The End of Apartheid - South Africa’s Human Spirit

The media painted him as the arch-villain of the apartheid era and labelled him "Prime Evil". The Truth Commission singled him out as the man who broke the code of silence and forced security policemen to seek amnesty. He was Eugene de Kock, former commander of the Vlakplaas death squad, convicted murderer serving two life sentences and 212 years in jail for apartheid crimes, and amnesty applicant who helped convict former president PW Botha for contempt of the Truth Commission. Eugene de Kock waged war against liberation movements in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Angola in the seventies and eighties. When he returned home to fight the ANC, he said: "My war is only just starting." At Vlakplaas, the colonel led his men from the front. At various amnesty hearings, the prisoner still refused to abandon them. But for his former masters, the politicians and the generals, Eugene de Kock had only bitter venom.

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

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

By February 1999, not one single woman in South Africa had publicly appeared before the Amnesty Committee. The Truth Commission's final report said only 56 of the estimated 7 000 amnesty applicants were known to be women. Also absent from the amnesty hearings were the voices of the mothers, wives, partners and daughters of the men who perpetrated gross human rights violations. In mid-1997, we received a letter from a woman wishing to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals and threats. She simply identified herself as "Helena, from the southern Lowveld of Mpumalanga". Angie Kapelianis turned her letter into a radio story with the help of Alet Joubert, Judith Lubbe and Danny Booysen.

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

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.

Two of the most intriguing characters to appear before the Truth Commission were an idol of the liberation struggle and a killer of the apartheid state: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Joe Mamasela. She was a victim of gross human rights abuses. The apartheid government and its policemen harassed her, banished her to Brandfort in the Free State in 1977 for eight years and jailed her husband, Nelson Mandela, for a generation. Joe Mamasela, on the other hand, was a victim of both the ANC and the Security Police. His liberation movement accused him of being a police informer in 1979 and burnt his brother to death. The Security Police captured him at an ANC safe house near Pretoria, tortured him and tamed him as their "terrorist". But at separate and highly emotional hearings, both Madikizela-Mandela and Mamasela stood accused of perpetrating gross violations of human rights: abducting, assaulting and murdering fellow black South Africans. She denied the allegations. He admitted to them. Both refused to seek amnesty.

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

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: 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/

As a young man in Soweto in the seventies, Joe Mamasela was an activist following the teachings of Steve Biko and Malcolm X. But he ended up as a member of the Vlakplaas death squad, maiming and murdering his own people. Mamasela was an askari, an ANC freedom fighter that the Security Police "rehabilitated" into their own lethal weapon. An askari with a passion for gospel and soul music who killed about 40 anti-apartheid activists.

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

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.

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/ 

As Joe Mamasela detailed the most brutal killings, the people who filled the amnesty hall were silent. Unlike when Advocate Cobus Booyens questioned amnesty applicant Major Gert Lotz. Zola Ntutu and Darren Taylor highlight how Joe Mamasela played to the crowd.

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

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: 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/

"I am a victim. Victim. Victim." These words resonated throughout Joe Mamasela's public testimony. And the amnesty audience acknowledged his blackness by cheering him on. Mamasela insisted that he was a double victim of the ANC and the apartheid police. This is what he told the Amnesty Committee: "The ANC murdered my brother. I had to identify his charred and semi-decomposed remains. And then I knew, I had to avenge his death." But in front of the audience with ANC supporters, Joe Mamasela did not elaborate. Darren Taylor reports.

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

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. 

Officially, it was called the hearing into the Mandela United Football Club. Unofficially, everyone referred to it as the Winnie hearing. For nine days between November and December 1997, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela faced a battery of journalists in Johannesburg at the Truth Commissionís special hearing. "She created her own vigilante gang" out of the Football Club, said one of her fellow top ANC members. But Madikizela-Mandela, one of the most potent symbols of apartheid resistance, appeared unfazed. Throughout the hearing, she was dressed elegantly, wearing her trademark sunglasses and flashy gold rings. Antjie Samuel and Kenneth Makatees report.

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

my boy, my boy

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

I'm taking this dog away

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

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

But it was in connection with the killing of 14-year-old activist Stompie Seipei that Winnie Madikizela-Mandela would forever be linked. In 1991, she was found guilty of kidnapping Stompie from the Methodist manse in Soweto and sentenced to six years in jail. Following an appeal, she paid a fine and never served a day. Darren Taylor and Angie Kapelianis report.

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

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

In the same vein, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela denied everything, saying the Truth Commission witnesses were "hallucinating" and were either "senile" or "lunatics". She also insisted that the Football Club members were not her personal bodyguards and that she never had any control over them while they were staying at her house. "If they committed crimes on my premises, I never knew about it," she said. Zola Ntutu and Thapelo Mokushane report.

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

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