Human Rights Violation Hearings — Winelands — 1996-10-16

MS GOBODO: We have now come to the end of the Paarl Hearings.  It is with a very deep  sense of sadness to be leaving this town.  We came very much a part of it.  But I would just like to briefly - I would like to just briefly thank the people that came forward and shared their stories with us.
  It is only a few people that come here.  This is only a very small fraction of the people that were injured in the previous violence.  It is very sad to listen to mothers and fathers who have lost their children.  Or who's - who were oppressed in an ungodly manner.  This was done in such a way that the dignity of our people was demeaned.
It is terrible to hear that people were treated so badly.  It is terrible to think that your mother or your father could be mishandled by just young men.  One young man said here yesterday he is the son of the lady who we started with today.  This man was talking about his brother who died in the army.  This young man says he was taken to the border - from the border to a township  in Crossroads. 
I did not know what I had gone to do there except that I was told that I'm going to protect elders that were being harassed by youngsters.
When this was told to me, I realize that all this stories that we heard about the violence in 1980,  that these were youngsters that were chased by police for no apparent  reason - together with soldiers.  It  is clear then that the apartheid regime is a deceptive one.  They are told that -  the soldiers and the police of the day are told that they should kill people for deceptive reasons.  They also believed those reasons that were given to them.  He says that as I reflect and I look at the damage I am absolutely shocked that what do our elders - why did our elders - do such evil and - and deceive us like this.  He says that he is sorry even though he did not kill anyone, but to be part of such groups makes him question himself a lot.
He says that he is glad that he lived until he saw the truth.  However he does continue to say that even though now the truth is out, what's the point because so many people died.  And as they were taught that a black person is not really a human being - it is just a thing to be killed.   
What was the Government  trying to achieve with all this evil?  This all goes to show that the previous Government had no respect for peoples lives.  These are very deep lessons that we have learnt. 
 [indistinct] blow the myth of all the psychological theories that say that when victims emerge after a number of years they have an - a certain  resilience that they emerge very healthy,   that they are not scared  that everything passes.  That is a myth because we have heard in the passed two days people coming up here telling us stories of experiences of suffering  they've had and reliving that suffering as if it was happening in the moment. 
We have seen how people come up on stage and shared their tears and shared their pain all over again, because they are reminded  - it's been there, it's not that it was forgotten.  So it is real  - it's the real pain that they have been walking around with.
Especially for those people who are carrying scars not only physical scars but psychological scars of one kind or another.  There  are a lot of people I will not be able to give you the number, but to think that such - so many young people died.
When I think of Andile Ndelisa and Vuyo who were here yesterday - who wanted to share of their pain, I thought to myself such young children who have lost their lives.  Why is this, why does this happen?  Why do thirteen-year-olds and sixteen-year-olds just die - just like that.
Petrus was here to tell us how much he was harassed.  He's a young man, there's nothing he could do him - for himself - there's nothing he can do for himself even to this day.    [indistinct] to accept the rule and the work of the Commission who continue to say that we should not be doing this work because we are opening up old wounds.  Why not?  Why shouldn't you open up old wounds?   They are there -  wound - if you want to move  into the future we should reflect on the past.  They claim that we are obsessed with the passed, but they are obsessed with the future.  And how do you look into the future without exploring what happened in the pass. 
This is a contradiction of all psychological theories or many psychological theories and even  religious theories which say that in order for healing to take place you must look into the causes of that pain and deal with that pain.  Religion as well, you move forward with people because - people who have offended you - because they've  asked for forgiveness and you have had a opportunity to forgive them.  Because you know what they've done.
So I fail to understand how people can be harping on the idea that the Commission is opening up old wounds.  And the surprising thing is that  these people, who are criticizing us for opening up old wounds, often don't have - don't have any wounds that they carrying themselves and the people who have got wounds, are seeking to come in front of the Commission and talk about their pain and it's been - it's been a relieve for them.  They have  experienced the process  as a  catharsis.   They come to the Commission because they know that it gives them a kind of  catharsis.   It allows them to release the pain.
The women who came here in the morning, Ann-Marie McGregor, cannot release the pain because there is  something that she does not know...END OF TAPE 2, SIDE B...[indistinct] she could not see the corpse of her child.  She  did not open the plastic bag - she heard from her brother-in-law that at least apparently his appendages are in tact.  He, himself did not see - he just felt on top of the - over the plastic bag.  This woman had to live with this, she cannot complete her mourning, her grieving.
There are a lot of people who have come here  whose children died in exile therefore  you can never really completely heal because you want to at lease see the corpse.  What kind of Government is this that says even at the moment of death you cannot see your child.
This is the very Government  that says we cannot   regress and refer back to old wounds.  That we are  not going to do.  Some people criticize us saying that we are  witch hunt .  The people who think that the Truth Commission is a witch hunt should look no further than themselves to discover the witches within themselves - the internal witches - that harbour their - their minds.  And exercise those witches so that they can then move forward and see the light.  Many people have come forward here.
Yesterday we heard from the NG Kerk that - they confessed that they had lived - they lived in a lie.  They did not know it was a lie.  Now, they are in the light, they have  taken out the  witches within them.
What I want to say is that people should in introspect and take out the darkness within them.  What I want to say lastly is that people complain.  They say that we are a Commission of tears, a climax Commission as some newspapers say, it is inevitable.  People will cry if they talk of their pain, but I think their real problem is that a lot of our people do not understand if we talk about these things in an emotionally charged context  and of cause our context in this country is highly charged, therefore I think it is logical to expect that we should engage our emotions when we talk about our - our history.
And then it is important therefore that when we engage this history, we engage not only our intellect but our empathy as well.  I think all those things are important in order that we move forward.  Not only for the sake of the work of the Commission but for the sake of the work that will take place among ourselves as citizens of this country.
Thank you.  
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