TRC Final Report

Volume 5

Chapter 9

Subsection 27

103 At the hearing on conscripts in Cape Town on 23 July 1997, Mr Craig Botha talked about his involvement in the SADF as a conscript in the Navy during the late 1970s and early 1980s. He spoke honestly about his participation in the war:

As I look back upon this period, it is with deep shame and regret that I took part in these acts of sabotage and violent destabilisation. The struggles that our neighbouring states have had to undergo, even to this time, are partially attributable to these missions.

104 Most of his testimony, however, was devoted to his current attempts to be an agent of reconciliation as a pastor in the Jubilee Community Church in the Western Cape:

Along with our church, we also began to work actively towards reconciliation involving seeking forgiveness for the evil of apartheid and making financial restitution. To cut a long story short, we are at present extensively involved in Khayelitsha in the Western Cape. We have planted a non-racial church. The white folk that are part of this church have committed themselves to racial reconciliation in a practical way, not just in theory. We are involved in two pre-schools and are seeking to launch projects to empower the community. We are also involved in a housing project in Tambo Square, Tambo Village and have seen the hand of God really moving in terms of bringing together white and black and healing the divisions and enmity of the past.

I did not feel I needed to apply for amnesty for I personally did not kill anyone. I do feel, however, that I was part of the overall strategy of destabilisation during the apartheid years; and it was because of that, that I’ve come forward with this account. And I’ve also made the information available because I have been very disappointed to see the lack of courage that has been shown by many in the defence force in terms of owning up to deeds like this in the past.

I really feel that as a South African and as a Christian pastor that there’s a tremendous hope for this nation if individuals can find the grace to speak the truth and be agents of reconciliation as we face the future together.

105 He went on to make the important point that a lack of restitution might not be because people are insensitive and indifferent, but because there is a lack of specific advice and concrete guidelines about how ordinary people could get involved in restitution and reconciliation:

We went through a stage when we were quite overwhelmed by the whole situation and didn’t really know what to do or how to proceed, and we consulted people in the community, and we also did some soul-searching and some homework ourselves and realised that it would be good to target a particular community to see something established in a particular area. We therefore got this fund going through our church where people could put finances into that fund, knowing that it would be going to a specific community for upliftment and to build a centre in the area of Khayelitsha, and people responded to that in an overwhelming way.

So, I think if one could create channels, even simple channels and people know that there’s an end product that it’s not just going into a fund somewhere, but it’s helping a particular community in a particular place. I think people want to give to that so that’s what we did and it worked, and people are still wanting to give, not just money but also themselves as well. Obviously there are those that are still apprehensive about going to the townships but will give finances into a fund to help with things like that, so that also helps towards uplifting communities and so on…

What we’ve found is, despite what we’ve been through as a nation, there are a lot of people looking for places and areas they can go to in order to experience practical reconciliation. And I think what has happened is that, within the church we’ve been involved with and the project, I think it’s provided an arena where people can come in and begin to work through issues and begin to meet people from different backgrounds and language groups and start a process together which is very exciting. That’s been good just being a part of facilitating that.