Human Rights Violation Hearings — Tembisa — 1996-11-28

MS SEROKE: Are all your children here.  Yes.  It's only the house back there.

CHAIRPERSON: It's very difficult to find words to comfort you.  I won't try and do that, I think the strength of your testimony is that you have, by taking us out of where we are now, and seeing the pain and the problems that other people have in different areas, which are sometimes the same as ours, sometimes different, but which all involve us through family, through friends, that is very important, that we don't only concentrate on our own places but think of other places as well.  I think if we see the problems that are there, we also see what we all need still to do to make things better in our country and where we still need to go to solve the problems.  That is one of the things which the Truth Commission is trying to do through unravelling the events of the past, particularly such terrible events as have involved both your sons.
 We would like to thank you very much for coming forward to share that story with us, we wish you well, we wish your family well and we hope that we will be able to uncover some of the truth about happened. Thank you very much for coming.
Joyce Seroke has raised the point that it would be very useful for us if we could get a statement from Bongane who was at the event as well.  If you could ask him please to contact the Truth and Reconciliation office in Durban to TEMBISA  HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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make a statement about what happened, or contact us again so that we could take a statement.  Thank you very much for coming.

NANA MOLALOSE: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Ladies and gentlemen I would like to, in closing this session in Tembisa, there are one or two
things that I would like to say before we all close and before we say thank you to all people that have made this whole session possible.  
 I think firstly I'd like to repeat what we had to say this morning because there has been evidence of threats against witnesses coming forward.  There has been evidence of attempted intimidation both of potential witnesses, but also indirectly of the Commission itself.  And I would like to reiterate that we will not be intimidated, we have been given a task to do, we are determined to carry out that task and we will do it on the basis of the brief that has been given to us, that we are an independent Commission, that at the same time nobody in this country is above the law.  We will investigate where we need, whom we need to investigate and we will do so with all the powers that are given to us, and we will not be diverted from doing that by any individuals, any groups, any organisations, any political parties, anybody.  We are here to do a job, we are determined to do it and we will do it, because we are doing it in the name of the people.  We are doing it for you, for us, for us the people.  This is the peoples' Commission and we are determined to keep it as such, and we will not be diverted at all from doing what we need to do.
 The second point which is related to that is that within a very short time, the date today is the 28th of 
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November, by the 14th of December the deadline closes for all those people who feel that they should apply for amnesty.  An important part of the Commission is that people who have themselves committed gross human rights violations against other people, and let's face it, we have heard over the last three days a large number of cases, a terrible 
number of cases of gross human rights violations against people. Now the perpetrators, and some of them have been named, or the alleged perpetrators have been named in these proceedings, those people have a very simple choice, either they come forward before the 14th of December to make their amnesty application or they face being liable to prosecution thereafter.  If in the course of our investigations, if in the course of hearing, as we have heard so movingly and so stirringly over the last three days.  If we are given evidence of people who have carried out these gross human rights violations against other people, if we discover them, if we investigate them and they have not made application for amnesty, then it is our responsibility to hand those cases over to the Law Department for prosecution and we will not hesitate to do that.  So this is both if you like, a threat and an appeal, that those people who feel that they have themselves committed acts of gross human rights violations against other people, and lets face it again, we have heard their names and we have heard, if not their names, we have heard what has happened.  They have until the 14th of December to come forward and when their application or if their application goes through and is heard, they have again the possibility on the one hand of having complete immunity against criminal and civil prosecution or if they do not follow the conditions of the application, and they're TEMBISA  HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
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fairly straight forward, then they will be open to the normal course of the law.  
 And we would appeal to people please to come forward and meet that deadline for amnesty.
 The third point to make is quite simply that this is not the end of the process.  This is certainly not the end 
of the process regards the human rights violations and statements from people, particularly statements from people in this area, in the Tembisa area.