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people's warExplanation Church street, Pretoria 1983. Amanzimtoti, 1985. ANC bombs remind ordinary white South Africans there is war. // The bomb that caused the biggest emotional outcry exploded in Church Street, Pretoria, in the late afternoon of May 20. 1983. 19 People were killed and 219 injured. The ANC claimed ... ... the eighties the small township of Bruntville here outside Mooiriver in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands was a relatively peaceful place, but in 1990 the war that has ripped this province apart came to Bruntville. In November 1990 the first so-called Bruntville massacre took place when 15 people were ... There was still a war between them and us. There’s no reconciliation in fact yet, but I hope there would be next time. // People do not have energy of fighting daily. You can’t have that energy. Fighting is not a sweet thing you know, it’s not Bar One, because we lose friends, we lose ... ... die, could be tortured, could be abducted, could be buried and many of them; and people like yourself and others just didn’t know, weren’t aware of that these people were acting unlawfully or illegally or misunderstood. Help us, I mean how is it possible for that to take place? // I think ... ... about the conflict between the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal. More than 10 000 people have died in this war since the early 1980s. During the past few weeks the Truth Commission has paid special attention to KwaZulu-Natal with two amnesty hearings and a ... I don”t want to be involved in a semantic level regarding the meaning of certain words in this document. I want to emphasise that words like ”eliminate” and ”take out” for the members on the ground, who were in a war situation, referred only to killing people. ... place and shoot the people, whether they were students or not was not the criteria, whether they were black or white. We were not fighting a racial war. Nobody was written on the forehead whether he was a white oppressor or black oppressor, an oppressor has no colour, no ... ... 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 ... ... after the unbanning of the ANC, SACP, PAC and other organisations the AWB started flexing its military muscle and threatened the government with war if the ANC ever came to power. // ‘The intention of the ANC is to destroy my people, to destroy everything in sight. My message to the ANC ... …because people wanted to make war, they’re fighting us. We were only SRC students, students speaking out, and now they were fighting us. So we had to retaliate. BMW was the Youth League of MK; we were the ones who did the fighting in Bonteheuwel. A former medic in the SA Medical Service this week broke his silence about his involvement in the war. // The first time I ever put a stitch into a person or the first time I ever gave anybody an injection was at Tembisa hospital. As medics we were sent there on Friday and Saturday evenings to ... ... - there must have been people travelling on the road. We have no independent witnesses. We’ve got absolutely nobody who can really come forward and say ‘we were involved, we did this and this and this.’ ... But this week for the first time, Adriaan Vlok and the top commander of the police force admitted our men may have murdered, killed, tortured and bombed in the line of duty. // This highly confidential letter was delivered to the Truth Commission this week. // 22 former and serving policemen want ... In GaMatlala in 1979, the former government people came there to come and take our animals. They took donkeys and goats and cattle. After that only after two weeks, they came back to burn our huts. They burned our huts, and all our property inside. Everything that was inside the house was burned, ... We had no way of establishing the truth about this murder, apart from getting confirmation that Koekie Zwane’s dead body was found in 1989. One complicating factor we had to keep in mind was the widespread allegations that Richardson was working with the security police. There is a real ... On our arrival there people were actually singing freedom songs. I was standing there looking at the people. As I was looking there up front, it was my first time to see such a big gun. // It was already late, then we found this place full with those who came in before. Then the police have already ... Can I ask a quick question to Dr Fazel Randera. You’re working on the ground in Gauteng, so you should get the feeling from the people. There’s been a lot of criticism, especially from the National Party, that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is not contributing to reconciliation, it’s ... Before we go let’s look at a few other developments the last week. We have been confronted by a lot of evil deeds while reporting on the Truth Commission the last year. Sometimes one tries to understand the mindset of the perpetrators caught in the conflict between repression and liberation. But ... Sophie’s brother, Nelson Sinxoshe was sentenced to 35 years for Geelboy Tshemeshe’s death. // I just got out because we got indemnity. I would still be in prison now, all because of lies. These people, the perpetrators, they are alive. What are you doing about them? My life is ruined. What are ... Phila Ndwandwe was a University of Durban-Westville student in 1985 when she was recruited into ‘Operation Butterfly,’ a unit of the military wing of the African National Congress, by this man. Phila was a comrade with outstanding qualities, although she was young, she was exceptionally bright. ... |