Special Hearings — Political Party Recalls — 1997-05-16

CHAIRPERSON: Good morning, can we please stand.
THE HEARING IS OPENED WITH A PRAYER

CHAIRPERSON: Please be seated.
 Good morning.  As you know we welcome you all heartily here this morning.  Mostly we would like to say welcome and express our appreciation to General Constand Viljoen and those who have accompanied him here today, for coming and we welcome you very warmly.  
 We look forward to the interaction between ourselves and yourself and your party because we believe that you have an important contribution to make to the process in which we are engaged of uncovering the truth about our past and seeking to work for the healing of our traumatised alienated, separated, wounded people.
 I believe you will be wanting to present your submission to us.  Thank you very much. I will ask everyone whether you are all going to testify or whether you will be the only one testifying.

GEN VILJOEN: I will be the only who will be doing the submission, but I'm sure that the other members would like to assist me in answering questions.

CHAIRPERSON: So all four of you are then going to testify? And possibly all of you are going to answer questions.  So may I ask that all four of you -  Could you please introduce your people General?

GEN VILJOEN: I am General Viljoen leader of the Freedom Front and on my left is Advocate Rosier De Ville, he is a member of the National Council of Provinces.  On my right is Dr Corne Mulder, who is a member of the National Assembly representing the Freedom Front and he to his right is Lt Tienie Groenewald, a member of the National Council of Provinces and also of the Freedom Front.

DR DU TOIT: General since all of you are probably going to participate in the proceedings and you have already placed your names on records, I am going to administer the oath to all of you and then you could all affirm.  Perhaps I could ask your colleagues to stand. I assume that you have no objection to the taking of the prescribed oath.
ALL REPRESENTATIVES TAKE THE OATH

CHAIRPERSON: I don't want to take time, I just want to say that we know the role that you played and your people in especially the period just before the elections and how by agreeing to negotiate with some of the parties that are now in government, you helped to forestall what could have been a very bloody period in the history of our land. We want to say that all of us value enormously the contributions of patriots such as yourself, and we know that the Nation is sitting and waiting with eagerness to hear what your particular perspectives are on the conflict of the past, how you see the role that you and your people might have in the process of healing all the hurts of the past and to contribute to the process of reconciliation so that we will be able to live together in this beautiful land that God has given to all of us people of all races here in South Africa.
 May I just introduce my colleagues on the panel. On my extreme left is Glenda Wildschut, who is a commissioner and she is a member of our Rehabilitations and Reparations Committee based here in the Western Cape.  Denzil Potgieter is a commissioner based in our office in the Western Cape and is a member at present of the Human Rights Violations Committee.  On my immediate right is Dr Alex Boraine the deputy chairperson of the Commission and Dumisa Ntsebeza, a commissioner, head of our Investigative Unit and based here in our Cape Town office, and then Advocate Mpshe who is the chief leader of evidence in our Amnesty Process and Dr Verwoerd, who is part of our research unit.  I won't give you his background.  Thank you very much for the copies that you have given us, and now it is over to you.