TRC Final Report

Volume 4

Chapter 10

Subsection 1

■ THE STATISTICS

12 Table 1 below shows that, overall, somewhat over half of all deponents to the Commission were women. The pattern varied geographically, ranging from four in every ten deponents in Cape Town to three-quarters of deponents in Durban, the centre with by far the largest number of deponents.

Table 1:

Statements describing gross violation of human rights by sex of deponent

13 Table 2 records only those deponents who reported violations of which they themselves were victims. Here the overall percentage falls to 43,9 per cent, suggesting that men were more likely than women to talk about their own experiences as direct victims. Durban again accounted for the highest proportion of female victims, and in this centre women were somewhat more likely than men to present themselves as the direct victims.

Table 2: Deponents who were themselves victims of gross human rights violations