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

UNKNOWN: That too is a very fair and appropriate question.   There's a generation gap in the Jewish community, as there is in most white   communities. Old people got so used to apartheid, immune to it, that many of   them still don't realise that thank God we now have a non-racial democracy,   we have a black majority government in place. The youngsters are the opposite.   The younger generation is very into the New South Africa, very cognisant of   the necessity of the process. So I have to answer you that there is a dichotomy.   We do have difficulty with many things, including the TRC, with those who are   over the age of 60. We have no difficulty with those who are under the age of   30. We have some difficulties in the middle group. We are trying very much.   The only specific complaint which has been aired about the TRC has to do with   amnesty. There are a lot of people who feel that the relatives of victims, when   they cry out to you for justice, that there may be, you know the ten commandments   are absolutely categoric on "Thou shalt do this, and thou shalt not do   that". All religions based on morality have a doctrine of reward and punishment.   There is a line beyond which we are not allowed to go. How dare we treat fellow   human beings in such a way, and therefore the one clear criticism that I have   heard from quite a number of Jewish people is that they can empathise fully   with those who have been complaining that the amnesty is too extensive. It is   appreciated that the TRC may not have come into being at all, God forbid, if   a deal hadn't been done on all sides regarding amnesty. But it is nevertheless   true that while God is a God of forgiveness, there are certain things which   are unforgivable, including some of the things that we have heard about. And   that is one of the criticisms I have heard. By and large, the TRC is accepted,   it's hearings have are followed. They are followed avidly. You may not have   hundreds and thousands of people coming to them. But a lot of people listen   on radio, a lot of people do look in at the television summaries and it is being   followed with a great deal of interest.

MR L FURMAN: I would just like to add that from my generation, slightly younger   that the Chief Rabbi, I think that all that's emerged from the TRC has deepened   the sense of shame that we feel at having been silent during that time. I think   that we have come to realise that apartheid was much more than an idiosyncratic   political system, and the brutality that has been exposed now is very much approximate   to the brutality that our ancestors have experienced in the past. But I think   that that sense of shame has only deepened the commitment that many of my generation   feel to try and heal the wounds of the past.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much. Thomas?

THOMAS MANTHATA: In order to be sensitive to this difficult problem of communities   seeing themselves to be patronised and so on and so on. Is there a decided way   where the Jewish communities are beginning to learn one or other African language,   so that they can inter relate with the people without making the people foreigners   all the time?

UNKNOWN: I am pleased to answer "yes" as Zulu is   taught in most of our Jewish schools in Johannesburg and Xhosa in most of our   Jewish schools in Cape Town and one is very, very conscious of the fact and   I think very many people have wonderful black domestic help and are beginning   to learn the conversational phrases and it is a very, very important part of   nation building and bridge building that we do this. Again, we don't do it nowhere   near as enough, but we are conscious of it and it is developing and we intend   to make it a major educational component of our schools. We have replaced Afrikaans   with Zulu, is the answer to your question.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much. We are deeply grateful in all sorts of ways   and we know that you will all continue, and your community will continue to   be making a very significant contribution to the future of this country, especially   because of your own history of suffering. Thank you very much. You may stand   down.
Thank you very much. Yes. Now the representative of the African Traditional   Religious Community, D.K. Koka.
ADMINISTERS OATH.