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people's warExplanation 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. 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 ... ... Nelson Mandela walked out of prison Reggie Hadebe was the ANC’s deputy chairman in the troubled Natal Midlands and working hard to end the civil war. He never made it. Police say it took three snipers to finally kill him. More than a 100 guns taken in raids have been tested. The guns have ... 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 ... ‘Day Four Thursday 27 November 1997’ // Dr Nthato Motlana who had been a friend and family doctor of the Mandela’s since the fifties was one of the first people asked to intervene in the growing crisis. When he went to see Madikizela-Mandela for the first time, Stompie Seipei was already ... 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 ... But as the official photographer of the TRC George Hallet’s work has to go beyond photographing the main players in the drama of the Truth Commission. // I think the TRC also wants to make clear that besides what’s happening on the stage there’s also a process that takes place in the offices ... I became known, especially in the Western Cape, as the person to contact if cadres got injured or people were in danger in some kind of way. As you know many people couldn’t go to hospitals because they were at risk of being arrested. So, my little house became a little hospital or clinic and ... 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 ... Many people took surnames when you knew the man is black because you went to school together. We grew up together. But now the man is a Pietersen or a Hugo or he simply made himself coloured. The National Party government military, I would say they are a bunch of cowards, traitors if anything. They have left their people there; they have done nothing to help them. Also, on the steering committee is Sylvia Dhlomo, who lost her son Sicolo. Sylvia works in the Khulumani office taking statements, setting up counseling and arranging weekly and monthly meetings for victims and their families. // We feel pity for our own people who have suffered. That is why it’s ... I had gone there to shoot any living thing. It was my aim to shoot anybody within the tavern // The rifle grenade that was fired in by Mr. Madasi, why did that have wire nails either glued or fixed to the head of the rifle grenade. Can you explain that to us? // We decided to make it so, so that as ... ... of Law and Order in 1988. // ”Ek wil waarsku dat die regering en die Suid Afrikaanse polisie geen radikale optrede sal duld nie.” [I’m warning that the government and the SAP will not tolerate radical actions] // The former ministers were called to the Truth Commission because they ... One small question, when you accept I think moral responsibility, what does that mean? // As I understand it I can’t run away from those occasions where somebody as a result of my action and as a result of misunderstanding my words, committed an offense. I am morally obliged to stand by him and ... But then there are those who feel the need to ask for forgiveness for those they have wronged. // Forgiveness does not come cheaply; it’s something that comes deeply from the heart. And I can just ask the people that were involved directly or indirectly and who have been affected by this case to ... 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? Eighty year old Elias Molatseli was a school principle when he was arrested in 1978. // On that particular morning the police came in and they wanted my identity document I gave them. And they started searching the house, and they found a book called Up from Slavery that was written by T Washington ... I used to joke. People pay lots of money to be in that sort of a paradise island and we are complaining. It was perfect, so one morning airplane lands and says everybody go home, so we went home. René , though he didn’t spell it out, but he got his money from South Africa, because that was ... My husband was active in Pebco and active in politics. The Pebco was trying to solve the community’s problems and there were a lot of problems at that moment. And he was involved too much in politics. He used to tell me about his father; his fighting for the rights of the people and the ... |