Special Hearings — Political Party — 1998-05-06

CHAIRPERSON: I would like to formally open the proceedings of this hearing which is held under the auspices of the Human Rights Violations Committee which is part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
 I want to in particular welcome former leaders of the United Democratic Front and to express the appreciation of the Commission that they are here today.  
 As is well known the UDF is no longer in existence and the extraordinary difficulties of trying to bring together a properly representative panel can be imagined.  All of the delegation are occupying very senior posts with very heavy work loads and come from many parts of the country.  We are very grateful that you are here and that you are willing to assist the commission in its work.  
 I want to say also, a word of welcome to members of the media as well as members of the public.  Almost all the work of the commission is held in public, deliberately so not only because of transparency but also because through the media many many others who can't be here today and from all over the country can participate in the life and work of the Commission, and once again we extend our warm appreciation to the media for the coverage that they have given the work of the commission 
thus enabling this to be not some small hole in the corner operation but something which can be experienced by the entire nation.  
 I want to welcome also Mr Mpshe who is on the staff of the 
Commission. I don't know if you can see him gentlemen, but he is right in the middle there, he will be assisting us a little later on with the questions that will be put to you also Professor Villa-Vicencio who is the director of our research department who has done together with his staff a lot of the preliminary work and he is joined by one of our other researchers Mr Chief Mabasela and we are glad that he is here to assist us as well.  
 In welcoming you here today I want to stress that the objective or the objectives are very straightforward and simple.  We want to hear from one of the most prominent role players during the time of conflict in our country on it's own perspectives itself understanding and how they saw their own role in the period of extreme conflict in our country which resolved finally through negotiation politics to a new democracy.  
 In the second place it is our responsibility to gather information not only on organisations, political and otherwise but also on the context within which the actors played that role and in addition to that where gross human rights violations may have taken place and to place these on record and to reflect as broad a perspective as possible in our final report which will be given to President Mandela and then obviously to Parliament and finally to locate responsibilities and accountability.  It's one of the great strengths of our new democracy that there is an  attempt always to be accountable and we as a Commission are accountable to the country and those who appear before us of course are no exception to that.   
     I would like to introduce the panel, immediately on my right is Mr Dumisa Ntsebeza, who is the head of our investigative unit, but also is acting deputy chairperson in the absence of Archbishop Tutu.   Immediately on my left is Ms Yasmin Sooka, who is the deputy chairperson of the human rights committee and obviously a commissioner based in Johannesburg. 
 On the far left is Ms Glenda Wildschut, commissioner and a member of the Reparation and Rehabilitation committee.  
 My name is Alec Boraine acting chairperson of the Commission in the absence of Archbishop Tutu who of course is the chairperson.  
 Finally let me say again to those who are attending this we are not a court of law but we do attempt to maintain the decorum of normal court proceedings.  So far in two years of public work we've not had any major problem, we've had our difficulties but we've never had to close the proceedings and we've never had to stop those proceedings and I am sure that today will be no exception.  We will follow then the normal rules and procedures of dignity of a hearing which is extremely important in the life of our nation.  
 Amongst the visitors today is Mrs Wanda Begamasco who is actually now living in the United Kingdom and we are particularly delighted to see her not only because it is good to have someone like her here but also she just happens to be the mother of Madelaine Fullard who is one of our star researchers and we have many I want to assure you, on the Commission.  
 So with that introduction I am going to ask my colleague Yasmin Sooka to administer the oath. I'm assuming that all of you will take the oath in that all of you will probably take part in the proceedings during the day so if you would please stand for the administering of the oath.

YASMINE SOOKA: Could I ask you one by one to place your full names on the record please. Could we start over there, Mr Moosa.

MOHAMMED VALLI MOOSA: (sworn states)

MURPHY MOROBE: (sworn states)

MASUA GERARD PATRICK LEKOTA: (sworn states)

POPO MOLEFE: (sworn states)

AZHAR CACHALIA: (sworn states)

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.  We will now proceed, we will have a short break at eleven o clock and then again at one o clock if we have not completed the business before us.  I understand that you have a submission which you will want to read into the record and I am not sure who is going to do that, Mr Molefe.

POPO MOLEFE: Well I will do so but before I read our executive summary to this submission I would like Mr Murphy Morobe to briefly outline how we would like to approach today's business.