TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 3

Subsection 4

Perpetrator groups

16 The evidence identifies the South African Police (SAP) as a dominant and consistent perpetrator group in three categories of abuse: torture, severe ill treatment and killings.Incidents of torture perpetrated by the police rose dramatically from 1984, peaking in 1986 and again in 1988. Statistics show that assault or beating was by far the most common form of abuse. Electric shocks were used increasingly and most frequently during the 1983–89 period, corresponding roughly to the years of emergency government.

17 Inkatha was identified as a major perpetrator of gross human rights violations from 1983. Incidents of killings attributed to Inkatha rose dramatically in 1989–90, peaking again in 1993. Acts of severe ill treatment attributed to Inkatha and later to the IFP rose steadily from 1983 and dramatically between 1989 and 1994.

18 The ANC was also identified as a perpetrator group. Incidents of killing attributed to the ANC rose steadily from 1983, peaking in 1989 and 1992. There was a corresponding rise in the number of acts of severe ill treatment attributed to the ANC. According to information before the Commission, the number of acts of severe ill treatment attributed to the ANC was roughly one third of the corresponding figure for the IFP.

19 Incidents of associated violations were attributed predominantly to the SAP, except in the period 1990–94 when the greatest number were attributed to the IFP. The SAP was identified overwhelmingly as the major perpetrator of acts of torture throughout.