Special Hearings — Conscription Hearings — 1997-07-23

CHAIRPERSON: Our memory is part of our identity and Ithink that when our memory brings into our consciousness the horribleaspects of our past then we struggle with that identity.  I thinkone of the challenges is how to get people to be reconciled withtheir identity to stop the spiral of denial that's going on.
 It remains for me now to thank everyone for coming to this specialsubmission.  We thank especially people who were presenters whoreally made this work.  
 Thank you John Deegers in the corner there Deegan sorry, I'mthinking about Annette Seegers, thank you John very much for beingpresent.  You were going to be presented as anonymous and youwere going to be summarised, so thank you very much, we reallyare privileged that you could come.  
 Thank you Tim Ledgerwood at the back there we really appreciateyour contribution, and Johan Hattingh and Annette Seegers we reallyappreciate, Ian Liebenberg I like the way you pronounce LiebenbergI can't really perfect it, but I try.  Thank you very much againbecause there was another surprise appearance from Roger Fieldwho wasn't going to appear but he was here.  Thank you very much Roger.  Richard we've spoken on the phone and come to know youthrough reading about you in the past and I'm glad to put a faceto the name and welcome to your family as well, thank you.  
 Neels du Plooy thank you very much again and to the gentlemanin front here Lieutenant Botha and Ian Bruce, are you relatedto David Bruce?

MR BRUCE: No ... (indistinct)

CHAIRPERSON: David was a conscientious objector, hisname was mentioned earlier and he has in fact made a submissionto the Truth ommission.
 Just a few people who are part of the Commission and whom I didnot mention at the start of our proceedings.  The security peopleare always in the background and we often forget about them, CaptainLourens, Gary Burke and the fellow police officers who are assistingthem.  
 Also among our ushers we had our own Regional Manager, Ruth Lewinwho assisted in receiving some of our important guests this morning,thank you very much.  Molly Martin assisted Ruth Lewin and OdelePearce who always helps with receiving the media.  
 There's a number of people who assisted with the Admin work mostimportantly I'll mention someone who's really played the roleof consulting researcher in the Commission Sheila Roquiette. Sheila has been very generous with her time in allowing us tojust make all sorts of requests from her, and she's assisted usimmensely in getting some of the statements that we have now. 
 Linda van Deemen who assisted as secretarial help and other peoplewho assisted with Admin work.  Pumla Yeki, Aluia Allie, LilianMafujane, Cynthia van Eck who does interpretations or translationsfor some of the difficult Afrikaans texts that we receive.  
 The people who were responsible for catering Kaya Kango, PaulineDaumen and Georgina van Sensie we really appreciate your helpout there.  Lilian Matsipe, Stanley Stoffels, Derek Roberts, Gailvan Breda, Delmarie Jonas also helped with the photocopying ofmany of the documents that we received.  
 Ngosa Gobodo, Ismail Abrahams who was part of the supportingstaff in the driving section.  
 We really appreciate everyone coming.  The most important peopleto mention are the media department within our own Commissionwe have Christelle Terblanche who runs around tirelessly in organisingthe media coverage of our work.  We really take our hats off to the media for producing reels and reels of data that have comeout from the Commission.  We are really very appreciative thatit has helped our country understand more clearly what happenedin the past.  
 Wendy has just mentioned the researchers, they were mentionedat the opening of the events and to save time I won't mentionthem again.  
 Thank you Mary, Mrs Burton, Mary Burton who's sitting at theback there for really being here with us although you're not onthe panel we really appreciate that you've been present with us. And thank you Mr Ntsebeza, Dumisa Ntsebeza who in his busy schedulehas found time to sit in here at the back and be supportive.  And a really big thank you to all of you who have responded toour invitation to come to these meetings and make them a realityand sharing the experience of the telling of our history, we reallyappreciate your giving the time that you've given to these projects,and I hope that we will continue even after the Commission's lifehas ended.  Thank you very much.  
 Thank you finally to Wendy for her support, quiet support inencouraging us to continue with these projects.  The then quitea number of work that has been put in this, a lot of debates anddiscussions and Wendy has been a wonderful supporting voice andthank you very much Wendy.
 And Piet you always respond so positively to our requests youjust come and help, thank you very much Piet for being here andthank you.
HEARING ADJOURNS