From soul to gospel. From murderer to born-again Christian. Joe Mamasela was a big man, who walked in expensive suits and drove a red BMW. He was a strange apartheid killer. He was black. And he used the Truth Commission not to plead for forgiveness, but to challenge the authorities. "I'm not applying for amnesty. So prosecute me," he said. He remained an enigma. Victim and perpetrator. Loving father and murderer of children. He was also regarded as the "cleanest killer of them all". Zola Ntutu reports.

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/portraitsright.htm#this

portraits of truth - former vlakplaas askari joe mamasela and former liberation icon winnie madikizela-mandela as enigmas

© SABC 2020. No unauthorised use, copying, adaptation or reproduction permitted without prior written consent of the SABC.

Additional music: Blue Feather - Reunited by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1200068 Artist: http://incompetech.com/

He was unknown to the Security Police at Vlakplaas near Pretoria until they were told to "make a plan" with him. Several banning orders, long days in detention and a spell on Robben Island had failed to break his spirit and crush his fight against apartheid. He was Griffiths Mxenge, the human rights lawyer who vigorously defended ANC comrades. So they abducted, stabbed and hammered him to death at Umlazi, south of Durban, in November 1981. Fifteen years later, in October 1996, three of Mxengeís awaiting-trial murderers appeared before the Amnesty Committee in Durban. They were Dirk Coetzee, Almond Nofemela and David Tshikalanga. Although they had already broken their oath of silence on the apartheid governmentís death-squads seven years earlier, they had never buried their skeletons. Angie Kapelianis and Dumisani Shange report.

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/worldsright.htm#till

worlds of licence - self-confessed violators of human rights from across south africa's political landscape

© SABC 2020. No unauthorised use, copying, adaptation or reproduction permitted without prior written consent of the SABC.

This documentary transports the listener through raw sound to the unprecedented public hearings at which survivors - victims, perpetrators and others – testified about gross human rights abuses since 1960. It contains award-winning stories with lots of gripping and contextual sound. Well-known musicians, storytellers, poets, former political prisoners, exiles and most of the Truth Commissioners thread the story of South Africa's past with music, song, poetry and commentary. This oral record aims to preserve for posterity the rich gamut of viewpoints, memories and emotions of South Africa's history - apartheid and democracy.

Web page: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/index.htm

Butterflies in the pit - Desmond Tutu

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/bonesright.htm#butterflies

© SABC 2020. No unauthorised use, copying, adaptation or reproduction permitted without prior written consent of the SABC.

Additional music by Whitesand - Eternity - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5c83Uixoj8

The first week of Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in East London was an exceptional one in South Africa. Nothing like the miracle election of April 1994. Nothing like the Government of National Unity. And nothing like South Africa’s unifying sport victories. Mid-April 1996 was a week in which the country and its people came face to face with their past for the first time. Darren Taylor and Zola Ntutu reflect on the dominant themes that surfaced in the first four days of the Truth Commission’s probe into gross human rights abuses during the apartheid era.

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/bonesright.htm#unlock

Gifts of justice, mercy and compassion 

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/bonesright.htm#gifts 

Wounded people

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/bonesright.htm#wounded

In session

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/bonesright.htm#session

Witness to great courage 

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/bonesright.htm#witness

Dance unshackled - letters read by Desmond Tutu

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/bonesright.htm#dance

bones of memory - experiences and memories lay bare the pain and bravery of apartheid's victims

 © SABC 2020. No unauthorised use, copying, adaptation or reproduction permitted without prior written consent of the SABC.

Additional music by Whitesand - Melody Of My Dreams - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si89RLFreaw

The next Truth Commission hearing into gross human rights abuses at Athlone in Cape Town was also filled with protracted pain. But it was a week flavoured and characterised by the undertones of the Western Cape, where tensions were still entrenched within communities. The victims of the 1993 St James Church massacre echoed the forgiveness of the Cradock Four widows in East London. But the Lubowskis, whose son and brother Anton was assassinated in Windhoek in September 1989, mirrored the lust for justice of Steve Biko’s family. Angie Kapelianis and Darren Taylor look back at that mind-blowing week.

