Human Rights Violation Hearings — East London — 1997-06-10

BONGANI FINCA: I wanted to say a word of thanks to all the people who have testified from the High Gate Massacre but I see that others have already left the room.  We are talking about a tragic event and I think we all have sensed the pain and a lot of anger which has come out in the hearing of this matter this morning.  We are dealing with an event which has been roundly condemned as a brutal act of senseless violence and I think a number of people in this region and throughout the country have condemned it as such and what has been very difficult to come to terms with is the fact that the event happened at the time when negotiations were taking place for a peaceful transformation of this country.   So we are dealing with an event which causes a lot of pain and indeed we have heard this morning how much bitterness and anger there is from those who testified to us.  I want to say just for the sake of the record that the APLA command has made a request to the Commission that they would like to have a meeting with the victims and that is why we have been raising the question constantly about how those who have testified to-day feel about meeting the perpetrators.  The APLA Command has requested us to facilitate such a meeting because they believe that having done what they have done they would like to meet with the victims in a spirit of reconciliation.  We will pursue that discussion.  From what we have heard here to-day it is not going to be a very easy decision.  The pain and the bitterness has been made evident in the testimonies that we have listened to but we are committed to a spirit of reconciliation and our task will be to continue to knock on your doors and even after our time has ended I'm sure there will be somebody who will continue this process because it looks to me as if there is no alternative.  The country has no alternative we either come to terms with the ugly past in which we have inflicted pain on each other in various ways and begin to say to each other we are sorry and those who have been hurt to begin to say we forgive you.  It's going to be a very difficult route judging by the testimonies that we've heard this morning.  We are extremely happy that you have come and we are pleased that you have spoken so frankly and so openly and I think that it's brilliant that it has happened here in Mdantsane that we hear you rather than anywhere else.  These are two communities which have suffered tremendously.
 Yesterday we were at the Eggerton Station where we were listening and hearing the stories of the pain of people who were brutally killed in a senseless act of violence which in many ways is similar to this one.  People were going to work and they were forced not to board the train which they usually used for their transport, forced to go into buses.  We heard a story of a mother who was sitting at home doing her washing and was hit by a stray bullet which messed up her life.  These are stories of pain and I would hope that somehow this country finds a way in which those who have done these things own up to what they have done and begin to say they are sorry and how by God's grace perhaps it possible for those who have experienced extreme pain and continue to suffer the anguish like the gentleman who was here this morning who continues to suffer the consequences in his own body of what has happened perhaps to find the grace to say for the sake of the future of this country we are prepared to forgive.  We thank you very much.  
 We will be taking an adjournment and we will be going to High Gate this morning to go and just remember what happened there.  Thank you.  If we can adjourn for lunch right now and the victims can go straight to lunch we'll start again at one thirty, thank you. 
HEARING ADJOURNS