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Little Ntemobo was only four years old when he witnessed the violent murder of his father. He lives with this horror every day. // I’m Dudu Ngcobo. We used to stay in Imbali township, section two. We used to be constantly harassed by the police and on their visit, they asked what the surname of ...

I’ve met up with John earlier this year to try and understand why he did that and how that affected him. I went to visit him in Johannesburg, he still wears camouflaged uniforms, the room where he was living was covered with camouflaged netting, he’s dropped out of society, he’s on drugs, ...

There must be thousands of victims out there who have given their statements and who have given their testimony who want to know what the Truth Commission has in store for them. Would you talk to them for us? // Thank you. I’m grateful to TRC Special Report for this opportunity they are giving us ...

It was during 1986, I was working with my contacts from Botswana and Kenya. One of my contacts by the name of Ata Mabena, he was a person that used to visit in Botswana. One day I met him at a place where we used to meet at the border. He gave me information that he met one ANC member who told him ...

At the University of Pretoria Du Plessis, Grobbelaar and Van Wyk joined the right wing ‘Afrikaner Studentefront.’ // We decided that Mr. Nelson Mandela’s meeting on campus would not go ahead. We decided to disrupt the meeting with violence.

Reference book, pass book, dompas, stinker, different names for the same thing. The hated document that determined the life of every black South African for decades, where they could sleep, live, work, visit and for how long. The main aim of the pass laws was to control the movement of black South ...

Satirists always get away with murder. Well that’s it for this week. The Human Rights Violations Committee will visit de Aar, Colesberg, Hanover and Welkom this coming week. We look forward to your company next Sunday evening. Good night.

The truth and reconciliation process was intended to open up South Africa’s dark and painful past so people could bury their pain and make peace with their fellow citizens. For the last 11 months we have seen that this is a traumatic experience for victims and a very uncomfortable one for those ...

Neither the TRC nor the Special Report has been able to find any cabinet or State Security Council documents relating to this. But what is clear is that to this day neither PW Botha nor the then SADF have told the full story of their involvement in the Seychelles coup attempt. Niel Barnard is now ...

... to attack one of the homesteads nearby. // We started… we hit the door, there was a hew in the door and we used it to hack the door. The door opened and we shot at the people and we also stabbed them with their spears and … One of them died instantly next to the rondavel; that was a person ...

What went on in the minds of ordinary policemen of the previous order who maimed and killed activists like animals? At the Pietermaritzburg Truth Commission hearings this past week we were given some insight into this mindset when three policemen applied for amnesty. We also visit Cradock on ...

Then Bennet Sibaya told his story. With his friend, Mazibuko he was going to visit an old girlfriend in Gugulethu, but he got lost. // I saw these children coming. I thought they had pipes in their hands, however when they were closer I realized that those were not pipes but weapons. They then put ...

In Johannesburg anyone who carried a pass would have had to visit the hated pass law office at 80 Albert Street. Here naked men would have to wait in queues for a medical examination before their passes would be endorsed. Part of this fitness examination was a public inspection of the penis.

The Naidoo’s of Doornfontein have been involved in the struggle for four generations of their family. Their involvement in politics dates as far back as the 1920s. // Our family has actually been involved in struggle for well over a century. My grandfather already in the latter part of the last ...

Two violent actions by ANC guerrillas shook the foundations of white Pretoria in the 1980s. The Silverton bank seize of January 1980 and the massive car bomb in Church street in May 1983. The Truth Commission’s Human Rights Violations Committee focused on these two bloody events in Pretoria this ...

The first segment of this episode reports on PW Botha, who appeared before the George Magistrate this week for refusing to appear before the Truth Commission and on his refusal to apologise later at a press conference. The second segment reports on part two of the special hearings on the MUFC held ...