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people's warExplanation This is the man who commanded the CCB, Colonel Joe Verster, for long one of the country’s most secretive people until his appearance before the Truth Commission where he had to face the cameras for the first time. Derby-Lewis provided Janusz Walus with a pistol needed for the assassination. // Well the whole objective was to plunge the country into a situation where as a result of the chaos which we anticipated would occur as a result of the assassination that people on the right would be inspired to ... The type of warder who was in charge of us while we were in jail. I mean, there were people, you heard some of the stories he told about the distorted kind of humour which they had and how easy it was for them to resort to brutalities. Now these are human beings, these are people like you and me; ... ‘Botshabelo 5:00 pm’ // It was very important to me the actual relation although people say I proclaimed myself, but I will say to the TRC what’s very important as the workers leader, because I was working for Transport and General Workers’ Union at that time, which the affiliate of COSATU ... We are desperately anxious that people will see that we do want for them to get something material, tangible. But I have to keep saying there is no way in which you could ever compensate anyone adequately for pain suffered by being tortured, for anguish experienced because a loved one was killed. ... The churches must say to those who know that they have a heavy burden of guilt. Confess it, speak the truth, because isn’t it God who says the truth shall make you free. The truth shall make you free. The truth, not so that people must be prosecuted, the truth so that people must become free, the ... As we were busy loading the people into the ambulances they told me that the police were looking for me and they said I should get into the car because they were taking me with. I was very confused at that time. I got into the caspir, but as I was inside I was asking myself as to where they were ... Roland Petrus is one of five ANC self defence unit members who are in prison for the murders of members of the Three Million Gang. This week, they asked the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for amnesty. Macheba Thulo was commander of the SDU. // I’m applying for amnesty concerning the killing ... ... denied everything, calling her accusers ‘ludicrous,’ ‘ridiculous,’ ‘outrageous’ or ‘senile.’ Twice the Truth Commission had to warn her and her supporters not to intimidate witnesses and twice she showed her own racial bias against Indian South Africans. At the end of the ... Tomorrow Mamasela and the other askaris will give their version of what happened on that dark day in 1985. Let’s introduce you now to one of the people who drive the truth commission process, Truth Commissioner Glenda Wildschut. Referring to the December 1985 raid into Lesotho in which seven people died De Kock said ‘I have no doubt that State President PW Botha must have known about this.’ After the raid De Kock and his men were decorated with the police cross for bravery, one of three medals for bravery that De Kock ... The man they all blamed, Brig Fanie Gilbert, is now deceased. // After all these facts were placed before him, did Brigadier Gilbert tell you to eliminate these people? // That is so Your Honour. // You told me that the second sentence here should read. ‘He then suggested that this operation be ... And the question then is, is the political authority not primarily responsible then. // I agree with you. Perhaps I should refer to my amnesty application. I can only agree with you, that it’s not only against the policemen, but also against the people who gave him his instructions and who ... It was 1 am, December 20, 1985. A few days earlier their daughter Phoenix had her 1st birthday. Leon was in the bathroom when the house was attacked. Jacqui was murdered first. We could later see how Leon tried to break off the burglar bars. Bullets lay strewn in the bathroom and there were bullet ... Victor Ntuli, a young UDF activist in KwaMakhutha was not home on the 21st of January, but Ernest Thusini was there with his family in an outbuilding of the Ntuli home. // We were sleeping at night. We were awoken by gunfire, just people shooting. One just went and hid on the other side of the bed. ... At the end of the testimony on Duncan Village Truth Commissioner Bongani Finca insisted that those who treated victims of the massacre appear before the Truth Commission. We’ve all heard of the shameful role doctors have played in the deaths of activists like Steve Biko. But it is only now as the ... My heart was closed, not only my eyes, also my heart was closed because of the system. It was all the information we received and rather to take the easy way out and that is to keep quiet and this is why this was an opportunity for me, Mr. Chairman, in which I could say that this thing which ... And then there are the people sometimes only vaguely associated with the ANC who were killed by the IFP. Often the KwaZulu police were suspected of being involved in these killings or involved by closing their ears and their eyes to people’s cries for help. This melting pot of musicians, writers, artists and gangsters has often been described as our Chicago of the fifties. One loses oneself in the romance of ‘guys and dolls,’ of super cool, of cutting edge. It was a time of no constraints in a time of chains as legislation slowly disinherited ... The six young men got life sentences for these gruesome deaths. Phineas spent two years on death row before his sentence was changed to 18 years imprisonment. This week he asked for amnesty in a bid to start a new life. // I’m sorry it ever happened. I can’t sleep ever since, there is something ... |