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people's warExplanation 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 even worse in some ways than Vietnam in that I’ve seen a number of people who talk ... 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 ... ... 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 ... 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. And their presence was not necessarily tolerated. // ‘We don’t want those pagans here! They are barbarians and pagans. We can’t have those Zulus here. We even suspect they’re mercenaries those people. They’re mercenaries! Schools have… we are teachers, let me tell you, we are teachers ... There had been much speculation in newspapers about possible clashes between large numbers of right wingers and ANC demonstrators. The white people of George were holding their breath and the police were ready for anything. But when the first groups of chanting protestors arrived from the township ... And in the course of it … I remember Bishop’s story, I think he is the one who asked why I thought I ought to be a Commissioner. Then I said well maybe I ought to be the one because first of all I’m a Marxist, which I think blew everybody, because I mean we had people from the Freedom Front ... We need to address the poverty that is gripping the people, all of us together at this point in time, and then I think conciliation, reconciliation, rainbow nation will mean something to the majority of the people of this country. Finca is also deeply disappointed by what he calls the apathetic way in which most white people in this country have responded to the TRC. Since Friday evening South Africans have been asking each other, do you believe Winnie Mandela? What will this do to her public career? Do ordinary people hold her responsible for the death and destruction caused by the people around her in ’87 and ’88? We don’t know. What we do know is that ... May God bless our country, may God bless our leaders and its people. Kgotso ayibelilina, [may peace be with you] thank you. ... you have demonstrated is one that doesn’t come easily to anyone of us I think and it must be at some cost to yourselves. And I just hope you are aware that you have helped, I think, to pour balm on the wounds of very ... I want to ask of you, in your application for amnesty you are asking the survivors and the next of kin or families for forgiveness, but thus far you have shown no remorse whatsoever to give us some sort of comfort. You have shown us nothing. You have only spoken of the orders and the killings that ... There came a time of violence and fighting and he was chose to lead the people. Really, as his wife I cannot blame him, because of the way he treated me. Oh my God, he had taken care of me, even others used to call me a Mrs. I am totally committed to exhuming every little piece of bone that we know is existing in any part of the length and breadth of this country. But our mandated period, certainly our period of operation as the TRC, may expire before we have done all the work that needs to be done. As I speak, I’ve ... ... and say we found nothing, there is nothing that happened there when we would have liked to see people who were actually in those camps coming forward and testify. And give a chance to those who have lost their loved ones to come and say yes I lost my loved one through this manner and that way. ... A warm welcome to the Special Report on the Truth and Reconciliation process. After almost two years of reporting to you every week this is our very last programme. We’re going to look back over the two years in this programme and we’re asking Archbishop Desmond Tutu to reflect on the process. ... But policemen are apparently not the only people cynical about the Truth Commission process. From conversations, radio talk shows and letters to newspapers, it appears that ordinary white South Africans do not associate with the Commission. In two months of hearings very few white faces could be ... What happened to Stanza Bopape? It is a question that people of Mamelodi have been asking for nine years. Bopape was a particularly talented young leader in Mamelodi outside Pretoria in the 1980s. If he had been allowed to live he would probably have been a prominent national leader today, which of ... ... I say, a person should attack the police or the army, why attack innocent people sitting here enjoying themselves, who never had any ill feeling towards blacks before? And I thought people should be found and justice should be done. Because they haven’t asked forgiveness or anything. ... |