Human Rights Violation Hearings — Duduza — 1997-02-07

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you for coming Mr Ntombela to give us an account of what happened to you.  It's a very tragic account.  This week has been a very hard week for the Truth Commission and for all the people in the East Rand.  Countless accounts of people being killed, entire families being wiped out, properties being destroyed. Particularly the 1980's and 1990's was a very difficult period for the East Rand.  A lot of the conflicts we saw in the 1980's involved the town councillors and youth but in the 1990's it seems as if the conflict took a very bad turn with the communities turning against each other, members of the community.  A lot of the conflict seemed to involve members of the UDF, later the ANC, members of Inkatha, people who belonged to trade unions who seemed to be affiliated to different political organisations whether OWUSA or COSATU, but one of the important things that has also emerged is that there were many other forces involved in this conflict.  The police, the South African Defence Force. We've also heard allegations of third force activities, of Vlakplaas, Battalion 32 has also come up and particularly around the train violence.  There were certain periods in this part of the country where the death toll was even higher than that in Natal, so it really took its toll on the community.
 Many of these issues are going to be investigated and are in the process of being investigated by the Truth Commission.  Some of these we already have answers to.  We hope that we will gain more answers through the amnesty process, through people coming forward to answer when their names have been mentioned as perpetrators.  We will also certainly be calling people to answer questions through subpoenas, that's one of the instruments which the Commission actually has and one of the powers that it can subpoena people to come and answer and answer questions particularly if we believe that it's going to assist us in understanding the conflict and in finding answers the questions.
 We have also had a very important submission to the Truth Commission made by the Tokoza Branch of the ANC.  The submission is essentially on the self defence units, it's an attempt to very honestly look at the role of the self defence units, both as victims and sometimes as also committing violations.  We actually want to appeal to any other organisations, any other formations, we invite similar submissions from them which will give their account for their perspective of the conflict.  I suppose one of the biggest challenges really after all of what we've heard over these four days, the biggest challenge is going to be to the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee, because we've seen the carnage, we've seen how many people have been maimed, people who have lost limbs, people who have lost eyesight, people who are unemployed, can no longer work, and this is a big challenge, not just to the Truth Commission, but it is a challenge to the country, to the government, what kind of policy will be put in place to assist those who were victims, what kind of reparation, what kind of rehabilitation, and that is an area to which a lot of attention is going to have to be directed.  
Although the hearings have come to an end here in the East Rand I want to emphasise that the process of statement taking has not come to an end, that we could only hear a certain number of cases because of the question of time and also because of resources.  It's highly unlikely that we will be able to come back to the East Rand, there are many other parts of the country where we have not yet been to and where we still have to hear from people their experiences, but our statement takers will still be coming here.  We invite people to come to our offices also and to contact us if they want to make statements because that's what the Commission will base its recommendations on with regard to victims, the statements which we get.  
 I want to remind people again of the amnesty closing date which is on the 10th of May this year.  I think that people need to understand that amnesty is not about who was right and who was wrong in the political conflict.  Amnesty is about anybody from whichever side of the political spectrum, who believes that what he or she may have done makes that person liable for either criminal or for civil prosecution, that people who have any fears or doubts in that connection, that there may be charges against them, either criminal or civil and that is in no way a comment on whether what they did was for a just cause or whether what they did was not for a just cause.  If there's any doubt people should apply for amnesty because once the cut-off date arrives there will be, people who have not yet applied  may find themselves liable for prosecution, so I would appeal for people to use this opportunity that amnesty is a way of trying to put that past behind us by having full disclosure, by explaining what was done, why things were done, the political motives, the political context and that can hopefully close that chapter on our past and we can move forward.
 Now I know that people do have expectations, people want answers to questions.  Unfortunately most of the recommendations of the Commission will only come at the end of the life of the Commission, so I want to appeal to people to be patient, the Commission is constantly working on their cases, the Reparations and Rehabilitation Committee is working on a policy both for long term reparation and also for urgent reparations for those desperate cases.
 I want to thank the people who have come, have been here for the past two days, to thank those who have assisted us, the local governments, the TLC's, those who assisted our staff catering, all other assistance which they provided. I want to thank our staff as well, this has been very hard for them because we have been moving around, we were in Duduza and then in Benoni and now in Vosloorus and it is very difficult to organise a hearing when you are using so many different venues...(end of tape)...I want to thank the media for covering this because this it's important that those outside actually see the costs, the high price which was actually paid for this democracy which we all speak about.  We can see in the East Rand that the costs were very very high and I think that what these hearings do if nothing else is serve as a reminder of what it took to get to this point so I want to thank the media for the role that they play and I want to thank my fellow panellists and colleagues, it's been quite hard  on them, and again our visitors from different parts of the world, we've got American visitors, we've got visitors from Holland as well, for the interest that they show in the work of the Commission.  Go well and we hope that soon we will be able to report on some of the issues that we have heard over these four days.  Thank you.  Could we just stand for a few minutes and bow our heads in respect for the victims?