The End of Apartheid - South Africa’s Human Spirit

The National Party in the form of its leader, FW de Klerk, appeared before the Truth Commission in Cape Town in August 1996 and May 1997. De Klerk accepted responsibility for the wrongs in South Africa while he was president from 1989 to 1994. He admitted to authorising certain operations against the liberation movements. But those operations, said De Klerk, never included official permission to torture and murder activists. He also conceded that many repressive measures had contributed to human rights abuses during the apartheid era. But the lasting image of De Klerk at the Truth Commission soured almost everyone’s respect for the man who so boldly unbanned South Africa in 1990 and publicly apologised for his country’s suffering. Darren Taylor, Antjie Samuel, Kenneth Makatees and Angie Kapelianis report.

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

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.

Additional music: B - Somber Ballads by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://incompetech.com/

She was proud to be a revolutionary. And proud to be an African woman. But she had no idea how she would be battered physically, mentally and emotionally for her beliefs. By the apartheid Security Police, the prison authorities and even her own sisters in the struggle. She was Greta Appelgren, the ANC’s woman in the 1986 Magoo’s Bar bombing in Durban. And the coloured Catholic who converted to Islam to become Zahrah Narkedien. Angie Kapelianis tells Narkedien’s story of suffering and strength both in jail and in the colour of her skin. 

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

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

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The ANC presented the longest and most complicated political submission to the Truth Commission when it was called to account for its past in 1996 and 1997. The former liberation movement acknowledged that some of its members committed gross human rights violations in exile, but called these abuses "excesses". It also admitted that its military tribunal in Angola executed 34 cadres. On behalf of the ANC, Deputy President Thabo Mbeki apologised for incidents in which civilians were killed, like the Amanzimtoti and Magoo’s Bar bombings in KwaZulu-Natal in the mid-eighties. But the main thrust of the ANC submission was that it fought a just war against an illegitimate government and unjust system. Kenneth Makatees, Angie Kapelianis, Darren Taylor and Antjie Samuel report. 

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

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.

Five commissions of inquiry investigated torture in the ANC camps abroad during the liberation struggle against apartheid. They were the Stuart, Skweyiya, Sachs, Motsuenyane and Douglas commissions. Yet several victims jailed in the ANC’s notorious Quatro Camp in Angola were dissatisfied with their findings and turned to the Truth Commission for help. The most eloquent and damning testimony, though, came from one of the ANC government’s own senior officials, Chief Land Claims Commissioner Joe Seremane. Antjie Samuel reports. 

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

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

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Who was ultimately responsible for gross human rights abuses committed in the name of apartheid and Christianity? And why did almost all apartheid foot soldiers interpret veiled orders like "eliminate" and "neutralise" to mean "kill"? These questions prompted the Truth Commission to hold a hearing into the once-powerful State Security Council in mid-October 1997. This advisory committee to Cabinet was born under the premiership of BJ Vorster in 1972. It became known as the "super inner-Cabinet" of hand-picked politicians, securocrats and intelligence agents when PW Botha came into power in 1978. The State Security Council apparently kept its finger on the pulse of political thinking and resistance by permeating all levels of society. Four apartheid ministers who served on this body were Pik Botha, Adriaan Vlok, Roelf Meyer and Leon Wessels. Angie Kapelianis asked Truth Commissioner Yasmin Sooka for her impressions of their testimony. 

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

"Asikhathali" - Moegamat Williams 

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

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.

Additional music: B - Somber Ballads by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://incompetech.com/

The apartheid legal system came under the Truth Commission’s gavel in October 1997. It wanted to know how did judges and lawyers co-operate or collude with the National Party government? Why did South Africa’s learned men uphold unjust laws? And why did they fail to protect the human rights of all South Africans? But the men who could have answered these questions decided to boycott the hearing. South Africa’s first black chief justice, Ismail Mahomed, said there was no need for the judges to account for their actions in person and in public. Angie Kapelianis compiled this collage of criticism levelled at the judges. 

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

"I saw your mother" - Jeremy Cronin 

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

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

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Convicted former president PW Botha was the one crucial apartheid politician who could have shed more light on the official sanctioning of gross human rights violations. Botha chaired the State Security Council from 1978 to 1989. But instead of succumbing to the Truth Commission, Botha chose to face the court system for eight months and lost. George Magistrate Victor Lugaju found Botha guilty of contempt on the 21st of August 1998 for repeatedly ignoring subpoenas to testify in public. Lugaju said Botha’s failure to testify was unlawful, intentional and without sufficient cause. His sentence was a R10 000 fine or one year in jail. An additional 12-month prison sentence was suspended for five years. This is an extract from Botha’s media briefing at the start of his expensive trial in January 1998. 

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

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

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Additional music by Whitesand - Do You Feel What I Feel? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM7qA8n9S88&list=RDkQSoW1VnkH4&index=47 

The apartheid government’s top-secret Chemical and Biological Warfare Programme sealed the Truth Commission’s investigations into gross human rights abuses on the 31st of July 1998. South Africans and the world listened with disbelief and then shock to a group of doctors who perverted science to entrench white supremacy. Truth Commission Chairperson Desmond Tutu described the public testimony on the programme, code-named Project Coast, as "the worst evidence I’ve ever heard". Some of the apartheid scientists disclosed how they tried to produce a vaccine and a bacterium to sterilise and kill only black people. But the most disturbing allegation was that the apartheid government planned to poison jailed ANC leader Nelson Mandela in the eighties. Darren Taylor compiled this report. 

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

"For don m - banned" - Mongane Wally Serote 

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

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.

Additional music by Whitesand - Do You Feel What I Feel? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM7qA8n9S88&list=RDkQSoW1VnkH4&index=47 

The Truth Commission's first public amnesty hearing was held in the relatively obscure village of Phokeng near Rustenburg in May 1996. The applicants were two convicts serving time for murdering Glad Mokgatle on the 29th of December 1990. They were 35-year-old Boy Diale and 53-year-old Christopher Makgale. Their amnesty hearing revealed a dramatic story layered with subtext. About a killing, a tribe, resources and, ultimately, power. But it also introduced a new scene in the Truth Commission play, with different actors and different lines. Antjie Samuel, Andries Sathekge and Angie Kapelianis report.

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

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

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Additional music - Dark Walk 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=USUAN1100468 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ 

The Amnesty Committee's first public hearing of convicted white Afrikaans perpetrators was also its first rejection of amnesty. Forty-seven-year-old Hennie Gerber and 42-year-old Johan van Eyk appeared before the amnesty panel in Pretoria in July 1996. Gerber and Van Eyk were former policemen and ex-investigators with the cash-in-transit company Fidelity Guards. On the 21st of May 1991, they interrogated, tortured, shot dead and burnt their colleague Samuel Kganakga. They had suspected him of being involved in an armed robbery of about R4 million and the theft of R60 000. Angie Kapelianis and Darren Taylor report.

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

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.

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/