Human Rights Violation Hearings — Soweto — 1996-07-26

MS MKHIZE: A question which I would also like to ask you, is what do you think should happen or should be done to assist families like yours, who in their process of time, to bring about changes, in this country, have been left with permanent scars, like the loss of life.

SHAN NAPIER: It is a very important question that you have raised and for me to give you that answer immediately I would be just lying to you just to give you that. It takes careful consideration to answer that question of yours.  It takes a considerable period to think of something like that. It is not just an overnight, where you can just say right, this is what we want, this has to be done, but that has to be done. In my case we have experienced it.  We have had
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close ties with my brother. I mean, I know the ANC hosts a memorial sports tournament in honour of these two every year.  This would be the seventh year, the successful year.   What I am saying is that I have approached the Commission today to say that what I want the Commission to do, is we haven't received his personal belongings from the Sandton police station. We haven't got his photographs, everything was taken away when they searched his place, all his personal belongings. Nothing was given to us.  We don't have a single photograph to actually show you.  Everything has been taken away from us.  So I am basically asking the Commission that in the event one day, if the government decides at one stage for argument's sake, if we have a Heroes Acre, I would also like a memorial, a monument of some type or some sort to be erected as well in honour of him so that I can remember him as well, and many others can remember him as well and many others can remember him as well.

MS MKHIZE: Thank you very much for those suggestions, thank you.

MR LEWIN: Mr Napier, not to add too much, I would just like to ask, have you ever spoken to Ivor Powell who wrote the article in the Sunday Times?

SHAN NAPIER: Unfortunately I haven't tried to get in touch with him. On reading that statement which was made by Ivor Powell in the magazine, my first - the first thing that came to my mind was for me to actually write a letter to the Commission itself, to investigate the statement which was made there.  Luckily enough for me, I was contacted by one of the officials on the Truth Commission.

MR LEWIN: Well, that is certainly something we can do
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immediately.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr Napier, for sharing your story with us.  We know that it is very sad to lose someone, a loved one, and I think the experiences of most people today is that if they had some clarity on why, who and what, it would ease their pain and begin the healing process.  We can only begin that for people like yourself, and we hope that we will be able to assist you in that regard.   We thank you for sharing your story with us.  Thank you.
APPLAUSE

CHAIRPERSON: This brings to an end the Truth Commission hearings in Soweto.  We thank those of you who have supported us by coming to listen to the stories of witnesses. We thank you for supporting them and for sharing in their pain.  We hope that for them the healing process will begin.  We trust too that all of us will go away with a sense of what the cost liberation has been for our country.  Many, many people have died and in the process we have had an election, we have elected a new government and yet democracy is not completely here. However, this is not the end of the Truth Commission hearings. It is simply the end of the hearings in Soweto.  All these cases which we have heard here will be referred to our investigation unit for them to begin the process of establishing what happened to many of the people mentioned in those stories.
 We will be travelling however, throughout the different areas and we will be encouraging people to come forward and to make their statements.  People in Soweto, Lenasia, Eldorado Park and all these surrounding areas, have still
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another period of 18 months in which to bring forward their statements, if they have been the victims of gross human rights violation. We would urge you, and many of you have approached us during these hearings, to contact our offices, so that we can arrange for your statements to be taken. In particular, we would like to thank Father Remny who has given us the Jaina Mundy and has assisted us in the holding of these hearings.  
 We would also like to thank all the witnesses who have come forward. We would like to thank our staff for the sterling job that they have done. We would like to thank the translators because simultaneous interpretation is a skill which we are only learning in this country now.  
  We would also like to thank all the people, the community workers and councillors who have supported our briefers, the media personnel, the caterers and also the police who have allowed us to have these hearings in safety.   Under the previous regime we would not have been able to call upon the police to make these premises secure.  However, thankfully under the new Ministry we have been able to rely on them and it is thanks to them that we have been able to hold these hearings in such safety and security.
 We would also like to thank all of those people who have been covering the Truth Commission, because we know that for healing to take place in our country it is important that stories of the victims are told and heard.  Because for many people they do not know what people have suffered in this country.  Thank you very, very much for attending.
APPLAUSE
 We would also like to say a special thank you to the 
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clergy who have assisted us on Sunday and every day until today.  Thank you very, very much.
 We would also ask that people remember that these ear-phones and head-bands belong to the people over there. So that they could please be returned and not taken away.
COMMISSION ADJOURNS
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