Special Hearings — Children's Hearings — 1997-05-22

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you Father.  A hearing is never quite a hearing without opening remarks by the Archbishop.  Before we open todays proceedings I would just like to make a few remarks about the nature of these proceedings.  Firstly, although this is not a court we do expect behaviour fitting to the occasion and we please ask the audience to listen carefully to what the witnesses have to say with respect and empathy without interjections or outbursts.  If you have to move in and out while a witness is giving evidence please try and do so as quietly and unobtrusively as possible.  Although we hear evidence and testimony today, we do not make findings.  So we do not cross examine witnesses.  We try to hear them in an atmosphere which is as affirming and positive as possible and a lot of people interpret this as the Truth Commission simply accepting what everybody says as the truth.  What happens after the hearings is that statements are investigated and corroborated and finally handed to the Human Rights Violations Committee for a finding.  This is a rigorous process which can take some time.  The purpose of the hearing is to give witnesses a chance to be heard in public and also to allow the community and the country a chance to participate in Truth and Reconciliation Commission proceedings and to hear publicly what, for so long, has been kept silent and secret.
 As the Archbishop said, we had to take a tough decision about whether we would actually allow children under the age of 18 to give evidence in public and we decided not to, because it can be a stressful and traumatising experience.  There are those who disagree with us and we are going to read out a statement from a child who believes that we have taken the wrong decision, but we have asked people who work with children, professionals, NGOs' to come and speak on behalf of children and tell us about what they have suffered under apartheid and what the consequences of that suffering is.  So, we are going to start todays proceedings, first of all, with a context statement which has been prepared by Professor Andy Dawes and Professor Pam Reynolds of the University of Cape Town, but which is going to be read out by three young people from Alexandra Sinton High School. 
 Before we actually move into that statement, though, I would like to ask Glenda Wildschut to read out the roll of witnesses for today and we will then stand and observe a moments silence in memory of these young people and all of those who sacrificed so much in the struggle for liberation.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Thank you Madam Chair.  Today we will be hearing witness from the following people.  Dennis Polongwana, Veronica Kwashane, Shehame Kamaldien.  They will be reading the context statement that will be, that has been prepared by Professors Andy Dawes and Professor Pamela Reynolds.  We will also be hearing a submission from Molo Songololo and this will be presented to us by Brian Klaasen and Weaam Williams.  Then we will be hearing testimony from Riefaat Hattas who will be speaking a little bit about himself, but mainly about the, a group of people that he, young people that he had been involved with during the 1980's.  Zamikhaya Botha will be talking to us about his experience as he was shot in his left eye by police.  Wandile Lennox Mentile was also blinded as a gun, as a result of gunshot wounds to his head.  Vuyani Edward Mbewu was also shot.  We will be listening to testimony from Dee Dicks and Julian Stubbs who were incarcerated in prison during the 1980's for about a year.  We will be listening to Anthony Thozamile Ntoni who was severely tortured and beaten in a camp during the 1980's.  We will be listening to Moegamat Williams who will be talking about his experience of detention and torture.  We will be listening to Sandra Adonis who will be talking about her husband, Jacques Adonis, and her own experience as they were subjected to severe harassment and arrests.  During the 80's Jacques was severely tortured by police as well.  Ethel Nombuyiselo Joji will not be here today, but her testimony will be read.  She has given us a statement about her two year old child who was shot at the age of two and is now, her daughter is now, it was 1985, so her daughter will be about 12 years old or 14 years old now.
 During the proceedings we will read out the letter written to us by Rudi-Lee Reagan and those are the people who will be giving testimony today.

CHAIRPERSON: Could we please stand and observe a moments silence as we remember the young people.  Thank you.  I would like to call up onto the stage Dennis Polongwana, Veronica Kwashane and Shehame Kamaldien who are going to read a context statement for us.  Thank you very much to the three of you for coming here today.  I know it is quite an awesome experience being up on stage and under the TV lights and we thank you very much for being with us to read out the statement and I am now going to hand over to you to lead us through it.

MR POLONGWANA: Good morning everybody.  I stand here as the Chairperson of Alexandra Sinton and I am going to read focus on children and youth, trust in youth, the pain and the blame preamble.  The TRC is required to establish " as complete a picture as possible of the causes, nature and extent of the gross violations of human rights which were committed during the period 1st March 1960 to the cut-off date (10th May 1994), including the antecedents, circumstances and context of such violations as well as the perspective of those responsible for the commissions of violations."  The Commission is also tasked with drawing up recommendations which will prevent future violations.
 The Commission's research shows that it was the youth, those between 15 years and 25 years, who bore the burnt of gross human rights violations.  It is therefore necessary to offer a particular opportunity for the young to tell their story.  It will prompt us to reflect on how our society treats its children and how we might take concrete steps to prevent the abuse of the young.  In so doing we may begin to redefine what it means to be a child in South Africa and open city gates to their comrades who then took the city.  This tale from antiquity has some similarities with our experiences.  
 Our story will acknowledge the role of the young in the struggle for democracy.  It will consider the effects of their involvement.  It will tell how in making their contribution, the young took decisions that caused suffering, and that committed them to actions that had profound consequences for their own development, for their families and for their nation as a whole.  However, it will also show that while the costs incurred were great, many are justly proud of what they did, achieved, and became, in spite of their youth.  Those record the participation of the young, must acknowledge that children and youth were not simply victims.  Many suffered the most appalling abuse, and while some were innocent victims, others were committed actors within a political battle.  Some of the young who participated perpetrated violence, and some became  instruments of violent agendas of adults.  When the young are found to be perpetrators of violence, our assumptions about childhood are disturbed, and we search for explanations as to why these 'innocents' can be so brutally abused.  Which it may be useful for legal and other purposes to separate the young as victims from the young as perpetrators, we must recognise that both identities can live in one people.  
 The involvement of young in the recent tumultuous past in South Africa, challenged conventional notions of childhood and gender roles.  Young members of oppressed communities were thrust into positions of great responsibility, uncommon for people of their years.  They spurred on those older than themselves, to rejoin the fight for their freedom.  They successfully galvanised a nation.