TRC Final Report

Volume 5

Chapter 9

Subsection 10

■ FORGIVENESS

38 Despite the terrible stories told by victims, the Commission heard some remarkable evidence of a willingness to forgive. At the human rights violations hearing at Beaufort West, Mr Alwinus Ndodiphela Mralasi made the following statement:

Alwinus Mralasi: Thequewe Willie Manene was a member of the Methodist Church, and he accused me, together with his brother and another brother of his. I must tell you everything that I thought about him so that one could make a story out of this.

I hated him for five years. I even wanted to stab him to death … stab him because he had hurt me, and he implicated me, and said I was there in that meeting. And he said I was … we were hiding. There was a lamp that was hidden under a table, and this is an indication that this was a real lie.

I saw him in King Williams Town in 1972, and I was with my children. And my children were not succeeding at school, so I decided to send them to King William’s Town because I was working then. I took them to King William’s Town and that is where things went better for them, even in Somerset.

That is where I met Willie Manene who was working in a showroom where they sell cars. And one of my children pointed him and said there he is. So I asked for my knife, I opened it, I put it into my pocket … I went close to Willie Manene. This is God’s work because His works are wonderful.

I had intentions to stab him. I opened the door, and I saw a white man who asked me whether I wanted a car. Then I said, no. I had last seen Willie in 1968, in court. At the time, he was wiping the car, and he saw me as I was moving slowly towards him. In fact, a person who was guilty will always spot you, and you know this is the truth.

So I went and greeted him, and I asked him how he was, and I asked him to go out with me. We went outside, and he stood there, and he had some difficulty to talk. And I was surprised [and wondered] what was wrong with him, and I looked at him and I could see there was real change in him. He had gone through a lot of suffering, I could see. It showed on his face. And I asked: “why are you like this? Do your people know that you are like this?” Then he said, “no”.

I asked him about Frans Manene, Samuel Manene. Then I asked him if I could see Samuel to give him some messages. Then he … said he was suffering from high blood pressure, he had pains on his hip and his son too was ill-treating and beating him. I could see he was finished, I then called my wife and even that one who was born when I was detained. I called all them – all of them – and I said Willie: “here are your children”, because we had the same clan name. So, he greeted them.

Then I said: “these are your children, you can see they are old”. Then he said: “Are you still going on with this?” Then I said to my wife: “Look at this person, how he looks like”. And I asked my wife to take out one pound and give it to this man so that he could buy food for himself. And that was the last I saw of him. He never went back to his house. He never went to see his family. He went to hospital and that was the end of his life. So, when he asked me how I had come there, I said I had come in a car...

This is the man who was trying to drown me and, as I was driving [away] … he lifted his hand, trying to wave. And I also waved back … I kept on waving for a long time, hooting, and then I drove off to Mdantsane. That was the last I saw of him, because he died thereafter. So, even the hatred I had just faded away. So that’s why I say, God is there and God is with us – we are parents but things may not do – people may not do bad things to others because we’ve got children. We have got children who we are bringing up.

So today, you have allowed me to say everything to you, and everything that has been locked in within my heart now, you have allowed me to have a clean breast of – so I am not even embarrassed today. You can go to my house. You will be surprised because God is like those old bottles of wine that used to be closed with a cork. And if you were to fill … a bucket with water and then you take that cork and put it into that water, it will not sink, it will float. Thank you. I thank you for all you have done for me.