| Time | Summary | |
| 00:45 | Brian Mitchell is currently serving the fifth year of a thirty year jail sentence. The only way out for him is amnesty. When he submitted his application in Pietermaritzburg this week he didn’t deny his guilt, instead he explained how the eleven murders he was convicted for were committed with a political motive. The police, he said, made him into a murderer and arsonist and then used him in the battle to win every inch of Natal for Inkatha. | Full Transcript and References |
| 01:15 | On the second of December 1988, 11 Inkatha supporters attending a night vigil were shot dead in Trust Feed, Natal. The victims were mostly women and children. Local police made no progress in finding the killers. Then Frank Dutton of the Investigations task unit got involved. Dutton nailed seven policemen including none other than the new police station commander, Captain Brian Mitchell. In 1992 Justice Andrew Wilson was the man who sentenced Mitchell to death. This week it was Judge Wilson’s task to consider setting him free. How did a policeman charged with the task of protecting this village end up charged with the murder of 11 of its residents. Up to 1988 Brian Mitchell’s story is the story of hundreds of young white South African men. He joined the police force when he was just 18 years old. During his training in 1976 he was attached to a riot unit in Soweto. Later he spent time at Milierskop, a police counterinsurgency base, and in 1982 he was called upon to use that ...more | Full Transcript |
| 02:47 | Just as many young black men from South Africa fled during the 1976 period and who were eventually trained as ANC terrorists, as I and many others then saw it, so my life took on a parallel whereby I was trained in counterinsurgency tactics and counterrevolutionary measures to stop the eventual onslaught. We were led to believe that Nelson Mandela was portrayed as being a monster, a communist and a violent man. | Full Transcript |
| 03:21 | Mitchell arrived in Pietermaritzburg in 1987. He was evidently good at his job because before long he was promoted to station commander at New Hanover. Here, Mitchell served on the local Joint Management Committee. This was a structure of the total strategy, PW Botha’s brainchild to counter the ‘total onslaught’ from the UDF unions and the ANC itself. Trust Feed was one of the villages that fell under Brian Mitchell’s command. | Full Transcript |
| 03:50 | On your arrival at New Hanover there had not been any unrest. // Yes sir that is quite correct. | Full Transcript |
| 04:01 | In the rest of South Africa the police were only just holding the line against an increasingly ungovernable populous. The minister of law and order, Adriaan Vlok took the decision to supplement the police with an auxiliary force of kitskonstabels. These special constables were recruited from the black population, trained, armed and put back in their communities to be used as an auxiliary or third force. | Full Transcript and References |
| 04:26 | They were deployed in the flash points or the unrest areas where the violence was… // And to what would they have been attached? What unit or what section? The special constables. // To the riot unit. | Full Transcript |
| 04:41 | Captain Deon Terreblanche was commander of the riot unit at Hammarsdale. Along with Mitchell and the Joint Management Committee he used these special constables to drive a lethal wedge between UDF and Inkatha supporters in Trust Feed. | Full Transcript |
| 04:55 | It was just I think the driving force behind the motives of the security establishment, was to drive the opponents, the UDF – the stronger side – out of Trust Feed, so that it is left within the hands of say in this case Inkatha. That it becomes a no go area and they can within themselves exist. | Full Transcript |
| 05:26 | Towards the end of 1988 Mitchell and Terreblanche attended a meeting with Inkatha leaders including David Ntombela where it was decided to launch an operation that would clear and hold the Trust Feed area for Inkatha. | Full Transcript |
| 05:42 | It was an operation that was done by myself entirely in cooperation with the riots unit. There were two operations. There was the cleanup operation before four in the morning and then that evening it was four special constables and myself. // Who gave you the instruction to kill? Was that Major Terreblanche? // Yes the orders came from him that these comrades must be taken out. The whole operation went wrong, where the wrong people became victims. | Full Transcript |
| 06:21 | The killers mistook a night vigil at an Inkatha household for the UDF gathering they were supposed to attack. Relatives of the dead wept as Mitchell told how he dropped the armed men off, waited while they executed the attack and finally how he gave the instructions for the burning of another UDF activist’s house. Next morning Mitchell helped to clean up evidence that would point to the police. But in the end the cover up was exposed and Mitchell’s own life was in ruins. | Full Transcript |
| 06:55 | I lost everything in life. I have subsequently been divorced. // Tell us Mr. Mitchell when last have you seen your son? Was it several years ago that you last saw him? | Full Transcript |
| 07:30 | Although we were not allowed to film an interview I did manage to talk to Brian Mitchell and during a conversation that lasted almost an hour I felt that I had glimpsed a sincerely changed human being behind the face of this mass killer, a man who eight years ago had little or no regard for life and for black lives in particular. A stint on death row and five years in jail has clearly given him time to reflect on what put him there. As I was leaving he explained how he has come to understand that you reap what you sow and he told me that for the last five years he has been reaping what he sowed at Trust Feed. From now on he said he wants to sow only good things in the hope that one day he may reap good. | Full Transcript |
| 08:16 | Mister Mitchell, are you now desirous of making amends? // Yes I am. Although it may be impossible to do it, but I am desirous of that. // You’ve become a Christian and understand the value of forgiveness. Will you let us have your thoughts on that? // Yes I understand that forgiveness does not come cheaply, it’s something that comes deeply from the heart and I can just ask the people that were involved directly or indirectly and who have been affected by this case to consider forgiving me. | Full Transcript |
| 09:04 | The community of Trust Feed has also requested me to advise the Amnesty Committee that they will try to forgive Mr. Brian Mitchell if he becomes actively involved in the reconstruction of the community that he was responsible for destroying. | Full Transcript |
| 09:25 | While their lawyer was clear cut the victims themselves still had reservations. This process is clearly hard to swallow. | Full Transcript |
| 09:34 | People don’t have houses. People must get houses, they must get back their houses; they must get compensation. Then that would be an indication that something is being done and I think maybe, maybe in the long run people will forgive and forget. | Full Transcript |
| 09:50 | While the future of Trust Feed and the fate of Brian Mitchell still hang in the balance the message from this week’s amnesty hearing was a powerful one. | Full Transcript |
| 10:04 | It is important to know our past in order that we can move into the future. It is important that we who fought on the side of the government should come forward and tell what happened. It is also important for those in the previous government to stand up, accept responsibility and to come forward. | Full Transcript |
