Special Hearings — Children's Hearings — 1997-05-14

WITNESS: Thank you. I would like to greet the Chairman and   the committee members and the society. I would talk about how the youth or the   children of KwaZulu-Natal were affected by the violence, and as we all know   police didn't help in doing this. Instead they were the perpetrators themselves.   And then the youth of this province was divided because they were used, criminals   were assaulting and harassing society in the name of the politics. They were   killing people, and all these events led to criminalities and to alcohol abuse.   And the youth was divided and they couldn't listen to adults because of all   this. And the youth couldn't further their education. Most of them they are   uneducated today. The youth of this province they don't have hope for tomorrow   or for the future. The youth of this province they don't have faith in sport,   education. Most of them are suffering from trauma and depression, and our society   today is unable to help these things. That's why there's an idiom that says   if you give youth or children bread you're giving the future, you're making   sure of the future, but in this province there's no future because there's no   children. We're asking the society, the Government, that they should stand up,   more especially they should try and help the children who are between seven   to 15 years, because those were the main children who lost parents because parents   ran away, they were escaping for their lives, and the siblings, elderly ones,   they ran away. And again I would like to thank this Commission for giving the   youth this opportunity to come forward and say whatever we want to say, whatever   is in our heart, and to tell the Government what happened with our lives, and   to also thank the

CHAIRPERSON: /Government

CHAIRPERSON: Government for giving us this opportunity, and to ask the Government   to help the youth, especially the youth which helped before. Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Moses, for helping us to hear your voice. Let me   just check whether any of my colleagues wish to ask any questions.

INTERPRETER: The speaker's mike is not on.

COMMISSIONER: You have told us of your wishes, and maybe   you can enlight us, you can tell us more about the society, or your view how   you want the society to work together with the youth so that we reach one goal,   or so that we better your lives as youth.

WITNESS: What I would like to put forward   before the Commission is that adults should give youth hope. We can do whatever   as long as we are working together with our parents or with adults. I would   like to ask this Commission, and adults, and the Government, that we should   all work together. We lost trust or faith.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you to both of you for giving us a sense   of your experience, a sense of your despair, and a sense of your hope for the   future. We really understand that it's very difficult to have a feeling that   nobody is backing you up, and we hope that in giving you and others this opportunity   you will have that sense that the Commission is backing you up, that society   is backing you up. And, having heard your voices, we hope that when our recommendations   go to the Government, and to the State President, that they will take seriously   the things that we have conveyed that we have heard from you. So thank you for   coming forward.

WITNESS: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: /

CHAIRPERSON: CHAIRMAN

CHAIRPERSON: The next person who will be talking is Ann   Mackay, who is from the KwaZulu-Natal Survivors of Violence project. She will   be giving us an overview of gross human rights violations and the impact on   children and youth.

ANN MACKAY: (Sworn, States)

CHAIRPERSON: If you could continue then please.

WITNESS: I think,   as we heard from the previous two speakers, that hundreds of thousands of children   under the age of 18 were affected by the gross human rights violations that   were perpetrated in the name of apartheid, and by people who, knowingly or unknowingly,   were acting in the interests of promoting apartheid.

CHAIRPERSON: During the years of the state of emergency the security forces,   whose role in society was above all to protect children, were given the legal   ability to disregard all legislation that protected children, such as the Child   Care Act and the Criminal Procedure Act. This allowed them to treat children   and mistreat children in much the same way as they were mistreating adults in   that period of rebellion against apartheid.

CHAIRPERSON: An example of this is that in the years 1984 to 1986, which   was merely two years of the many years of repression ... (intervention)

CHAIRPERSON: Ann, if I could just ask you to slow down a little bit so that   it can be translated.

WITNESS: Okay.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

WITNESS: Over 300 children were killed during those two   years. Over 1 000 were wounded. 18 000 were arrested for protesting, and   a massive 173 000 children were arrested awaiting trial, and of these

CHAIRPERSON: /children

CHAIRPERSON: children only 25% ever came to trial, even given the large   number of repressive laws available to charge them with. Thousands of children   were detained during those years, between 25% and 46% of all detainees. Over   75% of detainees during that period were severely tortured during detention,   so we are in fact looking at the severe ill-treatment at the hands of the Government   of hundreds of thousands of children. Thousands of other children were killed,   were directly targeted and killed - either targeted as activists or killed when   their families were attacked, either by the security forces or during political   violence. And again many thousands of children lost their parents. I think the   previous two speakers highlighted the effects on the children's lives of having   lost their homes and their parents.

CHAIRPERSON: In this province particularly so many children were forced   to run away from home to avoid those who were targeting them politically. There   are youth all over this province still, in 1997, who cannot go home because   political opponents will not let them go back to live with their parents. They   have said to us in workshops that we've run in other places in the province   that they are living on sufferance, that they dare not be themselves because   they do not know if the people who are giving them shelter now will get rid   of them. They cannot go to school because there is no one to pay their school   fees. They cannot live properly because there are no parents to take care of   them. They are very vulnerable to the police, and they are constantly harassed.   They can't complain when criminals steal their clothes or their blankets because   there's no one to protect them. And,

CHAIRPERSON: /above

CHAIRPERSON: above all, they feel that they are not getting help from society,   that no one even knows that they're there, and no one cares.

CHAIRPERSON: Children who are exposed to the distress and trauma that has   been described earlier frequently develop symptoms of stress. Some children   become emotionally detached. They find themselves unable to relate to others.   They find it difficult to communicate, and very difficult to trust the people   around them. Others experience mental distress, which interferes with their   concentration and makes it difficult for them to think and to concentrate if   they are still schooling.