TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 3

Subsection 64

APPENDIX

Statistics on Violations in Natal, KwaZulu and the Orange Free State

■ NATURE OF THE VIOLATIONS

1 The data gathered from the region covered by the Durban office is different to that gathered by the other three offices in many regards, and reflects the violent shifts in the political landscape in the early 1990s. The pattern of deaths, however, is similar to the national pattern. The top eight causes of death are:

2 Shootings account for the greatest number of the killings, followed by stabbings. As in the national pattern, death by multiple causes was very common; usually a consequence of victims being shot, stabbed and/or burnt at the same time.

3 The pattern of severe ill treatment is very different from the rest of the country, with arson dominating the chart:

4 Arson was by far the most common type of severe ill treatment, with nearly 4 000 cases reported, followed by shooting, beating and stabbing. Material losses, destruction of property and burning also feature in the top eight types of severe ill treatment. All these reflect the nature of the violence in this area, in which whole communities were targeted.

5 The pattern of torture is also slightly different:

6 As in the other regions, beating was the most common type of torture reported to the Commission, but this region differs from the others in that electric shock was the second most common form of torture. Relatively fewer cases of torture by forced posture were reported in the areas covered by the Durban office than in other areas.