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/bonesright.htm#crystal 

The bones of memory - Gcina Mhlophe

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/bonesright.htm#bones

bones of memory - experiences and memories lay bare the pain and bravery of apartheid's victims

© SABC 2020. No unauthorised use, copying, adaptation or reproduction permitted without prior written consent of the SABC.

Additional music - Heartbreaking by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100208 Artist: http://incompetech.com/

The Truth Commission’s symbolic hearings into gross human rights abuses moved from Cape Town to Johannesburg between April and May 1996. Again a number of themes were raised under the ceiling and the cross of the Central Methodist Church, where the hearing was held. For the first time an ordinary apartheid policeman came across as being sympathetic towards the comrades and opposed to the free rein of the notorious Security Branch. South Africans of Indian origin were finally recognised for their role in the liberation struggle. But some of these shifts in the Truth Commission script were lost on all but those paying the most undivided attention as the pain first experienced in East London resurfaced. Darren Taylor and Antjie Samuel return to the Johannesburg testimonies.

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/bonesright.htm#hell

Hearing in Alex - Hugh Lewin

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/bonesright.htm#hearing

bones of memory - experiences and memories lay bare the pain and bravery of apartheid's victims

© SABC 2020. No unauthorised use, copying, adaptation or reproduction permitted without prior written consent of the SABC.

The Truth Commission wrapped up its symbolic round of public hearings into gross human rights abuses in Durban on the 10th of May 1996. Evidence heard at the Jewish Club provided some insight into the violence that was still ravaging KwaZulu-Natal long after South Africa’s first democratic elections had brought peace to most of the country. Many ANC members and supporters blamed the Inkatha Freedom Party in absentia for abuses they had suffered. A glaring gap was that the experiences of IFP members went untold in the same week that South Africa’s democratic Constitution was adopted. And in the same week that the National Party walked out of the Government of National Unity. Kenneth Makatees and Darren Taylor bring to mind what happened in Durban.

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/bonesright.htm#glaring 

The beast of our dark past - Desmond Tutu

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/bonesright.htm#beast 

"Nkosi sikelel’ iafrika" and "Die stem"

bones of memory - experiences and memories lay bare the pain and bravery of apartheid's victims

© SABC 2020. No unauthorised use, copying, adaptation or reproduction permitted without prior written consent of the SABC.

Additional music by Whitesand - Melody Of My Dreams - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si89RLFr

"Last will and testament" - Ariel Dorfman

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/slicesright.htm#last 

the imprisonment under apartheid of all south africans - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually 

© SABC 2020. No unauthorised use, copying, adaptation or reproduction permitted without prior written consent of the SABC.

The Truth Commission’s first-ever partial event hearing took place at the Regina Mundi Catholic Church in Soweto in mid-July 1996. The focus was the twentieth anniversary of the June 16 Soweto uprising – the day thousands of black children revolted against the apartheid system of Bantu Education and Afrikaans as the medium of instruction. All hell broke out when the police unleashed their dogs, tear gas and bullets on students armed with stones, knives and fire. The official cost a week later: more than a thousand injuries, 900 arrests and 140 corpses – the first being that of teenager Hector Peterson. He became the innocent symbol in the turning point of the liberation struggle for democracy.

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/slicesright.htm#you 

slices of life - the imprisonment under apartheid of all south africans - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually

© SABC 2020. No unauthorised use, copying, adaptation or reproduction permitted without prior written consent of the SABC.

The Truth Commission went behind bars in July 1997 to investigate gross human rights abuses committed in the apartheid prisons and ANC camps in exile. One of the aims of the two-day hearing was to record the memories of so many political prisoners whose lives were wasted. Another was to recommend to government ways of creating a human rights culture in places of detention. The hearing was held at the old fort in Johannesburg, or "Number Four", as the prison was commonly known. One person who had eerie memories returning to the old fort was Truth Commission member Hugh Lewin. He spent seven years in jail for sabotage in the sixties. This is how Lewin captured the essence of imprisonment in his book, called Bandiet.

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/slicesright.htm#butcher

slices of life - the imprisonment under apartheid of all south africans - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually

© SABC 2020. No unauthorised use, copying, adaptation or reproduction permitted without prior written consent of the SABC.