| Time | Summary | |
| 06:33 | The Truth Commission went to the Karoo this week and visited Hanover, de Aar and Colesberg. The Karoo is a relentless landscape. Dotted across this vast sheep farming area lie a few small towns and townships. During the eighties the dark cloud of political violence, that cast its shadow over the rest of the country, also descended on the Karoo. 1985 was a particularly bad year. The Truth Commission this year heard of police shootings, detentions and torture. They also heard of court cases in which those responsible were never found guilty. In this tense atmosphere harsh punishment was meted out to those seeing to be collaborating with the security forces. In the Karoo, black policemen, councillors and informers were isolated and banished from townships. Some of them were burned, stabbed and stoned. | Full Transcript and References |
| 07:28 | On a Saturday afternoon in 1985, a few days before Christmas, a placid Karoo town was turned into a nightmare. The major conflict in Philipstown was between UDF supporters and community councillors and policemen. What started as a war of words between a local resident, Sophie Jantje and a municipal policeman Simon Silingo Tshemeshe ended in two deaths. Sophie was shot and killed by Simon. Revenge was swift. His father, Bhokwe GeelboyTshemeshe was burned to death that same day. Members of both families appeared before the Commission. Naphthael Tshemeshe, Silingo’s younger brother saw the tragic drama unfold. | Full Transcript and References |
| 08:19 | People then came. The others were throwing stones. We tried to take everybody inside, because we realized we’re being attacked. Simon shot twice in the air. As we were trying to get into the house, Simon Tshemeshe was standing at the door. He took his gun and shot the late Sophie. // She had four wounds in her body. One at the centre of her chest, beneath her breasts, the other on her buttocks, the biggest hole ever was on her forehead. | Full Transcript |
| 09:13 | On Sunday morning Elsie had just returned from hospital when she was arrested. // No one gave me the time of day; no one gave me the respect. No one informed me why it was that I was being arrested. I did not know what was happening, I am the one who was in pain but still they arrested me. My daughter had been shot. I was detained up to the time when my daughter died. The only time I was released is when I went to bury my child. | Full Transcript |
| 09:58 | As I went closer I thought that it was my brother who was being burned, but it was my father. He was terribly burnt. // Yes it was very sad for me. It’s a very sad story. I was the last person to see my father, who tried to put out the fire with sand. And it touched me. I loved my father very much. | Full Transcript |
| 10:42 | Sophie’s brother, Nelson Sinxoshe was sentenced to 35 years for Geelboy Tshemeshe’s death. // I just got out because we got indemnity. I would still be in prison now, all because of lies. These people, the perpetrators, they are alive. What are you doing about them? My life is ruined. What are you doing about them? They were not even jailed. I could not even go to my sister’s funeral. I was in detention. They were trying to cover up their filth, together with their magistrate and their judge. I was used as a scapegoat to cover up their filth. They wanted to save the man who had shot my sister. Who is guilty? Who is guilty? | Full Transcript and References |
| 11:58 | If I were guilty then I would have been in prison, but I know precisely that I was not guilty. That is why I never went to prison. That is a fact. I mean the problem came to us. Neither I nor my family went to look for it. It came to us. The attack was on our house. Now what could I do? I had to defend myself and my family. | Full Transcript |
| 12:32 | In 1985 the tiny township of Kwesi in Hanover erupted into a war between the black local authority and the comrades. The councillors were branded traitors and the comrades wanted them out of the township. Towards the end of the year tension in the township had reached boiling point and the councillors fled the township with their families. They lived in army tents on this piece of ground between the town and the township. The collection of tents became known as ‘Ezitenteni’ and was under constant police guard. For the inhabitants the township had become a no-go zone. But then on Christmas eve 1985 Tomazile Nkumbi decided to fetch some belongings from his wife’s house in the township. His brother William was with him. When the comrades spotted them in the township the police escort had already left. // And then we started to run, come to this direction and then mister Booysen come to our direction and he throw him and Tomazile was running on the left hand side and throwing me on ...more | Full Transcript and References |
| 14:20 | William Nkumbi insists that they would have managed to run away from the comrades had it not been for that first stone that tripped his brother, a stone he insists was thrown by Samson Booysen. // I can’t say who killed him because that day it was the comrades who were there in his house till this place here. They say that now, the only person I saw throwing is mister Booysen. And I saw it in my deepest heart and really I was really shocked because I took him as my brother, we grow up and going to the same church. | Full Transcript |
| 15:00 | Samson Booysen was one of four people sentenced to death for the murder. They spent two years on death row before being released as political prisoners in 1992. Today he is the mayor of Hanover, but he still insists that mister Nkumbi falsely identified him and that he was sentenced to death for something he did not do. // Say that let us forget what happening. I say no, you must forget, because we have nothing, especially I myself, I’ve done nothing. My hands are not full of blood. That’s why the community of Hanover elected my as mayor of Hanover, because they knew me and they knew that I wasn’t there in that time. | Full Transcript |
| 15:47 | The accused were sentenced to 18, 17 years but today they are outside and only God will answer. I just want to know why did they kill my brother. // The deep rifts between mister Nkumbi and the man sentenced for killing his brother reflect the rifts within the community of Kwesi. Both of them are grappling with ways to reconcile with each other while at the same time sticking to their versions of what happened on that day. But here on the spot where Tomazile Nkumbi was killed these two men this week took the first step towards understanding the past. // Our fathers were working in the same place, on the Hanover … station. We grow as brothers. What happened, we must forget it. I can accept what happened in that time, 1985. // I hope that one day the one who had threw or struck for the deceased, Tomazile Nkumbi will come up one day so that we can shake more hands with mister Nkumbi. | Full Transcript |
