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people's warExplanation The suffering of the South African people may be over but the psychological damage will have an effect for a long time to come. In tonight’s programme we focus on post traumatic stress disorder. We visit the vast, peaceful plains of the Karoo where the Truth Commission encountered unexpected ... I think cartooning is powerful in the sense that many people see the stuff every day. It’s very immediate and it does illicit reaction. When I say have I had reaction, sometimes that reaction comes through letters and other things where I don’t actually meet the people. Yes, it has a ... People then came. The others were throwing stones. We tried to take everybody inside, because we realized we’re being attacked. Simon shot twice in the air. As we were trying to get into the house, Simon Tshemeshe was standing at the door. He took his gun and shot the late Sophie. // She had ... 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. ... Samson Booysen was one of four people sentenced to death for the murder. They spent two years on death row before being released as political prisoners in 1992. Today he is the mayor of Hanover, but he still insists that mister Nkumbi falsely identified him and that he was sentenced to death for ... It was an operation that was done by myself entirely in cooperation with the riots unit. There were two operations. There was the cleanup operation before four in the morning and then that evening it was four special constables and myself. // Who gave you the instruction to kill? Was that Major ... Mister Mitchell, are you now desirous of making amends? // Yes I am. Although it may be impossible to do it, but I am desirous of that. // You’ve become a Christian and understand the value of forgiveness. Will you let us have your thoughts on that? // Yes I understand that forgiveness does ... There is something we do not understand. We need to know who it was who pulled that trigger. We know that the events of that night are known to the people who watched us. // It seems to me more than strange that the Durban murder and robbery unit, a unit with an excellent record of solving crimes ... Margo is right; there is no proof of the decoy beacon. But on the other hand there is no real proof that there wasn’t one. There is one odd aspect, local people reported that a big army tent was pitched near the crash site on the day of the crash but it wasn’t there the next day. It ... At quarter to three in the morning my wife and I were asleep in a big double bed at the front of the house when somebody fired over the gate with an assault rifle, firing fully automatic. And it’s a dreadful sound you know, the rat-tat-tat. And there was the smell of explosive and the sound ... ... And while my brother was laying on the ground the policeman’s colleagues came out and congratulated him telling him it was a good shot. Afterwards there was a court case but the decision of the court was that no one was to blame, that the policeman acted in the line of his duty, so no one ... This week, for the first time ever in the life of the Truth Commission a policeman voluntarily took the stand to give supporting evidence. Capt Peter John Clayton had been on duty the night Adri Faas was shot. He told the Truth Commission what had happened that evening. // I cannot remember ... On Thursday President Nelson Mandela visited the site where Samora Machel died ten years ago. He declared it a national monument and announced that his government would reopen the investigation into the causes of the plane crash. Of course, as far as the previous government was concerned there was ... Then they told me, but, it is Wallace. Then I said, ‘oh, he was in an accident. Yes. Oh Wallace was in an accident Okay’. Then I said, ‘but…’ And everybody just kept quiet. I also realized at that time how terribly difficult it must be for people to bring this kind ... It was a truly symbolic moment when these three theologians made their way to the Truth Commission stage this week. Coming from the church seen to have been the theological backbone of the National Party their confession before the people of Paarl and Stellenbosch was a meaningful milestone in the ... People don’t have houses. People must get houses, they must get back their houses; they must get compensation. Then that would be an indication that something is being done and I think maybe, maybe in the long run people will forgive and forget. As elsewhere so here at Stellenbosch the ideology of nationalism in the course of time left a substantial imprint on Christians’ ways of thought. It made us insensitive to the injustice and suffering inflicted by the policy of apartheid about many of those living in close proximity to us. ... 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 ... White people were the privileged ones in the old South Africa, but there was one way in which the repressive apartheid government touched their lives: young white men were forced to join the army to fight fellow citizens and freedom fighters in neighbouring states. Wallace McGregor was one of many ... Could there possibly be ANC cabinet ministers and senior government officials who spied on their comrades for the apartheid police? The claim was first made during Jacques Hechter’s evidence and then amplified by his legal counsel, Roelof du Plessis. // There are people in the current ... |