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people's warExplanation Mining is what keeps the wheels of Welkom turning. Together with Alanridge and Virginia, it forms the second richest gold mining area in the country. The city is young and growing. It is surrounded by rural Free State towns like Brandfort, Odendaalsrus and Kroonstad, traditional farming ... We are divided by the river, the Umsunduzi river, down there at the valley. That is KwaShange and this is KwaMnyandu. So, when I looked there across I saw that there were many houses burning, sound of gunshots and all that and there were trucks moving up there with some impi’s, people in the ... The term ‘East Rand Unrest’ was used excessively in the eighties and early nineties to describe virtually continuous conflict between the people of this vast area east of Johannesburg and the police and army. This week the Truth Commission listened to a story from one of the East Rand ... I really find it difficult … that kind of reasoning, just to say to people, are there racial tensions, as though you expect me to put a red carrot here and say oh this is a green one. I really find it simplistic and naïve, if I may put it strongly that way. I’m not a spokesperson for the TRC, ... Mister Mlambo was correct. This is what PAC central committee leader Barney Desai said in reaction to the St James Massacre. // We think that this is the work of the third force, operating in this country to destabilize the transition to democracy. We are busy discussing the constitution here and ... There were the cynics of course, some called it the ‘crying commission,’ but often they were white or old allies of apartheid and scared of the guilt that came with hearing the truth, but then there were those who became part of the telling and through that some sort of reconciliation. // You ... The name Sophiatown has become much more than a symbol of the forced removal of black people by the apartheid government. It was a magic moment in the history of the people of South Africa, a moment holding the promise of what South Africa could have been. ... way of coming to terms with the past, but so many more white people in general and Afrikaners in particular have been openly hostile and critical towards the Truth Commission. One only has to read the Rapport on Sundays to realize how deep this resentment lies amongst Afrikaners. Now, many South ... I made the arrangement that when I join the Truth Commission … I must be in the pulpit on Sunday, every Sunday. And it gives me strength. That is my basis of the strength. I ... the TRC things, I get tired, but I know that there is a spring from which I’m going to draw when it becomes Sunday, ... There’s one thing that I will have to live with till the day I die, it’s the corpses that I will have to drag with me to my grave, of the people whom I’ve killed. Remorse, I can assure you a lot, a hell of a lot. This episode focuses on the Amnesty Committee hearings held in Pretoria (15 to 19 July) and the HRV Committee hearings held in Pietersburg / Polokwane (17 to 19 July). In Pretoria, two members of an ultra right cell, Jean du Plessis and Jean van Wyk, applied for amnesty for killing three people ... But why? We asked Jerry Richardson’s defence counsel. // How convinced were you that Jerry lied to protect others? // I was convinced of it. I was convinced that he lied to protect the others. // How circumstantial was the evidence against him? // Nobody actually saw Jerry take Stompie away that ... Wouter Mentz was a Vlakplaas policeman who had killed several people including one of his own colleagues and two deaf children in a Botswana raid. // I didn’t know that there were children, and if I recall they were two deaf-numb children. That was evil in killing them, because they caused no ... I was born in Boksburg, but have no memory of it, we moved to Pretoria when I was eighteen months old. My father is a Presbyterian minister, so I was brought up in a religious, spiritual household and although I am not a practicing Christian now I have a very strong sense of right and wrong and ... Because it was turmoil. It was a real turmoil and the white people were really emotional. // Can you remember perhaps who was the person that kicked him against the head when he fell against the wall? // My Lord, it is unfortunate that I do not remember who kicked him, because there were so many ... Then Bennet Sibaya told his story. With his friend, Mazibuko he was going to visit an old girlfriend in Gugulethu, but he got lost. // I saw these children coming. I thought they had pipes in their hands, however when they were closer I realized that those were not pipes but weapons. They then put ... We had indeed taught our people wrongly with regard to apartheid as a biblical instruction. If you teach them that this is the way of the Bible, in fact you instruct them how they should act and in this regard certainly the church has confessed that it is guilty and we are experiencing an inner ... The one overwhelming problem that I have about this hearing is that there seems to be … I mean, either there’s a conspiracy theory or even a conspiracy directed against you by a wide range of people, not only the youngsters that came here and Mr. Morgan and the whole succession of people, ... In fact there were far more members of the South African and international media than supporters of Botha. // Only a few friends and supporters of Botha, six media people and some ANC representatives were allowed inside the court where Botha had to face Magistrate Victor Lugaju, president of the ... In June 1986 South Africans watched in horror as a woman got burnt to death, on television. Maki Skosana’s very public necklacing started a whole new trend. But few people know about the events which led to this killing frenzy in Duduza on the East Rand. // Joe Mamasela, former Vlakplaas ... |
