Special Report Transcript Episode 15, Section 1, Time 00:27

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 past week. In this week’s Special Report we also take you to the killing fields of the KwaZulu-Natal south coast where the ANC and the IFP are still waging war. And, we visit the Karoo, more specifically the sleepy town of Victoria West. But first we go the Amnesty Committee hearings in Durban. February 2 1990: State President FW de Klerk makes his dramatic speech in Parliament, unbanning the liberation movements and the release of Nelson Mandela and his comrades. For the majority of South Africans this meant the beginning of freedom and democracy. To right wing whites it was their worst nightmare come true. ‘Swart gevaar’ and ‘rooi gevaar’ let loose. In June 1990 one of the many mushrooming right wing factions of the time, the Orde Boerevolk, declared war. Their stated strategy was one of assassination of ANC and National Party leaders. They never got that far. But in October 1990 an Orde Boerevolk cell attacked a bus full of black people outside Durban. Seven people died. Three right-wingers were sentenced to death for the murders, a form of punishment since abolished. This week they asked the Truth Commission’s Amnesty Committee to free them from jail. The murders were politically motivated they say Nantie Steyn produced this report.

Notes: Max du Preez