 |
News | Sport | TV | Radio | Education | TV Licenses | Contact Us |
|
News | Sport | TV | Radio | Education | TV Licenses | Contact Us |
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. ... 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 ... 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 ... 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 ... 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 ... ... in this country, because he’s talking peace. People wanted all the time the image of chief of staff to remain on him so that he must be a man of war, betrayed forever, but Chris died for peace. How shall we convince people about ... Some people will be more able to finish their unfinished business, to get peace within themselves if they don’t have a grave, than other people. Some victims will suffer more to have that internal process completed than others. And some of them will need some facilitation to get there and to ... The decision will not necessarily be a popular one. // Here they want to enforce a name onto the people that’s staying in the area … no, but that’s in the past. // You say they’re enforcing the name onto the people. How can enforce a name … they’re just reinstating the name that was ... But what about white fears and suspicions towards the Truth and Reconciliation Commission? // They must understand that this is part of a process of nation building, or bringing two worlds that have been apart together. The white world and the black world, they must come together into one rainbow ... The names of some policemen keep coming up during the Commission hearings. This is warrant officer Joe Mamasela. He’s already confessed to being part of the murders of three Port Elizabeth community leaders and Durban lawyer, Griffiths Mxenge. He was mentioned again by the relatives of three ... what I think is important is that we have to take that example as a lesson and say it can go wrong elsewhere in the country as well unless we work towards getting ourselves together as different communities, as different individuals, as people belonging to the same nation. So the moral fibre is a ... Solomon Mahlangu was one of the many UDF comrades who got a taste of Mbokodo’s venom. He too was taken to the Siyabuswa hall and tortured. // At about 6 pm. They came at the chief minister of that time, mister SS Skosana. Then he asked me several questions then he said to me. ”Mister Mahlangu ... He planned acts of terror from his home. He also used the house as a hiding place for terrorists. He was also involved in strikes and boycotts. Myself, Capt Hechter, Mamasela and Captain Crafford as well as a certain Bafana on a particular morning were driving in my official vehicle until we were ... ... made about the involvement of Mrs. Mandela and members of the football club. These have been in statements made by victims who have come forward to complain about human rights violations. Mrs. Mandela herself at all times while she was subpoenaed called for a public inquiry and the ... In 30 minutes’ time 15 people are already sentenced. You just come… Why? What do you want? Why do you come to this area without a permit? As if you can be given a permit if you want to. ... to kill people that you are defending your job is to kill him. // After so many years at the forefront of southern Africa’s secret and dirty wars Williamson is now preparing his submission to the Truth Commission. He wants to tell everything. We interviewed him a while ago in the presence ... This episode begins with some background to right winger Leonard Veenendal, who gave testimony at the HRV Committee hearings in Newcastle (11 to 12 September). The following segment focuses on the first part of the Bisho massacre special hearings (held in Bisho, 9 to 11 September) where we hear ... Township residents were expecting a vigilante attack. Matela claims that he went to go and find the ANC members who were on patrol to alert them that the white people were looking for them. The news spread like wild fire and at some stage a large group of angry residents, fearing that these people ... Common purpose was particularly controversial at that time, because the mandatory death sentence for murder was still in place. Death sentences for the members of the Sharpeville Six and the Upington 26 sparked an international outcry. // To apply the principle of common purpose in a case of ... These were the same people I mean these were the same people. This is where the problem comes in … this denial. There is nothing that separated the people that ran the state and the people that ran business. These were the same people. I mean literally the same people, brothers and sisters. These ... |
