Special Hearings — Legal Hearings — 1997-10-27

PAULA MCBRIDE: Well, it is a very difficult thing to say because he has been hanged and he is now dead and there can't be a retrial, as it were, so Judge Leon or whoever could not undo that. I just think that what is important is that the history of Andrew, and of so many other people like him is recorded, you know that what happened to him and what he went through and particularly that it is put in the context of, which is why I mention it, of the fact that it was as a result of a SADF raid which killed - a famous term, "innocent civilians" in another country and I just think it needs to be, you know the uproar about Andrew's case among the predominantly white population was around the fact that he had, it was what Judge Corbett had said, he had killed innocent civilians who where shopping before Christmas. What of the nine innocent civilians who were killed in Maseru while they were at a party, and I just want it contextualised and I want his name not to be forgotten among others.

MS SEROKE: The second request that his mother made to the TRC at that hearing was in the absence of a burial, a funeral because you know people who are hanged are not allowed to bury their loved ones, so the community and their friends to honour Andrew Zondo had to have a vigil and what disturbed Mrs Zondo was the fact that the police charged into that vigil and disturbed it and destroyed the furniture and the crockery and she made a humble appeal to the TRC, which for me was so moving, when she asked the TRC to replace the crockery that she had borrowed from her neighbours and I felt, you know, Mrs Zondo when she said this, the TRC should put the record straight, she didn't ask for her son to come back because he had been hanged, but she wanted the facts to be highlighted and I wonder at hindsight now if we shouldn't have invited that family to this very hearing so that they could hear for themselves about the actions of some of the judges that we are now challenging now. Thank you very much.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Ilan Lax.

MR LAX: Thanks Chairperson, just one comment on the Zondo case. You may or may not know that the Quinn family gave evidence before us in Durban and some of the perpetrators involved in that killing have applied for amnesty, the bitter irony is that they all received medals after that event and Zondo was sentenced to death. I just thought I would mention that.

YASMINE SOOKA: Paula, you use the words "you want the judges called to account", I was just wandering exactly what you meant by that if you could just unpack that please?

PAULA MCBRIDE: : Yes, I just, I think and I don't want to sound as if I am on a sort of vengeful mission against the judges of this country, but I think that it is ironic that there have been, I mean, two weeks ago the leaders of Umkhonto weSizwe and of APLA were subpoenaed to appear at a further hearing to give further account of acts which they carried out to liberate this country from apartheid and yet the judges are being invited to kind of give learned opinions whereas in fact what I would like to see is for the same kind of treatment and I am not saying it in, it sounds antagonistic, it's just because I want to say what I want to say that they need to be told "we are having a hearing on this date and you are required to appear at it to account for the following" that is what I am saying, I just think that for far too long in this country there has been a notion of the judges as being above it all and I think that the TRC should not buy into that. That is all I am saying, so I am on a vengeful mission.

CHAIRPERSON: I will clear the court. Thank you very, very much Paula. We are most grateful.
 I think we should take a break and consider all these opinions that have been thrown at us and we will get back at 2.00 o'clock. Thank you very much.
HEARING ADJOURNS
ON RESUMPTION

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very, very much. Thank you for having come up and we are enormously grateful that you have done so and I think as they say without much ado let's hand over to you.
MR MALAN ADMINISTERS THE AFFIRMATION TO NADEL MEMBERS