TRC Final Report

Volume 5

Chapter 4

Subsection 15

Economic consequences

122 Loss of social or occupational status and abilities because of prolonged imprisonment, physical disability or psychological problems may result in difficulties in finding employment and thus contribute to social and economic hardships.

123 Father Michael Lapsley (see above) discussed the difficulties he experienced trying to resume his work after his return from hospital:

I returned to Zimbabwe to joblessness in that the Bishop who was supposed to employ me had said, ‘well you’re disabled now, what can you do?’

124 Mr Lebitsa Solomon Ramokhoase was shot in the 1960 massacre at Sharpville. The injuries he sustained resulted in chronic pains which impinged on his ability to retain employment.

When I was now working, I wouldn’t stay a long period in the employment. I would tell them my problem and they would say, if we knew before we would never employ you. And I realised that I have to pack my clothes now; there is nothing I live on. I have to go out and go and seek for another employment. But every time I got a new employment I wouldn’t tell them that I was shot but as soon as they discover that I had been shot, they let me go. And every time I would lose my job. Now this leg was really destroying my future. My children were starving.

125 Psychological problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, may cause significant social upheaval and undermine chances of finding employment. Memory and concentration difficulties may reduce the capacity for learning and impair work performance. Avoidance of feared situations may cause work, social and family dysfunction. Another factor affecting earning ability is the tendency to develop physical symptoms and a preoccupation with bodily complaints.

126 Disability and illness affect the ability to work. People lose time and become ineffective at work, at school and in the household. Thus, illness causes undeniable loss to individuals, families, communities and the entire society.²⁴ Figures from the Commission’s database revealed immense economic loss due to the perpetration of gross human rights violations. Twenty-nine per cent of deponents who made statements to the Commission reported a loss of income as a direct result of their violation. Fifty-four per cent of those who coped through the assistance of family members and friends also reported a loss of income because of the violation. These factors placed an additional burden on the extended family.

127 Economic hardships can cause disruptions in relationships. Fifty-one per cent of those who reported problems in their relationships also identified loss of income because of their violations. Moreover, financial losses are not confined to one generation, a fact reflected in 51 per cent of statements which demonstrated a disruption to education and a loss of income.

128 Ms Mpehelo’s husband was shot by unknown assailants during political conflict in the Eastern Cape. At the first East London hearing, she described the consequences for her family:

After my husband’s death, many things befell me, one after the other. I never enjoyed life anymore. As I’m sitting here, I’m asking the Commission, my children want to learn. I have an elder son, he was at technikon in Port Elizabeth, and he was forced to stop studying. You know even now the lawyers are running after me to get money that was left behind.

129 Ms Koloti’s son died in exile in Tanzania in 1990. At the East London hearing, she described the consequences for her family:

We, as the parents of those who did not come back due to different reasons, are affected because the children who came back are supporting their families. If my child was here in 1986, he promised to do certain things for me and our home. But unfortunately now he passed away and I don’t know who is going to fulfil his promises to me.

130 Mr Willem Petrus de Klerk, whose wife Annetjie de Klerk was a victim of the MK ‘Volkskas siege’ in Pretoria on 25 January 1980, described the emotional and financial impact of his wife’s death on the family at the Pretoria hearing:

My children were denied the love of a mother and I, of course, had to raise them. Financially I suffered as my wife’s salary was no longer there, which [meant] that, after completing my police duties at night, I would have to take other tasks in order to look after my children. In the meantime, my three children were left alone at home without a mother and father and, as a result of that, even today, even though I am a pensioner now, I am still forced to do other work in order to supplement my income.

131 Other largely unmeasured costs included the value of time contributed by family members to caring for sick relatives. Many had to leave the labour market to care for family members. Others had to enter the labour market to pay for health costs. These added to the stresses on the family. Of those who reported that they were attempting to cope financially by doing odd jobs such as hawking or with the assistance of a pension or disability grant, 47 per cent also reported symptoms of anxiety, depression and difficulty in coping.

Family violence

132 Domestic violence is associated with social strain and disintegration and often with a weakening or disruption of traditional norms governing interpersonal behaviour in families. Studies demonstrate that war experiences or prolonged detention may result in problems in marital relationships. This may be due to the direct effects of trauma-coping behaviour, the inability of trauma survivors to function in expected family and social roles, and/or conflicts associated with changes in gender and family roles resulting from prolonged detention or migration. Family disintegration, such as the death of a parent or parent-in-law, also means the removal of those who would traditionally have mediated such conflict.²⁵

133 The effects of exposure to trauma have been linked to domestic violence in the home. At the Venda hearing, Mr Abel Tsakani Maboya alluded to domestic violence by an activist. His cousin, who was in the underground movement in Tanzania and had endured numerous detentions, committed suicide after a dispute with his wife.

He used to quarrel with his wife every time, that is the information that I got ... I don’t know what made him to fight with his wife, maybe it comes from what he experienced from jail or some other things.

134 Mr John Deegan described the problems he experienced in taking up his role in the family after returning from service on the Namibian border in the early 1980s:

I had a lot of anger and I couldn’t relate to people in the RSA at home any more ... I just burst out into rages with my family and with my fiancée ... [I] started to do weird stuff like that.²⁶