| Time | Summary | |
| 01:59 | The story of the Upington 26 is one of murder committed in the frenzy of political upheaval. But it is also a lesson in the horror of the death penalty. Although the accused in the Upington 26 murder trial was saved from the gallows, the death row experienced left deep scars on the entire community. It was here that a local policeman Lucas Jacob Sethwala was killed and set alight. Earlier on this day a crowd gathered outside the house of his mother Beatrice Sethwala. | Full Transcript and References |
| 02:34 | They were throwing stones, they were shouting, they were singing freedom songs. [When we climb onto the house of the informer, my mother is very happy.] That now is Xhosa ‘mandi kwele phez”kwendlu kapimpi umama uya jabula mangi shaya pimpi’ [when I get onto the informer’s house, my mother is very happy]. | Full Transcript |
| 03:05 | After a while mister Sethwala emerged with a shotgun. He shot into the crowd and injured one person, that further enflamed the crowd. He then fled, mister Sethwala, leaving behind other people in the house who were unharmed. He was pursued by some people and caught in an open field some distance away. He was fatally injured by two blows to his head with his own shotgun. A crowd of some 100 people gathered around his body and he was stabbed and set alight. // It was dark with the crowd as they were running and they ran downwards. A little while later a boy came in the back door and said Aunty Baby they have already killed Jetta and he is lying there burning. | Full Transcript |
| 04:19 | The gruesome murder was the start of a saga that would grip the community of Pabalelo for years to come. 26 people, ranging in ages from 17 to 57 were charged with the murder. 25 were found guilty on the ground of having common purpose with the killers. 14 were sentenced to death. They were on death row for two years before the appeal was heard. Three were acquitted and the others had their sentences commuted to prison terms. Today the Upington 26 are free and some are back in Pabalelo. They carry the horror with them, still claiming their innocence. They are ready neither to forgive nor to forget. | Full Transcript |
| 05:00 | That day of the murder I was busy with other things. I was fighting the police, for what they were doing was shooting people with teargas. // On that day of the happenings I was here at home… // I was not there where the policeman was killed. I don’t know who killed him up to this day. | Full Transcript and References |
| 05:40 | The court however found that these people were on the scene and associated themselves with the killing so strongly that they too were guilty of murder. It is this that the accused find hard to understand. They were simply not killers, they say. Evalina de Bruin said she did not understand that the judge had sentenced them to death. // I saw the people cry. I saw my children and my family crying. But I did not know what the judge was saying. See, this was the saddest thing. My husband didn’t tell me. I asked him there next to me. We were sitting next to each other. I asked him why they were crying. He just shook his head at me. // The court case did not only touch us and our families. Many people, our loved ones, our friends across the country were hurt, because they could not believe that twenty six people could kill one person. And the majority of us in the case were not criminals. // I was just shocked at how I got the death sentence for something I did not do. I was shocked but ...more | Full Transcript |
| 07:27 | What exactly happened that day will remain uncertain. What is certain is that a man was brutally murdered and someone killed him. // Look if only they would tell me it was an accident. It was not our aim. We did not want to kill him. We were just in a condition where we could not control ourselves. Look, one does make excuses. And a life cannot be replaced. When it’s gone it’s gone. And I would probably be satisfied and resign myself. Angels did not come down from heaven and kill and burn him. He was killed by people. And people burned him. // If I killed her child I would say sorry with an open heart. I would say sorry Mama Sethwala. If I apologize, I am guilty. I didn’t kill him, I will not apologize. And Mama Sethwala must count her words. | Full Transcript |
| 08:34 | But one member of the community did apologise. In an emotional moment during the hearings that mostly simmered with pent-up resentment, Reverend Aubrey Beukes apologized to Jetta Sethwala’s mother. // I would like to say to Mrs. Sethwala, the family of Jetta, please forgive us that we allowed you to suffer in silence amidst all the media attention. We were all victims. Forgive us the times that we drove past your house showing journalists and foreign people where Jetta stayed and telling them our stories and not inviting them to make some time to listen to your pain. | Full Transcript |
| 09:25 | During the eighties the common purpose principle was widely used in our courts. Sharpeville, Upington and Delmas saw some of the high profile cases in which people were found guilty of murders they had not actually committed. But what exactly is common purpose? // // Common purpose is a principle in our law in terms of which a group of people who participated in certain actions can be, without actually directly committing a particular crime can be associated or seen to have associated themselves sufficiently strongly with the deed of the perpetrator, that they too can be found guilty of the same crime. Just very briefly, there are two principles or two elements, critical elements, which have to be proved. The one is intent to kill and the other is the actual action. | Full Transcript and References |
| 10:22 | Common purpose was particularly controversial at that time, because the mandatory death sentence for murder was still in place. Death sentences for the members of the Sharpeville Six and the Upington 26 sparked an international outcry. // To apply the principle of common purpose in a case of murder, particularly when one is looking at the death sentence, was really I think completely unacceptable. In principle I believe it was incorrect. People have said, and I would be inclined to agree, that the common purpose principle was almost used as an instrument of oppression. And I think that it will go down in our history as a very serious mark on administration of justice in South Africa. | Full Transcript |
| 11:18 | Those convicted on the basis of common purpose and sent to death row say their lives will never be the same. // The death sentence does not only hurt the person who is to hang. Firstly it hurts your family. It kills you twice, it kills you psychologically. By the time they hang you, you are no longer the same person you once were. It’s just your heart that beats. With strong words I must say I do not agree with the death sentence. It can be any person… I mean this not only for the ANC and for comrades. It can be an AWB man who does something like go and shoot people like Barend Strydom did or any other person. Because I speak from experience. It was not something I read in the papers or heard about. The death sentence is totally wrong. | Full Transcript |
