TRC Final Report

Volume 5

Chapter 9

Subsection 3

Decriminalisation

20 Individual and social healing are lengthy, complex processes, of which the restoration of human dignity must be seen as an essential part. One of the most important contributions of the Commission was to help decriminalise the actions of the majority of those victims who opposed the former state. During the uprisings in the 1980s, in particular, thousands of young people were sentenced to prison for arson, public violence or attempted murder. An extract from a Ministry of Foreign Affairs secret memorandum to all members of the State Security Council (SSC), dated 12 November 1984, is significant in this regard – illustrating some of the ways in which political opposition was criminalised as part of the ‘total strategy’ against the ‘total onslaught’:

Unrest situations: suggested terminological guidelines for official spokesmen

1. Goals

1.1 To withhold positive political/social recognition, credit and publicity from the organisers (UDF³ et al) of riots, boycotts etc.

1.2 To channel the anger of the innocent masses against criminal activities.

1.3 To educate local and international opinions about the criminal nature and uselessness of these activities.

2. The Conceptual Framework for the Terminology

From the abovementioned goals it is clear that the main emphasis should fall on specific common law crimes and that references to crimes with political connotations should mostly be avoided, for example:

arsonists, looters, murderers, muggers

Where it is not practically possible to refer to specific common law crimes, descriptions such as “rioters”, “boycotters”, “protesters” should rather be avoided and replaced where applicable with descriptions such as:

hooligans, vandals, thugs

Where the instigator is associated with widespread actions/unrest his status is enhanced. As a guideline, it is suggested that militant organisations (ANC, UDF etc.) should rather be linked to individual atrocities (e.g. car bombs) than to mass actions.

3. Innocent victims of criminal actions

It is of the utmost importance that publicity should be given to the victims of violent activities. The “human dimension” is the key factor which must be used to foment sympathy and condemnation…⁴

21 The ideas contained in the memorandum illustrate the official mindset at that time – frequently appropriated by the media and promoted by many who were themselves directly involved in perpetrating gross violations of human rights. The guidelines provide some context for a statement by a mother of one of the seven activists killed in Gugulethu. After the second day of police testimony at the Commission’s hearing on the ‘Gugulethu Seven’, she told Commissioner Mary Burton that she felt much more comforted and reconciled; not, she said, because she was yet feeling forgiveness, but because “people now know that our sons were not criminals, but freedom fighters”.

22 After Mr Jacob Nombiba’s testimony at the human rights violation hearing in Grahamstown on 7 April 1997, the chairperson, the Reverend Bongani Finca, captured this point as follows:

We found that many parents are not aware whether their children died as heroes because at that time you couldn’t go home and tell your parents what you were involved in. You did not want them to expect you to be shot and to be in jail. I think this is one of the important things in this Commission, that old people like you, at last, would find out the truth, the truth about the struggle of their children, because they did not tell them what was happening.

What is important to me is that maybe the Commission will give out a report that will help you to go to your children’s graves, to talk to your children – that you were not aware that they were fighting for their country – so that you can salute them.

23 Mr Richard Steele, a conscientious objector during the apartheid era, confirmed the healing power of decriminalisation at the special hearing on compulsory military service in Cape Town:

On the 25th of February 1980, I was sentenced by a military court in Pretoria to twelve months in military prison for refusing to be conscripted into the SADF. Although that day was scary because I knew that by nightfall I would be in prison, it was also one of the most powerful days in my life. On that day, I publicly and practically said ‘no’ to the whole system of apartheid and military conscription, both of which were anathema to my principles.

I can say that today, the 23rd of July 1997, is one of the most powerful days of my life as well, when I have the opportunity to publicly celebrate my survival through that year in prison and to say ‘yes’ to a society based on truth and reconciliation.