Human Rights Violation Hearings — Louis Trichardt — 1997-04-09

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much, Mr Machete for the time you have given to share your story.  We have taken note about the medical expenses that you inflicted after the torture and assaults that were meted out to you by the police.  We will make our recommendations to the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee.  We are also very happy to note that you have forgiven Mr Pretorius and others, but we feel that perhaps to really forgive, you must be part of the new structures that the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee is trying to start in this area.  We will be making an announcement about a meeting that will be a follow-up meeting and we will bring all the people who made statements in this area in May, that is where we are going to discuss further how we are able to through this process of reconciliation and forgiving.  Thank you very, very much.
 Well, as I said, this was our last statement for the day.  I would like to thank everybody who came here today to support our victims and witnesses.  We also thank the witnesses who came forward and we would like to say we have designated statement-takers for this area in Louis Trichardt.  They are taking statements every day at the ANC constituency office.  The contact person as Reverend Sadike.  So anyone who has not given his or her statement, please see Mr Lebowani Rangolo and Reverend Sadike and they will be able to help you.  If you go to the ANC constituency office, you will be helped.  
 We would also like to thank a number of people who helped our logistics officer, Rama, in making arrangements for this hearing.  We in particular would like to thank the Louis Trichardt Town Council for giving us the use of this premises and for arranging all the meetings that we had before the hearings.  
 We also want to thank the social workers who have been working with our briefers for the whole day today.  We would like to thank the churches in this area for the wonderful work that they did to announce the hearings in their churches and to form the committee that made everything run so smoothly.
 We did not introduce Dean Farisane, who is a member of Parliament at the National Assembly, because we knew that we were going to ask him to close this session for us with a short prayer and maybe just a short statement about the hearings today, as someone who has been very much involved in the resistance movement in this areas.
 Dean Farisane?  Whilst he is coming forward, I will ask you to leave the earphones on the seats that you were occupying.  Before Dean Farisane can say something, I would also like to thank the police, the security people and all the people who looked well after us.  I think this area in the Northern Province, we have never had so much protection and security in the whole country like we had in this region.  We felt very safe and very cared, I mean we felt very comfortable and we thank them for their caring and all the assistance that they gave us.  Thank you very much.
 Over to you.

MR FARISANE: Thank you very much, sister Joyce and your colleagues.  We are very grateful in this part of our country, in this Northern part of our province.  We are grateful for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for your courage, your dedication and commitment to the project of emotional, psychological, spiritual, economical, cultural, political reconstruction of our country.  You are facilitating a very difficult and yet very, very important programme.
 I will be personal without becoming petty.  Without this intervention, I do not know how I would have personally reconciled myself, even to the new democratic dispensation.  Every time I sit in these public hearings and watch witness after witness, I ask myself the same question, how would these people have managed to overcome their past experiences had this process not been in place?  I have criss-crossed this planet.  I have been in every country, including to the former concentration camps in Germany and other places, I know for sure that where this process has not taken place people are still suffering with pain and fear and frustration and a spirit of revenge because no opportunity was ever granted them to wrestle with these issues.  I cannot avoid being a little theological.  In my opinion this is a very Godly exercise without which our new democracy would not go very far.  
 I know you do not always meet with positive comment and you do not always have encouraging experiences.  Perhaps it is time for you to learn some Venda. The one who guides you through the night it is often relived at dawn the next day when he or she has lead you through the difficulties of night.  So this kind of exercise in which you are involved, would not necessarily be appreciated now, but sooner than later we are going to appreciate what you do.  
 And to the citizens of Louis Trichardt and beyond, we are very proud of you because when we called upon you to come forward and contribute to this great process you were not found wanting.  When I look at Ms Madiba at her age, when I look at some of you, you are very feeble and very weak because of the wounds, some of them which are still very fresh; when I look at the mothers that have lost their own children, those who have lost their relatives, as you come and sit here and contribute, brick by brick to this dispensation or forgiveness, I wonder whether we all, especially those of us who sit in front, deserve your confidence.  I hope you, I can assure you, let me say, you will not be disappointed.   And those of you who are involved in the Governmental structures of this country, as we wait for the recommendations that they will make, can I assure you we will do our best.  It will not be a perfect final product, but we will do our best to concretely contribute to building, to build on the building plan that they come up with.  It is time to go home and build on the found foundation which you have built for us here today.  Good work at Thohoyandou, good work at Messina, good work at Pietersburg, good work in Louis Trichardt, good work in Tslanene.  Just as there is good work all over the country.  May the good Lord bless you and strengthen you.  And may God keep you full of hope and faith in this wonderful project.  
 But allow me to add, as I always do, and I will never forget to make this additions, this process will not be complete until all the faces of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission are in place.  Victims have set their faith and you have done very well in other places, the culprit, the victimisers must also play their part.  Pretorius has heard his name today, people have heard their names mentioned here today, as we hear names mentioned wherever we go, people are stretching a hand of forgiveness, of love and friendship.  This hand should not be left dangling in the air, because if it is left there, other forces may come and grab it and you do not know what they will do with that frustrated, disappointed hand.  And that will even make the process of Reparation a little more difficult.  
 So in my pastoral responsibility I once again call upon those who know that they have to come to plead for amnesty, not just now to ridicule this process, but to do their share.  I have no right to close this meeting, but thank you.  You get our co-operation.  God willing I may join you later some time tomorrow in Tzaneen.  God help you.  Let us pray.
 Mag die Here julle genadig wees, sterkte gee in hierdie dorp van ons, Louis Trichardt, Vleifontein, Waterval en al die ander plekke in hierdie omgewing seen.  Baie dankie Here.  Ons kom nederig voor u aangesig.  Vergewe ons en gee vir ons die moed en die krag en die geduldigheid om voor te kom en die gees van versoening te promoveer.  Amen.