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NAUDE, BeyersAge Description In the first segment of this episode theologians Beyers Naude and Sach Mokgoeba, Anglican priest Michael Lapsley, Deputy Minister of Education Fr. Smangaliso Mkatshwa, political philosopher Andre du Toit, as well as security police amnesty applicants Paul van Vuuren and Wouter Mentz respond to the ... I believe that hundreds and thousands of Afrikaners who supported the system never saw it to be evil; they saw it to be a good, well intentioned system. I was a member of the Afrikaner Broederbond from 1940 until 1963 and I’ve got to be in all fairness and honesty, I’ve got to say I regarded it as a tremendous privilege, I regarded it as, yes let me say ‘a calling of God,’ a mission to promote the cause of the Afrikaner people. As you were able to get in contact with the victims, especially in the black community, then you began to realize and look at it from their perspective, then you began to realize, yes this system was evil. There were the parallel of the ‘purity of race,’ which we had also, the white race to be pure. There was the parallel of the divine mandate that was given to you, that you believed you had, in order to implement actions and programmes and projects which could maim, gas, kill people without any compulsion of conscience. We had the same one. ‘Day three Wednesday 26 November 1997’ // Madikizela-Mandela appeared relaxed and confident when she arrived at the hearing on Wednesday morning. She greeted old comrades warmly and seemed determined to show the world that there were no hard feelings between herself and Truth Commission ... Apartheid to my mind was evil and the more we became to know about it the more we should realize that it was unacceptable, it was inhuman, it was in every respect a degradation of one’s own humanity and of the image of God, of the living God. Those of us who were Christians believe that. And it’s important to accept that because then you avoid arrogance, you remain humble, because then you realize that nobody has the full insight of the truth and that’s the only way in which we could continue to accept one another and walk together in a new future. I do not believe that Dr Hendrik Verwoerd ever saw that and wanted to see this as a policy of extermination, it is simply not true and I do not believe that many others in the nationalist party, that they ever would subscribe to that. Evil is the power to subvert everything which is good and moral in the life of a human being. It is a force inside the human being which brings you to do what normally you would not wish to do. There was never the intention to exterminate, to kill the black community. All of us have the capacity to be evil, because these powers are latent in every human being but we also, I believe, have the capacity to be good. The more and more he began to implement what happened, the more and more he became also a prisoner of a system which eventually destroyed not only the Afrikaner people but also destroyed the humanity of the lives of many such people. It’s again the deep conviction on the part of the Afrikaner people. You have to do your duty, especially to those in authority. You hear, you listen, you obey and you’re not critical enough to ask the question. But why do I necessarily need to obey? The forces of evil are always present in the hearts and minds of all human beings of all political persuasions on whatever side of the liberation struggle that you fight and that you sustain. And we must all accept that. They were fellow Afrikaners, part of my people. I knew many of them. And I have asked myself, was it possible, how is it possible that they could have done what they did and that some of them seemingly could have enjoyed what they did. Were they so deeply impregnated by this ideological concept of ... special crisis committee consisting of Cyril Ramaphosa, Murphy Morobe, Sister Bernard Ncube, Sydney Mufumadi, Abri Mokoena, Frank Chikane and Beyers ... And then members of the now defunct Mandela Crisis Committee, Frank Chikane, Sydney Mufamadi, Aubrey Makoena, Beyers Naude and sister Barnard Ncube, all prominent veterans of the struggle told the Truth Commission that they had failed in their attempts to end the reign of terror of Madikizela’s ... |
