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people's warExplanation Showing 721 to 740 of 1000 First Page•Previous Page 33 •34 •35 •36 •37 •38 •39 •40 •41 Next Page•Last PageOne disappointing thing for many people in George is the fact that PW Botha, after the magistrate had made his ruling, went on record as saying that he doesn’t feel it necessary to apologise for anything outside the courtroom where people from Lawaaikamp, from Pacaltsdorp, from Thembulethu from ... Apartheid was an option or a choice for death, carried out in the name of the gospel of life and that is why it was an issue of faith, for people of faith, to say no to apartheid. It was a spiritual question in its most fundamental form. Col Van Rensburg words to me were that a drastic plan should be made very quickly with these particular people and that I accepted to mean that they should be eliminated. Twelve years, Mr. Mamasela you were part of the security police in South Africa. Is that right? // I was made part of I was not part of, I was made part of against my will, against my political conviction. // Yes, we’ll get to that … against you political conviction. // Yes. So what was your ... The shocking images of Sophiatown, people just being uprooted and carted away much against their will and quite hopelessly struggling against this thing, the machine of the National Party Government at the time was just simply too strong. 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 ... 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 ... 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 ... 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 ... 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 ... Are you prepared to say to the Zimbabwean people you are sorry for what you did? // Yes I would. // Are you really sorry for what you did? // Yes I am. Well it was something that I didn’t want to get involved in. You get put into a situation where you think well let me help get this thing out of ... In order to succeed what you need possibly is the stick of the courts and the carrot of the Amnesty Committee or of the Commission. And these two ought to be held in tension. The moment you drop one or the other then I think you’re in trouble, in terms of searching for the truth. Because a whole ... There were strong men but at night people cry. When you ask them why are you crying they said I was dreaming I’m on my way to the death row. ‘Gary Kruser, Former MK Commander, Torture victim.’ // You weren’t arrested by the team in my car. // You personally arrested me, yourself and Piet Goosen. You remember? // It’s difficult to remember sir. // You put me in a kombi yourself, Goosen and Liebenberg and drove me to Culemborg. // ... I didn’t see anything. I cannot explain what happened … during the shooting, but it lasted about 7 to 8 minutes, the shooting going on. When I stood up the only thing that I heard my sister saying ‘please come and phone most of the people are injured outside here.’ People who knew him ... 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 ... 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. ... |
