Special Hearings — Faith Community Hearings — 1997-11-17

DOMINEE KWAHO: I want to appeal to the Dutch Reformed Church to take us seriously.   If I say us I mean the blacks particularly of the Dutch Reformed Church family.   To stop interpreting the lives they want against the lives God wants us to live.   When you talk with the Dutch Reformed Church you find people who can ...[inaudible]   and seemingly who are very serious confessing, but some of us who have been   living with them, learned that they are good in confessing but to continue with   their confession, to implement their confession is another struggle. And should   you remind them of what they confessed you are seen to be a dangerous element.   Die "Swart Gevaar" - you name them, they have been mentioned here. 
So my appeal is, let them be faced with God, not with us. Let them be faced   with God.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much. We obviously hope that all of us are aware   that we stand under the judgement of the cross of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus   Christ and as we said yesterday, we all are aware that we have fallen short   of the glory of God and that we each must stand before this heavenly throne   and be as honest as we can be and open to the movement of God's holy spirit,   each in our different denominations and our different faith communities, thanking   God for the grace that God has provided each one of us, and the challenge that   God has issued[TAPE ENDS] [inaudible] that need to be addressed,   but that there are still things that we still need to do, the acknowledgement   of the past and the commitment to bring about real change in the circumstances   especially of those who were the victims and we have heard many wonderful things   since we began yesterday and we want to give thanks to all of those who have   participated and who have made themselves vulnerable in coming here and we hope   that that appeals that are made will be received in the spirit in which they   are made because I hope that we will all be aware that we do not come to put   people in the dock, we must put ourselves in the dock. Each one of us must be   ready to examine themselves and as I said yesterday, we want to confess our   sins, not the sins of another and let the other be moved too, to be willing   to acknowledge the wrongs that they have done and that we should be ready to   repent, be ready to ask for forgiveness, ready to give forgiveness where it   is required of us to do that and that we should hold hands and be ready to tackle   the problems that we all are aware of in this beautiful country. 
Thank you very much indeed for your participation, your contribution which   we know will continue for the good of God's church, for the extension of God's   kingdom and for the service of God's people. Baie dankie.
Can we just have a moment's silence before we break and then I'm asking Joyce   to close with a prayer?

UNKNOWN: CLOSED WITH A PRAYER

COMMITTEE ADJOURNS: ON RESUMPTION - 19 NOVEMBER 1997

CHAIRPERSON: We welcome you warmly with both hands. We appreciate your presence   here. We greet Bishop Maganyane, we thank him for coming here. We thank him   for being here with us today. 
To this meeting, the third day of a special hearing of the Truth and Reconciliation   Commission. 
REPEATS WELCOME IN AFRIKAANS AND XHOSA.
We want to begin straight away and we want to call Imam Solomon, representing   the Muslim Judicial Council. We thank you very much for coming. We will have   a total of about twenty minutes. Say ten to fifteen minutes of your presentation,   and the rest of the time being for questions.
Because it gets quite warm in here, I will allow - there are some people who   have taken off even before - but I will still allow you the gentlemen to take   off their jackets if they want to do so. Thank you very much. Will you please   stand to take the oath or the affirmation?
ADMINISTERS AFFIRMATION.