TRC Final Report

Volume 5

Chapter 6

Subsection 22

Gross violations of human rights committed by the ANC after its unbanning

138 While the Commission accepts that the violent conflict which consumed the country in the post-1990 period was neither initiated by nor in the interests of the ANC, the ANC must nonetheless account for the many hundreds of people killed or injured by its members in the conflict. While the ANC leadership has argued that its members were acting in self-defence, it is the Commission’s view that at times the conflict assumed local dynamics in which proactive revenge attacks were carried out by both sides. This situation was exacerbated by high levels of political intolerance among all parties, including the ANC. Further, the Commission contends that the leadership should have been aware of the consequences of training and arming members of SDUs in a volatile situation in which they had little control over the actions of such members.

THE COMMISSION THEREFORE FINDS THAT IN THE PERIOD 1990–94, THE ANC WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR:

KILLINGS, ASSAULTS AND ATTACKS ON POLITICAL OPPONENTS INCLUDING MEMBERS OF THE IFP, PAC, AZAPO AND THE SAP;

CONTRIBUTING TO A SPIRAL OF VIOLENCE IN THE COUNTRY THROUGH THE CREATION AND ARMING OF SELF-DEFENCE UNITS (SDUS). WHILST ACKNOWLEDGING THAT IT WAS NOT THE POLICY OF THE ANC TO ATTACK AND KILL POLITICAL OPPONENTS, THE COMMISSION FINDS THAT IN THE ABSENCE OF ADEQUATE COMMAND STRUCTURES AND IN THE CONTEXT OF WIDESPREAD STATE-SPONSORED OR -DIRECTED VIOLENCE AND A CLIMATE OF POLITICAL INTOLERANCE, SDU MEMBERS OFTEN ‘TOOK THE LAW INTO THEIR OWN HANDS’ AND COMMITTED GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS.

THE COMMISSION TAKES NOTE THAT THE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP OF THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS AND THE COMMAND STRUCTURE OF UMKHONTO WESIZWE HAS ACCEPTED POLITICAL AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ALL THE ACTIONS OF ITS MEMBERS IN THE PERIOD 1960–94 AND THEREFORE FINDS THAT THE LEADERSHIP OF THE ANC AND MK MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY, AND BE ACCOUNTABLE, FOR ALL GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS PERPETRATED BY ITS MEMBERSHIP AND CADRES IN THE MANDATE PERIOD.