Special Report Transcript Episode 40, Section 3, Time 10:59

We have nothing to do with this quarrel between politicians, but we at the Truth Commission Special Report have the duty to say to Mr. De Klerk, we are not saying you killed anybody or that you ordered any assassinations. But why does Mr. De Klerk and his former colleagues shy away from taking responsibility for these violations? Why do they keep on telling us they had no idea that this type of thing was going on? If we as citizens, and we as journalists knew who were doing the killing and we wrote about it then how could the political bosses of the killers not have known? I want to remind Mr. De Klerk of what he’d told me in an interview on the 3rd of February 1994. // I see in your manifesto and I quote you what you just said. ‘The National Party does not kill people. The National Party does not threaten people.’ And again, I’m sure the relatives of Steve Biko and Dulcie September and David Webster and Anton Lubowski would want me to ask you. When did you change your mind? When did you stop doing that? // Well firstly, in some of the instances you are referring to, accusations made where no proof exists. If at any time, in the past and now and in the future, security forces are involved in breaking the law, it’s wrong. And I have, without fear, fearlessly ordered full investigation. Where there’s evidence we will prosecute. But the National Party of today... // And the CCB, we had evidence. We had a Commission, we had evidence? // Yes, and we had one of the best judges and one of the best prosecutors and they couldn’t uncover evidence which led really to prosecution, because people in as much as they were guilty apparently covered their tracks so well that no evidence could be obtained. And we live in a civilized country. You cannot charge a man without evidence. We cannot go back to the law of the jungle, because of rumours, because of even well-founded suspicions. But without evidence in a civilized country where you say we adhere to the way of law you wait until you get evidence. // Who killed all these people? // But yes, obviously many people, many people including I, would like to get the real facts.

Notes: Max du Preez; Agenda, 3 February 1994; FW de Klerk

References: there are no references for this transcript