Special Hearings — Faith Community Hearings — 1997-11-17

CHAIRPERSON: Imam, thank you very, very much indeed for coming. My colleague,   Piet Meiring will probably ask a few questions on behalf of the panel.
PROF.

UNKNOWN: Imam Solomon, thank you so much again for coming. Thank you   for a very comprehensive statement. We have your statement, we received the   statement yesterday, and there was also one late lastyesterday sent to   us by the Muslim Youth Group, all of that will form part of the body of the   material of the TRC and thank you so much for that.
There's one question I wanted to ask. At the end of your submission, you told   about your commitment in helping to work towards the future of reconciliation   and peace. Can you elaborate on that? What is the specific challenge, the specific   thing that the Muslim community and Muslim Judicial Council will be able to   contribute towards reconciliation? Will you be able, for instance, and willing   to work together with the other faith groups, with the Christian churches, in   the process of reconciliation in the Western Cape and all over the country too?

IMAM GASSAN SOLOMON: In response to your question I can say from the outset   that at the moment, and since its inception, as the records state, that the   Muslim Judicial Council, regarded working with other faith communities as important   in South Africa. At the moment the Muslim Judicial Council is working together   with other faith communities in areas where our society needs it most. Anti-crime   for instance and generally in inter-faith activities. Therefore we will support   that now and in the future. The Muslim Judicial Council, even though it has   no policy yet, on how we feel for instance that we should take reconciliation   forward and particularly from the hearings of the Truth commission. We believe   that victims are very important in this particular process here. We are at the   moment discussing our position regarding reparations. We are also discussing   at the moment our position regarding the wealth tax, for instance. I cannot   at the moment pronounce the position of the MJC, but soon we will come out with   our statement regarding this.
REV.

KHOZA MGOJO: (Side 2) [inaudible] by Dr Faried Esack that the Muslim   community in general, especially Muslim business people benefited during the   time of apartheid. And if it is so, how is the Muslim Judicial Council going   to influence the Muslim community, especially the business community, to be   involved in reparation when this process takes place?

IMAM GASSAN SOLOMON: I cannot agree completely with the submission of Moulana   Faried Esack, Dr Faried Esack, in that the entire Muslim business community   can be placed in the same position as other privileged communities. 
The Muslim business community undoubtedly was part of the oppressed community   and suffered as business persons, through those disabilities. Whereby they had   to be very innovative in order to conduct business in certain areas or certain   parts of the country. There might well be that some of them were quite smart   and who have succumbed and who might have made us of the opportunities which   were given to them or which were there during apartheid in terms of cheap labour,   in terms of exploiting workers and so on and so on. For that we are sorry. But   we cannot generally place all the Muslim business persons in the same status   as other privileged groups in the country. The Muslim Judicial Council, as I   have said is still at the moment considering and debating its position regarding   the wealth tax, but my own opinion would be that we should come to an understanding   and it is not unfamiliar to us to give charity or wealth tax. It is not unfamiliar   to Muslims for wealthy people to give to charities. And we, and I'm sure that   the MJC will probably support something like that.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much. We are deeply grateful and we will be sharing   your insights with our colleagues as we consider what recommendations to present   to the President.
Thank you, you may stand down. We now want to call Bishop Barnabas Lekganyane   to come to the witness stand, please.
As I have already done at the beginning, I want to welcome you very warmly   on behalf of the TRC. You are one of the outstanding leaders, religious leaders,   in our country. Your church is one of the largest and it is clear you have a   very significant influence on a very, very large section of the population of   this country. This was shown by the fact that a former State President has been   to see you, at the time of your Easter celebrations, and other political leaders.   We are looking forward to hearing from you the submission that you are going   to be making to the TRC as we look to what happened in the past and in what   manner you may have suffered and what contributions you believe you may be wanting   to make, or able to make to the healing and reconciliation of this beautiful   country which we all so love very much. Thank you Ndade.
Is it Bishop Lekganyane who is going to testify, or are you going to do so?   Just switch on - now I'm not quite certain. Bishop are you going to say anything?

EMMANUEL MOTOLLA: Chairperson, the Church Council has resolved that Reverend   Emmanuel Motolla, who is in the Bishop's council, will present our submission   before this commission. Emmanuel Motolla, he is going to take the oath

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, your council is free to determine how you want to do thisbut   if at the end of this we are asking questions, is the Bishop going to reply?

EMMANUEL MOTOLLA: Chairperson, the speaker Thomas Mahope will reply to the   questions.

CHAIRPERSON: Only he?

EMMANUEL MOTOLLA: I will reply to the questions as part of this panel.

CHAIRPERSON: We want to know who, you see, if it is the two of you are going   to be spokespersons.

EMMANUEL MOTOLLA: That is correct, yes.

CHAIRPERSON: Now I don't know, some of your congregation are here. I don't   know whether they will b e happy to go away without hearing a word from their   leader.

EMMANUEL MOTOLLA: Chairperson, thanks for your concern, but that has already   been addressed, the congregation is aware of the situation and I can assure   this commission that they are more than happy.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, all right, I wish I had such a congregation. Thank you very   much and will the two of you then please stand.
ADMINISTERS THE OATH.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much then. What we have is a total of 30 minutes   and perhaps, if you are able to make the submission in about 20 minutes or so   to give ten minutes for the question and answer at the end, we will be very   grateful. Thank you very much.