Special Hearings — Business Hearings — 1997-11-13

MR CHARLES: Over the past two days and indeed today, captains of the industry have come before you to make the point that there was in place in this country a political system to which they had to succumb in terms of the dictates of that policy.
 They have said to all of us in our country that they are sorry about this, but that they are asking for forgiveness, simply because they were foot soldiers whose actions were determined by the policy that was in place.
 We do not know how you are going to reflect on this in your final report to our country, but we know how our own people feel about what has happened in the past three days, because they were at the cold face of the suffering that they experienced, particularly in terms of the programmes that business had put in place.
 We have a situation here where the Chamber of Mines has just made a presentation and they have also given that impression, but in March 1912, the president of the Chamber of Mines said this among a number of things that he was saying;  that what is wanted is surely a policy that would establish once and for all that outside special reserves, the ownership of land must be in the hands of the White race and that the surplus of young men in stables squatting on the land in idleness and spreading out over unlimited areas, must end their living by working for a wage.
 You will say that was 1912 and that was outside your particular mandate, but let us look at what happened as a result of this kind of attitude on the part of this particular captain of industry.
 As a result of that our people were dispossessed, 1913, the land act, but not only that.  Our people were (indistinct) into reserves like slaves and they hated compound system and as a result of that observation came into place in our country.
 But apart from that, the entire system of Bantu stands had to do with this observation, but let's come to a more recent history where Harry Oppenheimer, looking at the political situation in this country, said, he never subscribed to the view that Apartheid was morally wrong.
 They have come here in the past three days to say that Apartheid was morally wrong, but that is the position that informed their actions and he said, it was at the root an honest attempt to cope with overwhelming racial problems.
 He's not the only one.  Gavin Riley ... (intervention).

CHAIRPERSON: Charles, I'm sorry I'm going to - if you could please ... (intervention).

MR CHARLES: The point I'm making is that the people who have come here are not even in so far as we are concerned, really sorry for what they put in place.
 They are talking about the future, but they have not placed before you a programme of how they are going to deal to address this problem in future.  Thank you.

<UNKNOWN>: The poem is entitled, THE TRAILS OF BLOOD, TEARS AND REPRESSION.
 When the sanctions started hitting on the economy the Apartheid Government and employers doubled their gloves.  They retaliated, hitting back on our workers.  They hit a social outfall, they hit a (indistinct) trade union (indistinct).
 Strike became the only weapon.  Union bashing intensified.  They hit and they moved to their homelands.  They hit and we started to bury.
 Present women came with their withering shores, they came back broken with no shoes, but their husbands had produced the wealth of this country, but they never enjoyed.
 I further my gain in (indistinct).  They said without shifting their hands when the bodies came one by one, because they were not to be there at one point.
 Silias Sebea, a humble comrade, a peace maker and negotiator, his body came lonely.  Florence Mikati, a daughter of a striker, a young woman, also came in.
 Simon Gubani, a strong man, a fighter and artist, you know, I was there and I experienced.  Soldiers everywhere, some comrades who returned back.
 The workers cry, blood, they cry, tears, they cried repression.  The (indistinct) continued with bashing.  The (indistinct) community mourn.  I mourn the dead friend, I mourn a dead comrade.  Workers think their blood will not be in vain.  The struggle of some course continues today.
 Strikes, local retrenchment, homelands became the news of the day.  We sat and negotiate in day time.  They came, haunted the workers at night time.  They caused confusion.  They caused chaos.  They clamped down on COSATU.  They clamped down on the press.  It was all propaganda.
 The workers, the worker poets, chanted, it is all propaganda, don't leave them to it.
 Then in the midst of things, the (indistinct) came.  He called, ban the passes, not the workers.  The (indistinct) that became the famous speech of 1985. 
 The struggle intensify in KwaZulu Natal, the violence, the killings, the massacres, assassination.  There was blood everywhere.
 Cries, we went crazy - we went crazy and crazy and crazy.  The violence spread.  The mines, the hostels, the farmers, the railway, the township, every place went crazy - were crazy.
 Then the former speech again.  Mandela was to be released.  All the leaders were released.  Today we're reaching out.  Let us all reach out for one another in remembrance of all the fallen workers. 
 Let us remember with honour and dignity.  Let us remember so that it will never happen again, so that it will never be repeated.  Let us remember some co-workers, the pyrochemical workers, (indistinct), unmarked graves, those motherless children, the widows in the rural, let's all remember them.
 Let's reach out to them.  Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Komama, Dr Ally will be leading the questions.