Special Report Transcript Episode 69, Section 1, Time 00:29

Hello. Thanks for joining this week’s in-depth look at the truth and reconciliation process. This past week we struggled a bit with both legs of the process. Extracting the truth was slow and rather painful and the role players did not exactly bubble with the spirit of reconciliation, but it was an important and interesting week because the spotlight fell on all the men who carried arms and wore uniforms in our past, the frontline of the conflict. At a special hearing in Cape Town the Truth Commission heard submissions from and asked penetrating questions to the former South African Police, the South African Defence Force, the Azanian People’s Liberation Army and Umkhonto we Sizwe. The Azanian People’s Liberation Army or APLA was the armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress. APLA has been operating for decades, but it really only became well known in 1992 and 1993 when it launched a large number of attacks on white civilian targets, isolated farms in areas bordering Lesotho, the St James Church and Heidelberg tavern in Cape Town and the golf club in King Williamstown. It also had a controversial repossession unit, which raided banks and other institutions to finance their struggle. APLA’s hard military men clearly did not enjoy being questioned by the Truth Commission.

Notes: Max du Preez