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people's warExplanation We’ve come to the end of our Special Report. This coming week the Truth Commission will investigate the seven day war in the Natal midlands in 1990 in which some 200 people died. Key figures such as Brigadier Oupa Gqozo will also give evidence on the Bisho massacre. The Special Report will be ... ... What is your personal feeling? // I am sorry for the victims and the family of the victims. Because at the end of the day they did not fight in the war. So in that regard I am sorry. I am sorry for them, for the people who had to suffer. And I apologise. // If you look back, was it worth it? // ... After the six days war, then people said we no longer want the police in Alexandra. And there was a campaign launched, very peaceful one, to say we shall not be socializing with the police. And by socializing there were specifics: those who were in love, or fall in love with the police were told to ... I was actually leaving for Germany on the day when the Commissioners were announced and Sheena Duncan actually phoned me to tell me and shoe! It was incredibly exciting because for me I think that you have law, you have the whole question of jurisprudence, but law doesn’t often bring justice and ... By the 1960s the repression that resulted after then after the banning of the ANC and the shooting of people at Sharpeville, you know, covered the whole country. And, at this time they began whole scale arrests of opponents of apartheid, and repression was really all round. But what precisely is a witch? And what do they do that people fear them so? // Although we are speaking of one province here each area has got a large number of certain ethnic groups. If you take Northern Sotho speaking people many people were accused of having caused lightning, whereas if you go ... ... and consequences on behalf of your men? // Yes. // And is that still your feeling today? // Yes, I take full responsibility from myself downward, for all my men’s actions, but not for those above me – not anymore. // Did you also expect the same from people who gave you orders? // ... I think it’s specifically crucial in the current South African context to realise that people will experience different kinds of loss and that there might still be questions in people’s minds about what happened to their loved ones. What was the situation of the death, for example. And if ... One of its members was Katiza Cebekhulu; he vanished seven years ago. Today he has a damning story to tell about Winnie Mandela. // There’s a sense in which what Katiza has to say confronts the soul of this nation, and usually people who do that end up on a cross. De Kock gave instructions that we should go and help Port Elizabeth Police, because there were some chaps that were making Port Elizabeth ungovernable and those people had to be eliminated. Sophiatown was representative of freedom, to live with whoever was your neighbour. // It could not last. In February 1955 trucks rolled into its exuberant centre, loaded its population and removed them to Meadowlands. Stander warned Holomisa about the assassination plot against him. // Riaan Stander was one of the people who we communicated with, because apparently he was close to a number of these big guns in South Africa. // Why did you warn Holomisa? // I learnt during those years that the ultimate aim ... ... correct. I accept responsibility because I was the political head of the department and I’m not going to run away from my responsibilities. Not towards the people out there who actually put me in that position and who had trust and confidence in me. And I will accept the responsibility also ... Professor Giliomee … // Well I’ve got trouble with Donald Woods’ assertion that people know when they hear the truth or not. I think as a newspaper editor I think he probably will say no that is not quite true. The point is that, certainly in the case of the Biko case we have had revelations, ... ... that the house had been burnt down at KwaMashu. Our mother had been burnt down completely, she was in ash. // … and one of the amabutho’s, the warriors, said to us ‘ let me see who’s got an axe’ and I heard they were chopping down our doors and they got inside. I don’t know when ... Not many people know that Glenda Wildschut trained as a singer, but instead of a diva she became a nurse. She qualified as a psychiatric nurse after studying in Britain and the US. On her return to South Africa she took charge of a psychiatric unit in the Cape hospital and worked there for nine ... It is perpetrated, we believe by forces that are against the talks about peace. The violence is particularly connected with Inkatha and people are saying that openly. // We need to see township violence as part of a broader strategy by the apartheid government, and I think that evidence has come to ... For Bokaba, the perpetrators are people he knew and who had constantly threatened him about his life and ironically when their homeland shrine they were preserving has shattered they still have not approached him and asked him for forgiveness. // I feel that it’s for me to ensure that I reconcile ... During the conference of December 1993, that was in Umtata was it not? // That’s correct. // You say the armed struggle or the idea of the armed struggle was to continue; that was the resolution that was taken at that conference. // That’s correct. // Was that a clear signal that went out from ... Zweli Dlamini, another Caprivi trainee testified in a balaclava because he did not want the people in his village to know about his testimony. // We were dealing with the learning about arms, the attacking of houses. During the demonstration there was a house which was locked and we were shown as ... |
