MKHIZE, (the family)

Mkhize, who met her husband at a student rally and started a family while still at university longs for the day when she will be able to devote most of her time to her family. That day will come she says, after she’s completed her work on the TRC.

Well I’m looking forward to a time when I can have a real, normal life. You know when we were working towards the elections in 1994 I used to say to myself I will spend quality time with my family and get to really relate intimately and enjoy life so to say. But it’s like things got worse ...

the SADF. The episode ends with a segment on allegations of racial tension within the TRC that includes interviews with Truth Commissioners Hlengiwe Mkhize, Alex Boraine and Dumisa ...

... kept by the state and security forces and a profile of Truth Commissioner and chairperson of the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee Hlengiwe Mkhize. A segment on the poisoning of activists includes interviews with Frank Chikane and with Dr Francis Aims, who diagnosed Siphiwo Mtimkulu with ...

... The Special Report team speaks to some of the first victims who gave testimony at the HRV hearings and to Truth Commissioners Hlengiwe Mkhize and Dr. Wendy Orr speak about the recommendations recently delivered to government by the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee. In the ...

... we should know that we have stabbed ourselves with our own spear and he said we have to answer to our grandchildren. // How would you characterize the training that you received? // Under ‘offensive,’ because we were taught a lot about attacking. We were doing things like house penetration, ...

If people are assisted financially over time with counselling and guidance it gives them an opportunity to improve their lot so to say, in a variety of ways. But I mean as I’ve said to you really we are there as advocates for victims. At the end of the day the government of the day has got to ...

Truth Commissioner Hlengiwe Mkhize

Truth Commissioner Hlengiwe Mkhize still sees herself as the serious young girl from Soweto who went to the University of Zululand in 1973, deeply committed to the struggle for equal rights for all South Africans. Despite her training as a clinical psychologist and years of lecturing on the ...

During the coming weeks we’ll be taking a behind the scenes look at some of the people who drive the truth and reconciliation process. Tonight we meet one of the 17 commissioners, Hlengiwe Mkhize at her home near Johannesburg.

I sat there imagining the helplessness they must have gone through in a dark village, and you are surrounded by the police, the lack of protection, the fear, the intimidation. I then started saying, look it’s like we didn’t know what was happening in the country. But I’m pleased that some of ...

In May this year the many months of hearings and committee meetings finally took their toll. // I remember after the political party hearings, we worked in Cape Town for the whole week, sort of day and night almost. Sitting overnight looking at what people are saying. With each statement you’ll ...

We are looking for measures which will restore people’s dignity which has been lost. We felt, we are looking for measures which will somehow assist people to more or less be able to live a life they would have lived was it not for the violation.

What we are really looking at is to make sure that we plant a seed. We know what is the goal of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It’s basically to establish partly a culture of human rights, to promote national healing and reconciliation. So obviously if you give people handouts, ...

Please get a helicopter, I don’t care how you do it, but please charter one. We have got to fly above the valleys, above the valley of death to see what’s happening. The cops say they are scared. At 01:15 we fly from Oribi Airport in a light plane. We are above 1000 feet above the burning ...

I really find it difficult … that kind of reasoning, just to say to people, are there racial tensions, as though you expect me to put a red carrot here and say oh this is a green one. I really find it simplistic and naïve, if I may put it strongly that way. I’m not a spokesperson for the TRC, ...

I was going to see my relatives, because I didn’t see them since I was young. Now I went with Mr. Motasi, because we are together, we are friends. I ask him to accompany me to go there so that I can know my history. // He was laughing and he was spinning his gun like this and he said. You see, ...

At a media conference in Cape Town on Thursday the TRC finally announced its R&R policy publicly. They’ve come up with a figure of R3 billion, based on a projection of 22 000 eligible victims. // First to make sure that those things do not happen again…

Gcina Mkhize was one of the young, angry Inkatha supporters who volunteered for training. He told the Commission the trainees were welcomed by white South African soldiers when they arrived at the secret Caprivi base after a clandestine flight.

... its final recommendations which were presented to the government last week. In an interview on Wednesday this week, TRC Commissioner Hlengiwe Mkhize said she hope the government will address the compensation of victims as a matter of urgency. ...