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people's warExplanation …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. ... 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 ... Our aim was to kill as many people as possible. Ngxobongwana, a former UDF supporter had been arrested a year earlier and many believe he was turned to work for the state during his imprisonment. By 1986 Ngxobongwana was the main witdoek leader in Crossroads, now working against his former Comrades. Their conflict came to a head when the state ... 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 ... ... it became the SANC, we never saw Desmond Tutu for more than 20 seconds. And then all he said was ‘sanctions’ and we thought, die kabouter [the dwarf/goblin/pixie]! But what a sweet, good man. He treats me like a human being, not like an enemy. He always kisses my hand and he’s very small so ... When they see, even at a bus stop, when they see black people in a queue, they quickly surround them; arrest them, those who have got no passes. Everywhere! Even going to church, on Sunday, going to church, they stop them from going to church. They ask your pass. If you leave your pass you are ... ... formed part of one such a death commando at Northern Transvaal Security Police head quarters: Brigadier Jack Cronje, Captain Jacques Hechter and Warrant Officer Paul van Vuuren. The other member of their team was Joe Mamasela; he has turned state witness against his colleagues and is therefore ... 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. 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 ... The Bonteheuwel Military Wing started precisely because we needed to respond to the manner in which the state operated. We needed to one, defend ourselves, defend our community, because it appeared as if our community were under siege. We had a situation where there were, police put patrols – and ... Were the infiltrators armed? // Definitely. Both groups, as you know it was two incidents, two separate incidents. Both groups were armed. // No there were no firearms on them. There was absolutely no firearms found on these people and nothing were handed to me. It was terror, Stalin was paranoid and he supposed that almost all foreigners are spies and many people in his own country also, he cannot trust them. That day of the murder I was busy with other things. I was fighting the police, for what they were doing was shooting people with teargas. // On that day of the happenings I was here at home… // I was not there where the policeman was killed. I don’t know who killed him up to this day. It is very important for this event to be placed in history because it is one of the past activities that led to the existence of our new dispensation. It all started because Pondo people striked the way that we did. … a commission was set up led by Mr. Abraham coming from Pretoria, concerned as ... The skull is his daughter’s, Phila Portia Ndwandwe, 24 when she died. An Umkhonto we Sizwe commander in Natal; mother of baby Thabang, born in Swaziland in 1987. In October 1988 Ndwandwe was abducted from Manzini to Pietermaritzburg. The people who sold her out were comrades. Her abductors: four ... 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 ... 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. ... 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. |