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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 4 of Episode 27
| Time | Summary | | | 35:12 | Weppener lies at the foot of the Jammerberg. The mountain separates this forgotten Free State outpost from its neighbour, Lesotho. It is from this mountain that the town’s Boer hero, Commandant Louw Weppener launched an attack on the Basotho kingdom of Moshoeshoe in the late 1800s. A century on, bravery meant something else. For Jeremiah Matli who was born in a black, hidden part of town, bravery meant using the mountain of his childhood as a route out to join Umkhonto we Sizwe. | Full Transcript and References | | 35:48 | He started as a warder in Angola Quatro, the first official ANC detention centre. After advanced training he went to Lusaka to prepare to re-enter South Africa. // I was amongst the unit which was to conduct military activities here at home. During our stay in Lusaka I got into a [inaudible] and then I was arrested by our security guys. But at the detention centre called RC, instead of being questioned about my behavior as such as to what led to the fight between me and the Zambian, instead I was questioned about the meetings we were attending which were organized by the late comrade Chris Hani. | Full Transcript and References | | 36:51 | Before the arrest he was part of preparing for the historic 1985 Kabwe Conference, which was to develop a code of conduct for all ANC members, including the treatment of detainees. Central to the new code were complaints about the security department, which had become a law unto its own and its infamous detention centre, Quatro or Camp 32. // They would beat me … because they used the ropes here, on this part of the foot, [ankle] then I was hanging upside down. The head was facing down, the feet were up. Then they would beat me under the feet with a thick pin and then they would kick me on the face. I think that’s how I sustained the injury on the jaw. | Full Transcript | | 37:55 | Matli was returned to Angola, widely seen as the dumping ground for ill disciplined or injured cadres, as well as those suspected of being enemy agents. By this time he had fathered two sons with an Angolan woman, Busha whom he was living with. It was a semi-civilian life, dependant on monthly allowances from the ANC. And it was after a fight about one such allowance which he had not received that Matli was detained again. | Full Transcript | | 38:31 | At this centre I was interrogated by comrade Joe Modise’s crew. That’s where I sustained these injuries which I can’t explain till today … my kids usually ask me as to what had happened here. I was handcuffed. Cuffs were here [knees] and others were here. I would eat and do everything under those conditions. That means for three months they kept me there. // How did such a culture develop in the ANC where comrades were torturing comrades? // They knew that the police were looking for us; they were doing this on their own, maybe because they had too much power. So the comrades were, in treating other comrades, knew very well that it was against the policy of the organisation. But then we couldn’t say anything because if you happen to open your mouth then you were in a big problem. So we used to shut up, but we were sure that when we arrive home we’re going to expose these things. | Full Transcript |
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