Human Rights Violation Hearings — Helderberg Tygerberg — 1996-08-07

ADV POTGIETER: [indistinct] Nomfundo Walasa and Cheryl de la Rey good morning to you and welcome - thanks for coming to give us a context within which we will conduct our hearing today.  Before your evidence is presented it is necessary for you to take an affirmation because what you would be saying would eventually form part of the record of the testimony and evidence that was received by the Commission.
 I am going you both to stand please to take the affirmation and I'll do it together.  
NOMFUNDO WALASA Affirms to speak the truth
CHERYL DE LA  REY Affirms to speak the truth

ADV POTGIETER: Thank you very much you may be seated - over to Glenda.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: My task is merely to invite the two of you to start your context statement, I believe that Nomfundo will be starting first.

NOMFUNDO WALASO: Cheryl will be starting first.

GLENDA WILDSCHUT: Cheryl will be starting first - Cheryl if you could just try and speak as close to the mike as possible.

MS DE LA REY: Good morning everyone on the 9th of August 1956 tens of thousands of woman gathered outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria - their powerful message to the Prime Minister of the time was - you've struck the woman - you've struck a rock - you to will be crushed.
 Ever since then we have marked the event as National Women's day - the day when women stated very clearly we too have a role to play in the history of the country.  Our struggle for liberation then and today are contribution to nation building.
 In 1956 the march was to protest against the carrying of passes, since then woman in all sectors of our society anticipated in the events of our past.  They have done so in community organisations - in the labour movements - in the factories - in youth groups - in the educational institutions - in families - in the home.
 August the 9th has become a day in the history of our resistance when we both women and men draw attention to the role woman have in liberating our society.  Today we stand here having begun the process of rebuilding our society.
 In the Western Cape we dedicate this day of public hearings in the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to hearing the voices of woman and we acknowledge the multiplicity of roles played in our past.  Why specific focus on woman some may ask - is it not perpetuating differentiation separation which we have had so much in the past.  But history shows us that unless we make special efforts to include ourselves in the  writing of history our contributions - be that positive or negative - will be forgotten.
 We have made significant progress towards the achievement of gender equality in our society since April '94.  But we still have a long way to go.  It has been accepted at the highest levels of Government that society is structured in a gender and an unequal way and that we need specific mechanisms to redress this source of inequality.
 Therefore just as we need National Women's Day - so we need the special focus on women today.  The Truth and Reconciliation Commission operates in an unequal gender society - therefore it needs to make - or to take specific action to ensure the inclusion of women in the process of uncovering the truth.  Too often when we do not undertake specific actions to draw attention to the issues that affect woman, what happens is that men and the experiences of men become the yardstick by which judgements are made.
 Structural inequality ensure that what may appear to be free of gender bias is very often not.  The equality clause in our new Constitution made specific reference to direct and indirect discrimination thereby acknowledging that if no conscious attempts are made such as  we are doing today male experiences will be the dominant point of view - writing history essential to the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
 We must ensure that our participation in history is seen as important in it's own right.  We know that woman have a relationship to historical events  and processes that is different from men.  Too often when we read our history books they reflect a distorted view of the events of the past.  Through recorded history that which is written woman have been obliterated, [indistinct]  and stereotyped.
 Events like today mark our attempts to ensure that this never-never happens again.  Today we publicly acknowledge that uncovering the truth is a gender process.  Woman have participated in our history in multiple ways - today we draw attention to four categories of response from woman.
 First we need to note that woman have suffered as direct victims - woman themselves have been tortured - they have been killed.  Woman have suffered as indirect victims, people they love have been killed - tortured and detained - our sisters - our mothers - our fathers - our loved ones.
 But we also need to recognise that woman have not only been victims - but they have also been perpetrators of human rights abuses.  In fact we know that some woman themselves have been the torturers - the spies - the violators - some of them have been direct perpetrators.  So woman too have been indirect perpetrators - they have supported those who perpetrate human rights violations.
 While some roles played by woman may not be a source of pride for us, we must not ignore the multiplicity of situations woman have occupied in relation to human rights violations.  What this means is that depending on where woman were situated they would have experienced human rights violations differently and would have had different consequences.
 Today some woman have come forward to tell their stories, others have chosen to remain silent - this is their right and we respect it us such.  Telling our stories have consequences too and these consequences are not outside of who we are as men and woman.  Woman who tell their stories may face a variety of responses from their family, friends and the communities in which they live.  Men and woman and in those communities.
 Today we declare our support for you and acknowledge your courage in coming forward telling your story will ensure that woman's roles are acknowledged in the process of writing our history - that the stereo types and myths are debunked.  If national reconciliation is our goal then woman need to be rendered visible in the processes undertaken by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  We are please that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has recognised the need for particular mechanisms to ensure the woman's experiences are included in finding out our collective truth.  Today is one step in that direction when we hear the particular experiences of woman.