a situation where there were, police put patrols – and ... There is a perception amongst NGO’s and amongst certain members of the legal fraternity that a large degree of impunity exists in KwaZulu-Natal in terms of the lack of prosecutions and a lack of convictions. What’s your response to that? // I would like an opportunity to discuss that with the ... The policy of apartheid has made South Africa much poorer than the country and its people could otherwise have been. Lost and unutilized human potential, wasted resources, people and capital that left the country, growth that did not occur and jobs that were not created; all these, and many more ... One was of course aware of certain steps that were being taken, people who were being murdered. We did know about it, and we were very upset and worried about that, because we didn’t think that that was the way to go about. // Did you at any stage give this information directly to Mr. Botha? // ... Welcome to the Special Report on the Truth and Reconciliation process. It is Monday morning; this is Mayfair, in the heart of Johannesburg. This is where Winnie Madikizela-Mandela will face the Truth Commission this week. It is likely to be the most crucial week of her entire life. She’s the ... And at night you’d lie in your bed and you’d listen to these bizarre screams and shouts and behaviour and people going quite mad in the ward next door. And it was kind of, well ‘daai klomp is bossies’ [that lot is ‘bossies’]. And it was sort of left at that you know. And I don’t think ... TRC Commissioners emphasize that this week’s health hearing was just a small step in a long process of healing, which should be followed up by the medical profession and human rights organisations. // If we achieve anything through this process I do hope that we insure that human beings are never ... And then obviously the question around medical treatment, people who still have bullet wounds, people who still suffer at a physical level should be given medical treatment and those people also suffering from psychological continuing problems, they should also be given help. |
