Special Report Transcript Episode 54, Section 2, Time 03:19

The Commission sat in noisy cities and quiet dorpies. They sat in big imposing town halls and dingy schools and churches, from Messina in the north to Cape Town in the south and from everywhere the victims came. Some were dignified, silver haired elders, others impassioned young lions. Sometimes they were even small, little lions. The stories were of torture and abduction, rumours that became reality. // ‘This is Siphiwo’s hair, this is the scalp’ // They spoke about massacres and wars; they spoke about death of a single child and about the killing of whole families. // ‘I heard their voices, no one screamed twice, each one screamed just once then I’d hear the next one and another one until they finished them all.’ // There were those who wept about loved ones who disappeared without a trace. // ‘They must give him back to me even if it is just the bones so that I can bury him.’ // There were those who saw loved ones return // as corpses. // ‘And just to see that he has grown into manhood, I mean he was still very young, but to see my little brother that has grown into a beautiful strong built young man, that really made me strong.’ // And then there were those who felt their own guilt like a knife. // I heard all the time. And even now, although this time I’m also asking the same question, who sold me to the police, who sold me to the police? Anton died with that question on his mouth. // A common thread was that everywhere the extent of the horror was more than anyone had ever suspected. Even the smallest village had its casualties. The process was not easy; often the truth was frightening. As the process gained momentum victims sometimes came face to face with perpetrators and the grim reality of what they did. Few remained untouched as the floodgates of emotion were wedged open. // ‘It is 25 years now and yet I will not forget what happened. I ask the Almighty that I will not forget what happened and that I need to know.’ // ‘They left 12 month old Phoenix traumatized and alone with her dead mother in their home spattered with blood all over the place. It was disgusting, brutal, deceitful, treacherous, coldblooded murder.’ // ‘Pieces of human brains was scattered around. That was the end of Bheki. // ‘I think it was the seventh day, I was very hungry. I had no food. They left me in that small room, here at … So, I just crawled into the toilet and drink from the toilet sink.’ // ‘When we went to another corner in the room in the shelving, we looked on the floor and we saw my son lying in one corner.’

Notes: Siphiwo Mtimkulu; Elizabeth Mtimkulu (Son killed by security police); Nomuso Shandu (Family killed by ANC in KZN); Francina Bopape (Son abducted); Michelle Assure (Brother killed by Police); Yazir Henry (Tortured by Police for information) ; Women break down. ; Tutu breaks down; Hawa Timol (Son killed in detention); Patricia Quinn (Sister killed in Lesotho raid); Seipati Mlangeni (Husband killed by parcel bomb); Reuben Maliba (Tortured); John Diyane Finye (Son killed by vigilantes)

References: there are no references for this transcript