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| 26:34 | Poet Wallace Seroti called it the ‘dark city.’ Alexandra lies just 13 kilometres from the heart of the city of gold. One of South Africa’s oldest townships it is also one of the most crowded, most impoverished and most violent. But there’s a buzz to this community, a dynamic atmosphere that transcends the squalor. This spirit presently fires up a struggle to improve the quality of life. In the past, it fuelled passionate and organised resistance. When the Truth Commission went to the township this week they heard some of the dark tales of the dark city. | Full Transcript and References |
| 27:11 | In 1912 a mister S. Papenfus divided and sold his farm. The land was too far from the centre of Johannesburg to be desirable to whites so he parcelled it out to black and coloured families. The resulting township was named after his wife, Alexandra Papenfus. Although no one knows the exact figure estimates suggest that today around 350 000 people live on this rectangular shaped one and a half square kilometres of land that slopes down to the banks of the Jukskei river. Alex is a sore thumb, a thorn in the side of the affluent suburbia which surrounds it. A reminder perhaps of the price of privilege. The history of this township since 1912 reflects the history of struggle in South Africa at large. As in the rest of the country, the 1980s in Alexandra saw heightened militancy and organisation from the people and increased chaos and bloodshed inflicted by the state. The death of Isaac Diradingwe was the last straw. Diradingwe’s funeral took place on Saturday the 15th of February, 1986 ...more | Full Transcript and References |
| 28:36 | About four or five people died on that day of the 15th. We then continued to, throughout the night and on the following day on Sunday, there was still street battles in Alexandra between the youth and the police and the army. And then, that was the second day. The third day, on a Monday there was a stay away called in Alexandra to say people should not go to work, because their children are being killed by the police and the army. | Full Transcript and References |
| 29:06 | The way they killed my son, hitting him against a wall and we found him with a swollen head. They killed him in a tragic manner and I don’t think I’ll ever forgive in this case, especially if it is police who were involved and who were there. // At that time Ruben got a chance to go to the funeral and I told him to eat because he did not eat that day. I went to the room to sleep, but I decided to make a tea first. Before I pour this tea three boys came in and they told me Ruben has been shot. // I don’t think of anything if ever I was to be employed as a maid I was going to poison the white man’s children. | Full Transcript and References |
| 30:03 | After the six days war, then people said we no longer want the police in Alexandra. And there was a campaign launched, very peaceful one, to say we shall not be socializing with the police. And by socializing there were specifics: those who were in love, or fall in love with the police were told to terminate those relations; not to drink in the shebeens in Alexandra; not to buy in any shops; not to be socialized with, whenever police come in to an area, people will walk out, and not be greeted. It was one of the most successful campaigns and I think that could have aggrieved them. | Full Transcript |
| 30:42 | The six day war expelled the police from Alex. Black policemen were seen as siding with the oppressor, and they were no longer welcome in the community. Comrades and people’s courts took over the keeping of law and order. // But in April the police came back to wreak havoc. // | Full Transcript |
| 31:01 | Eight people were killed on that night and amongst them our youth leaders and some civic member leaders were killed by that group. So they knew who they were taking. // Linda Twala had a lucky escape that night. I survived to testify to police callousness and brutality. | Full Transcript and References |
| 31:22 | They made me a target because of my involvement then with the UDF and COSAS. Because they used to hold meetings right here at my premises. And then as they were holding meetings here my phones were tapped and we had of course informers then, who used to tell them about the whole movement, what was happening. The police were well informed, and then they came here and bombed my house, destroyed everything. | Full Transcript |
| 31:57 | But they failed to destroy his spirit. Nor that of one of his daughters. // She happened to be here, and she always said dad I’m going to make sure that I get educated so that one day I can be a judge and sentence PW Botha to death. | Full Transcript |
| 32:15 | Political violence continued in Alex up to the 1990s when it was replaced by criminal violence, an expression of the anger of the have-nots. While the Truth Commission sifted through the debris of the past, signs of the urgent needs of the present were unavoidable. | Full Transcript |
| 32:35 | If Alexandra can be a presidential project I think it will be a best befitting honour to the people of Alexandra. We have carried the flag of freedom since 1912 when Alexander came in to being. | Full Transcript |
| 32:50 | The hardships suffered by women in the resistance to apartheid seldom reached the headlines. But the life story of Irene March is a monument to the great sacrifices made by the people of Alexandra since the upheavals of 1986. With the dawn of every decade the life of yet another of her sons was claimed. She has lost three of her four sons. First, was 16 year old Phillip who was shot by police during the 1976 school uprisings. // It was very queer that Phillip did not die instantly. He survived for the 18th, 19th and he died on the 20th. What happened, Phillip said no I was shot by Boers. Why? No, don’t you worry their time will come. | Full Transcript and References |
| 33:41 | In 1983 Irene’s second son, David was picked up by police at his work and has never been heard of since. // Can you imagine every time when the child asks, where’s my daddy? If you were in my boots, what would have happened? How would you tell him? Let’s divert this thing, me being you, you being me. If your son was abducted, leaving a small boy like this one. What would you say? | Full Transcript |
| 34:14 | And then exactly ten years after her second son’s death and on the very anniversary of the death of her first son, Irene’s third son, Joey was killed by an IFP gunman in his backyard. // When somebody in the yard came and called us that, please come and see a miracle here outside. What miracle? Come, please. I see somebody like Joey lie down here. And for sure, when we went there we found that brains have scattered all over. He died. If Phillip was shot on the 18th, it was on Friday, in June 1976; Joey was shot on a Friday, on the 18th, in June. Unforgettable. You can’t forget so easy. Really, even if the TRC says, forgive and forget. Yes, you can forgive put you can’t forget. | Full Transcript |
| 35:20 | Irene March has accepted the deaths of her two sons, but it is the mysterious disappearance of David that will not leave her. That haunts her as much today as it did 13 years ago. // Sometimes weekends I go to church if I like. Sometimes I just go to the meetings to be with other women. Also, I’m one person who likes jokes and I can make them. So, sometimes when I’m with people such a thing goes away. Let them come and just give me my son’s grave number, or just show me where they threw my son. And those people I want to see them face to face. We’ve got to sign a deal, myself and them that if really they have killed my son I want them to adopt his son. I want them to adopt Phillip. By taking him to college, educating him, until to what standard he wants to be. They must adopt him whilst living with me. They must maintain him by taking him to school. That’s my most worry. | Full Transcript |
