Special Hearings — Mental Health Workshop — UNKNOWN

MR STAFFER: Hlengiwe, Carl Staffer, Lucas Paid Fellowship Centre and also the Survivor/Offender Mediation. I think in summary for myself it's been a fruitful two days, just gleaning a lot of knowledge around what is happening in the field, but I think I have questions on a much more practical level at many times and that is 1, the implementing body that is to follow the work of the TRC.  How is that body being put together, what will they be doing, how much of a profile will they be given?  The TRC's been given a very high profile, how are we going to also place the same emphasis and importance on this implementing body because where the real long haul of the work of our country is going to be in trying to bring that reconciliation and that transformation.  We've got a long road ahead of us in that regard and I think here we're talking about the mental health of our society and the well-being if you want to us that word but that's a future looking thing but it's a long road before us.  How are we looking at rebuilding this country and I think again practically what we need to do is continue to highlight what's happening on local levels in communities, small, seemingly maybe low budget and somewhat insignificant that aren't getting exposure, where communities are really working with the hard issues and I'll just name a few of those; the Video Dialogue Project in the East Rand which is using video, having taken an SDU and an SPU commander and given them a video camera and they've gone and told their story from their side with their constituencies with their families, then came together to try to put joint video together and then the process now is after that joint video which was a process of reconciliation just for the two of them and a process of growth and healing, is their having public viewings and these public viewings are bringing the community together to view this joint story that they've written now and then they break in to commissions and begin to talk about what is the future, how do we build the community that was fractured in the past in so many ways?   There would be other examples, I'm just going to leave it with that but we need to highlight that, these examples and we need to pick up on them. I think it's about humanising this whole thing, really making this a human thing.  The network that I'm with is about seeing how can we bring communities or individuals together who represent survivors and perpetrators, how do we bring them together and talk on the human level?  Because some of the breakthrough in transmission is not going to happen until we get into the heart of those who have been part of the process.

MS MKHIZE: Thank you, any other comments?  Luca.
MS LUCA(?): I wanted to ask you something, I've forgotten your name.  Carl.  I just wanted to know what measures have you in ...(indistinct) to protect these people who are bringing together the videos.  My understanding and learning is that there are people out there who are out to commercialise the whole thing and revalue the misery behind basically.

MR STAFFER: No I think the effort has been, the video has been as much as possible the video has been the property of a local community-based organisation Consimunye which is made of SDU/SPU's, so they with the assistance of the Media Peace Centre and other NGO's have worked at this and it's trying to stay as much as possible within the community to be an empowering process for them, I don't know what you've heard or what the process - as far as I'm concerned, as far as I know there hasn't been a commercial organisation of this, this has been more of an effort to try to get the community to be into dialogue to begin to talk about some of the issues and there are also current issues now, issues of displacement and housing and that sort of thing that are also brought into the process because those are future points of conflict.

MS LUCA: ...(indistinct microphone off)...wanting sometimes to come forward and tell their story and so on because they say from experience the academics or the people are having self-empowering hidden agendas of coming there, picking up their stories, making money out of it, asking for funds on their behalf and they just leave them like that.

MS MKHIZE: Okay maybe can we move to other comments because we also want to round off this session.  Any other comments?   Okay Julanie first.

MR STAFFER: No can I just feed back an issue that came up yesterday around the testimony of psychologists?   I think it's something that we have to discuss within the committee but I think probably what's going to happen is that we will send somebody to make a presentation to the Amnesty Committee around the issues around psychological testimony regarding taking it to a professional board.  I think we have to make a decision on that but I think we we've taken those comments very ...(indistinct intervention) sorry well okay well then we'll hand it back to you as well but I think in terms of our own internal raising the awareness of the Amnesty Committee members, I think we will have a presentation.

PROF SEEDAT: I could not be sitting here yesterday and not  take note of the very serious questions raised in Professors Nicholas' comments yesterday and to that end I'm going to take up that case.  Professor Nicholas will be giving me the actual copies of the reports and we'll need the names of the psychologists so that it can be investigated a s a p as a matter that is 1, unprofessional and disgraceful because of what I said yesterday that it was based on unscientific knowledge about the diagnosis that was preferred as well as look at the whole attempt to denigrate the profession and defeat the ends of justice.  So that will be taken up.  How you know the Commission and the different committees want to proceed with it is within your right but I think it cannot be like, we act like the old-day police force and say nobody laid a complaint, you know somebody was killed there and nobody laid a complaint for God's sake man.  This is very clearly something that we have to take public note of and act, and to act to protect the profession and the public belief that the profession is worthy of note.

MS LUCA: Did you say as who you are, what cap are you wearing for our records?

DR COOPER: Oh I'm as the member of the professional board I will take it up besides the fact we're here as well as representing the psychological society which is the official body representing psychology in this country.  So from both sides we will definitely take it up, I mean my colleagues here.  By the way Lionel Nicholas is the editor of the journal and you may find actually there's a need for a special issue in the journal around the mental health sector and who's done what and it's about those silences that we have always noted over the decades coming from this sector and what we need to be doing, we always must start from our own house really rather than pointing fingers and in the past we have been on the side of accusing those people in power.  Now that some of us have acceded to that power in some fashion it will be incumbent on us to exercise our responsibility in a fair and just manner, and that's what we have to do and the public needs to see us doing that as well, not believe that well now that all these black people are in those places, they are just going to do those things that were done in the past, so what else is new?