TRC Final Report

Volume 4

Chapter 1

Volume FOUR Chapter ONE

Foreword and Context of Institutional and Special Hearings

■ INTRODUCTION

1 An important debate with which the Commission had to wrestle was, as has been fully discussed in the chapter on The Mandate, how to paint the backdrop against which such human rights violations occurred. Without some sense of the “antecedents, circumstances, factors and context” within which gross violations of human rights occurred, it is almost impossible to understand how, over the years, people who considered themselves ordinary, decent and God-fearing found themselves turning a blind eye to a system which impoverished, oppressed and violated the lives and very existence of so many of their fellow citizens.

2 It is an old question: one that is asked of any country that undertakes acts so foul that the world openly condemns it. It is a question that has been answered in different ways, for such is the nature of historical debate. However, what is clear is that apartheid could only have happened if large numbers of enfranchised, relatively privileged South Africans either condoned or simply allowed it to continue.

3 How did so many people, working within so many influential sectors and institutions, react to what was happening around them? Did they know it was happening? If they did not know, or did not believe it was happening, from where did they derive their ignorance or their misunderstanding? Why is it only with hindsight that so many privileged members of society are able to see that what they lived through was a kind of madness and, for those at the receiving end of the system, a kind of hell?

4 One of the things one needs to remember is that the greater majority of South Africans knew only one system of government (although the foundation for apartheid was, as mentioned elsewhere, laid much earlier). This means that those who were born, went to school, took jobs and raised families knew only one society – the apartheid society. To those who reaped its benefits, it was an extremely comfortable society. But what is important is that they knew no other. It was a closed world, surrounded by fences, prohibitions and some terrible assumptions about their fellow countrymen and women.

5 There were those, of course, from the heart of the privileged community who not only did know what was happening, but condemned it. In the process, they themselves became victims of government action. But, significantly for this argument, their credibility was frequently also questioned by those around them, and their simple humanitarian responses often resulted in rejection by members of their own communities. Part of the explanation lies in the state’s demonisation of its opponents and, quite probably, in a wish to avoid the obligations that knowledge implied. Yet the question remains, if some knew, why did others not know and believe?

■ INSTITUTIONAL HEARINGS

6 It was in search for the beginning of an answer to these questions that the Commission decided to host a number of hearings on the role of some of the influential sectors of the apartheid society. Clearly, there were time restraints, requiring the Commission to limit its focus. A number of institutions were identified: the media, business, prisons, the faith community, the legal system and the health sector. All these sectors had, over the years, come under attack for what was seen by some as their complicity with the apartheid system. What the Commission sought to find out was how these institutions saw themselves and how, brought together with those who had opposed them, a part of the enigma of the South African evil could be unravelled.

7 It was considered extremely important that both ‘sides’ should be present and able to speak at the hearings of their perceptions and experiences. Sometimes the Commission was successful in obtaining the participation of all role-players, and sometimes it was not. Some refused the invitation of the Commission.

8 Often the hearings revealed just how far apart the opposing views were. But there were some heartening moments. There were signs that the hearings triggered a kind of self-analysis, a mood of introspection that may lead to a deeper realisation of the need for commitment to a new society and a culture of human rights.

9 At the end of each chapter, there is a set of findings the Commission made after the hearings and, in the chapter on Recommendations in the last volume of this report, the Commission gave serious though to ways to ensure the transformation of society.

■ SPECIAL HEARINGS

10 The last three chapters in this volume are of a different kind. They focus on three areas that, the Commission felt, warranted individual attention.

11 The Commission decided to host a hearing on compulsory military service. It was a difficult decision and one that followed a great deal of debate. It was clear that conscripts could not as a rule be described as victims of gross violations of human rights as defined in the Act. Some of the evidence that emerged at the hearing, however, showed that they were victims of another kind – victims of a system they found themselves obliged to defend.

12 The chapter on children and youth describes the devastating effects of apartheid on young people in South Africa. It also pays tribute to the extraordinary heroism of generations of young people who risked their education, their safety and often their lives for a better society. Many of them today are greatly the poorer for their sacrifice. Many others did not live beyond their teens and became victims of the system against which they struggled.

13 The chapter on women reports on a series of hearings that were held at which women were given the opportunity to speak on their own behalf. It was discovered early in the life of the Commission that the majority of women who came forward to testify did so on behalf of others and seldom on their own account. It was also felt necessary to give women the opportunity, amongst members of their own sex, to speak of the particular violations experienced by women and, also, the particular way in which women experience violations.

14 The following chapters do no more than summarise the events that took place at the hearings. The full transcripts are to be found in the National Archives. However, beyond the documents, the Commission hopes that the legacy of these hearings will be to stimulate further debate, further discussion and further exploration of the difficult and complex issues that underpinned apartheid.

A NOTE ON NAMES

15 Every attempt has been made to check and re-check the names of people who approached the Commission, made statements or are otherwise quoted. Inconsistent spellings emerged in the transcripts, in statements and frequently the same name was spelt in a variety of different ways. Where there are errors, despite all efforts to ensure that names are correctly spelt, the Commission apologises.

16 In addition, the Commission decided, for the purposes of its report, that the titles of Mr and Ms would be used throughout. This is not to fail to acknowledge that some women might still prefer to be addressed as Mrs or Miss or even Mama and does not constitute a social or political comment on their right to do so. It was simply a decision that was taken in order to ensure uniformity and, of course, to eliminate error where the marital status of the person was unknown.

■ CONCLUSION

17 The journey between 1960 and 1994 was a long and terrible one, wasteful of human life and of human potential. Yet, it was a path that everyone travelled.

18 Today, South Africans have embarked on another journey. Some travel joyfully into the future. Others still carry their baggage, uncertain of whether or how to dispose of it. Thus, although it is a collective journey, it is also an individual journey. A journey that depends on our ability to examine with honesty and with humility the role we have played in the past and, more importantly, what role we can – as individuals and as institutions – play in the future.

19 The Commission hopes that the hearings reported on in this volume may provide some guidance on a way forward.