Special Hearings — Mental Health Workshop — UNKNOWN

PROF SIMPSON: I think it's important in view of the submission that we made that the past betrayals to the people of this country are handled so that when we move forward we can move forward with both eyes facing forward rather than with this baggage hanging on behind us and such as the racist studies that Lawrence Anthony went over and the continued existence of organisations that have contributed in massive ways to the oppression of black people in this country, such as the Smith/Mitchell facilities, I think that these things need to be faced up to and handled before we can one hundred percent move forward.  So we disconnect with the past knowing fully what it was.

MS MKHIZE: Thank you very much.  Zanele while you were out I indicated that yesterday we stopped you and said we'll ask you to make concluding remarks today.  We were trying to review the two processes and looking at ways of merging the two.  Just comment about the process, what it has meant for you and how you think the process should be taken forward.

DR BAQWA: You ...(indistinct) leave it.  When I was having lunch with the two young staffers here actually we were talking about that from their point of view.  They were saying that they have no idea of what's happening around here and they work here and actually people meet them in the street, they don't need big guns and then the people ask them..(end of tape)..under representative and I have felt that from the hearings in June we just felt were definitely dominated by Cape Town University alumnae you know, I mean they came from there, Gordon and the rest and a little bit from the Trauma Centre. I work with them, Lesley, Dr Lesley Gordon and London, why do I say Gordon, I don't know, I think London writes newspapers, writes books, novels, very funny novels.  Anyway I wanted to, I was feeling sad, I was wondering where are those doctors from the oppressed side who have really worked and seen this, not to say the others haven't, where are they, why are thy not here?  And I had actually kept that legal copy in the Star that Dr Dazoo of SASO had commented that the Truth Commission has been disappointing, the hearings don't help, they have been disappointing because he named names like Denise Amzee, like Variava Jura, Variava; these are people that are sort of heros in the struggle that we know, we felt that everything was around Dr Wendy Orr, not that we are very angry, we are jealous children in a family, that this child is the only one that has been given attention.  You know jealousy and conflict in a situation, in a family situation, siblings.  No it's not that to Wendy Orr personally but we felt that's how things are moving and the whole big South Africa was reduced.   I know the TRC couldn't be constrained itself so thin, otherwise then maybe it wouldn't do it's work but we felt the representation of the people who were invited there and who put in submissions was meeting and another thing is that even yesterday if I had not called Dr Simpson and told him what's happening, I think I would have been the only psychiatrist here.  But I'm just not talking in terms of being a psychiatrist, I'm talking in terms of who do you bring on board and it's as if you  are just doing things symbolically which actually probably the whole activity is about, you know; things are just going to be there and not go any deeper.  So what I'd really ask of you as the TRC itself is to evaluate yourself.  I don't know if you are doing it as you go, I know you are pressured but do you sit and sort of what we call at home, quality assurance, do you do that with yourself, do you check to see are you going the right way?  And it's not just complaints in the sense, it's a need that you are truthful to what you are about. Somebody said that you might become a farce to yourselves in the factor that you're allowing the Dr Benziens to come around and say they are suffering from PTSD because of this and that.  It's too open and yet too - too open and sort of in the understanding and in the reconciliation ambit and at the same time a bit unprofessional, a bit limited.  But I'm very very honoured to be part and parcel of it, that's what I want to say.

MS MKHIZE: Thank you very much, we will continue taking comments about the process. Zanele has made some comments about what happened in the past and linking it with what she has picked up here. Can people continue making comments about the process, even the subject matter that we have dealt with.  Dr Cooper?

DR COOPER: Yes I think that what's very important is how significant institutions and organisations representing the health sector, both statutory and non-statutory voluntary associations are under-represented in this forum.  I'm given to understand by Tulani Grey that all the stakeholders were invited but it's an indictment on the health sector, more specifically on the mental health sector that so few direct service-delivery agencies are hear.  1, the Medical and Dental Council is not here.  Fair enough I'm here representing the Professional Board for Psychology, there is the Psychological Society here, there are citizens organisations, the Citizens Committee for Human Rights, there are individual NGO's like the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation and so on, there are other colleagues here as well from Universities and other settings, but it's very significant that this is not reflective of the mental health service area and the question then has to arise; are these people true to what they said in the original submissions about how they tended to be blind to some of the gross human violations; your June session, were they doing it merely to pass muster and get over something that's a little trying now, let's get over and move on?  And I think this workshop is intended to crystallise views forward so it goes beyond the blaming to create understanding about the issues that we need to focus on for the future, so that we don't return to the past and I repeat, it is an indictment that many of these agencies are not here, because it says that they're not interested in creating a new mental health and other health delivery system that truly meets our emerging nation.

MS MKHIZE: We will continue inviting comments about the process and the content and after that we will move towards closing the session.