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Content
A listing of transcripts of the dialogue and narrative of this section.
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Structure
The list provides the transcript, info about the text, and links to references contained in the text.
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Special Report
Transcripts for Section 5 of Episode 21
| Time | Summary | | | 27:38 | At the end of the testimony on Duncan Village Truth Commissioner Bongani Finca insisted that those who treated victims of the massacre appear before the Truth Commission. We’ve all heard of the shameful role doctors have played in the deaths of activists like Steve Biko. But it is only now as the Truth Commission hears the stories of ordinary people that the full scale of medical complicity becomes clear. Abuse of human rights was not confined to those in uniform. Many doctors and health workers were part of the system of state abuse. Some, simply because they kept quiet. Doctors or nurses have not yet come before the Commission to give a view of what went wrong. This could soon change. Gail Reagon reports. | Full Transcript | | 28:24 | On each day of the war in Duncan Village there are new casualties. They land up at Frere Hospital where most find themselves victims again. They are under constant army guard, soldiers have access to their medical files; sometimes they get the wrong medical treatment. Noretsi Joyce Wili loses her 16 month old child Goodboy Wili after teargas canisters had been thrown into her shack. | Full Transcript and References | | 28:50 | We took him to the hospital. I explained the whole incident. The doctor examined him. He gave him some cough mixtures. We went back home. // You went back home with the baby? // We went back home but that night we couldn’t sleep because he was coughing. I had to take him back again to the Frere Hospital. He was still alive in the morning, on that Wednesday. It was seven o’clock. Twelve o’clock mid day I went there again. I was told that he died later that afternoon. | Full Transcript | | 29:43 | If there’s anyone out there who are, including our members, who either have knowledge of situations like this or were involved in it then they should report that to the Truth Commission. // Mxolisi Mbewana lost an eye after being shot. During his five weeks at the hospital soldiers are regular visitors. // They used to come to the hospital in the presence of the nurses and doctors. // So do you think there was a certain connection between the nurses and the soldiers? // I think the nurses were scared of the soldiers also. They were just asking people concerning their injuries whether they got injured at Duncan Village or wherever. But I didn’t tell them, because all the people who were there were under the guard of the soldiers and after that person had recovered, that particular person would be taken by the soldiers. | Full Transcript and References | | 30:43 | As a doctor I take an oath when I qualify. And the oath relates to confidentiality. Now, if you come and see me as a patient, client, whatever you want to call yourself and you tell me intimate details of your political activity, or shooting that took place, whatever, is it my responsibility then to go and speak to another person without asking your permission? And there were many examples where we just broke this basic oath for whatever reason. And I think that is a clear example of complicity. | Full Transcript | | 31:30 | What did happen? That’s what we don’t really know. What are the sorts of circumstances that’s conducive to human rights violations? What makes a doctor get sucked into the system in such a manner that he finds himself either complicit or actually directly involved in some sort of human rights violation? | Full Transcript | | 31:50 | It seems like the majority of health professionals either by omission or commission became part of a process of oppression in this country. And that’s to me, at the end of the day that’s what needs to come out in any submission that takes place. I know that a number of bodies have changed, are changing, have made apologies. But in order for us to cleanse ourselves completely we need to look at that period much more closely as professionals. | Full Transcript |
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