 |
News | Sport | TV | Radio | Education | TV Licenses | Contact Us |
|
News | Sport | TV | Radio | Education | TV Licenses | Contact Us |
people's warExplanation ... George Fivaz reopened the Mxenge investigation last year. Three people have already confessed to the killing, but now, the leader of the squad, warrant officer Joe Mamasela has also decided to talk. Three weeks ago Mamasela admitted on this programme that he and his colleagues at Vlakplaas ... ‘Maseru Lesotho December 1985’ // Nine people died in this attack. Among the dead was Jackie Quinn whose family testified at the TRC in 1996. // I feel that as long as the people up top who gave the order are exposed, that it’s going to help a lot. If we can find out, it must be somebody in ... But Donald Woods, talk to me what you feel so far, perception wise has it been one sided. What is your feeling about this? // I’ve had the impression of it being pretty fair, but you know they were in a no win situation in the sense that when you undertake something which is really a very ... Well, I’d been a sport mad young South African, fanatically into sport: rugby, soccer, cricket, motor racing the lot. And I knew how vital sport was to the maintenance of the white South African psyche and mystique and morale. And so what I came up with as a young political activist getting ... During the coming weeks we’ll be taking a behind the scenes look at some of the people who drive the truth and reconciliation process. Tonight we meet one of the 17 commissioners, Hlengiwe Mkhize at her home near Johannesburg. They were laid to rest here in Mlungisi graveyard on a warm summer’s day during a typical Eastern Cape mass funeral. The funeral party was surrounded by caspirs and they were watched by the very same people who had killed them. Today, 11 years later, 17 November is still commemorated as the day ... I gave the instruction for them to flatten the huts with a casper and that we would open fire at the same time. It’s the overkill situation that was typically Koevoet. We would shoot as much as concentrated fire into a space as possible. We didn’t know how many people might be in there with ... But you ended up killing people who are not regarded as white. Could this be regarded as a botched or a messed up operation? // Sir, I cannot comment on that. We were told to go to the tavern …. I don’t know how to respond to your statement. 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 ... As we were busy loading the people into the ambulances they told me that the police were looking for me and they said I should get into the car because they were taking me with. I was very confused at that time. I got into the caspir, but as I was inside I was asking myself as to where they were ... Well it certainly seems as if the Truth Commission process is gaining momentum. A lot of people who felt that the Truth Commission concentrated too much on the sad stories of victims and was not getting to the real story of our sordid past must be changing their minds. The Inkatha Freedom Party was ... Bram Fischer was born in 1908 on a farm near Bloemfontein. He came from a well known legal family. His father, Peter Ulrich Fischer was Judge President of the Free State and his grandfather Abram Fischer had been a Cabinet Minister in the Union of South Africa. Bram went to Grey College and then ... It remains however a sad fact that we have to admit that the historic struggle of the Afrikaner for freedom and self-realisation did not bring about the sensitivity that was needed in order to understand the same motivations and concerns when they came from black people. Perhaps the worst of our ... There were shots and people were crying. As I was running a white person said ‘Zulu, capture him, there he is’ and I went straight into the passage. When I got into the passage they couldn’t see me anymore and I heard a loud bang of a gun behind me, seven times. I ran just alongside the ... The significance of the shoes that came from the grave, I think it elate all the doubts that one would have, because for now these things that we seek – people being exhumed – you don’t know really, really is this is the truth? But now, with a shred of evidence like what I saw, I’m ... It’s our job as religious people, if I may be bold to say so, the job of all of us to try to apply the antidotes. This TRC has become famous throughout the world because of the horror which has unfolded in the testimony so many months before you. There’s no one who’s listened in on the radio, ... There are people that were tortured and tormented by the SB’s or by the security system and we are not of equal strength, we’ve got to recognize that, so they broke down and sold out and actually went ahead and gave evidence in court. Now, you look at their motives, did they join the liberation ... Originally my view was rather more radical in that I felt that those who were responsible for ghastly deeds which brought about so much suffering to so many families or so many people, many of whom were members of my own congregation, and many of whom were my friends, I felt that there had to be ... Thank you, Donald Woods. // A quick point. Since I’ve been back in South Africa I’ve met very few whites who knew anything about the Cassinga massacre, a much bigger massacre than any of these others, and for the first time through the TRC this came to light. I think last week it was in your ... The sort of people I looked for were those who could amongst other things could act as assassins who could murder. I recruited two people for that purpose; you can’t find a sniper or a assassin behind every bush you know. |
