The End of Apartheid - South Africa’s Human Spirit

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its final report to President Nelson Mandela in Pretoria on the 29th of October 1998. This was the commission’s primary finding: The apartheid state committed the most gross violations of human rights through its security and law-enforcement agencies. The National Party government became involved in criminal activities when it knowingly planned, undertook, condoned and covered up unlawful acts inside and outside South Africa. It also colluded with certain political groupings, most notably the Inkatha Freedom Party. In turn, the Truth Commission found the ANC morally and politically accountable for gross human rights abuses committed during the liberation struggle. Its security department was found to have routinely tortured and severely ill-treated detainees in exile to extract confessions. Darren Taylor reports on the day that the ANC went to court to try to stop the Truth Commission from releasing its findings.

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/windowsright.htm#ngeke 

windows of history - reflective and self-analytical flashbacks keep open rather than close the doors of the truth commission 

© 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 defining moment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission varies from person to person. For some it will always be the moment the Truth Commission opened the floodgates of human suffering in East London in 1996. Or those rare moments of reconciliation, intimacy and even destruction between victim and perpetrator. For others, it is the pall of brutality and senselessness that has been exhumed with plastic-sealed skeletons and shattered bones from unmarked graves. Then there is the so-called "triumph of the truth" – the day that the architect of the Truth Commission, the ANC, failed in court to stop the release of the TRC’s findings. Angie Kapelianis asked the men and women tasked with exposing the truth and promoting reconciliation what defined the Truth Commission for them.

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/windowsright.htm#long

windows of history - reflective and self-analytical flashbacks keep open rather than close the doors of the truth commission

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

There is no roadmap for setting up a truth commission or a path to guaranteed success. That’s the view of Priscilla Hayner who has researched several truth commissions around the world. So how does one gauge the success of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission? Journalists who have covered the beat from day one will probably say that the commission’s greatest success is the face and voice it has put to apartheid. The public space and recognition it has given to the scarred faces and broken voices of victim, perpetrator and ultimately survivor. Angie Kapelianis asked the truth commissioners what they regarded as their greatest achievement.

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/windowsright.htm#tell

windows of history - reflective and self-analytical flashbacks keep open rather than close the doors of the truth commission

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

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has taken a bold step in its final report by acknowledging some of its own failings and shortcomings. The Truth Commission admits that it failed to call certain key actors, especially IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi. It failed to make significant inroads into the post-1990 violence. It also failed to establish the complicity of local governments, universities, state-funded research bodies and former homelands like Venda, Lebowa and Bophuthatswana. The Truth Commission says its investigations into Military Intelligence and special forces were conducted too late for adequate follow-up. But it was also severely restricted from accessing military archives and classified records with the creation of the Defence Force nodal point. The truth commissioners shared some of these and other feelings of failure and regret with Angie Kapelianis.

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/windowsright.htm#sorry

windows of history - reflective and self-analytical flashbacks keep open rather than close the doors of the truth commission

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

Is there life after the TRC? This question has repeatedly been asked of those intimately involved in translating the story of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission since 1996. From the men and women who have shuttled between all the country’s major languages to interpret thousands of emotional stories and conflicting perspectives of the apartheid era. From the journalists who have criss-crossed the country almost every single week to reflect those personal accounts in words, pictures, voices and sounds. And from the truth commissioners who have had to keep the process glued together and make sense of it for everyone. Angie Kapelianis asked the truth commissioners what they planned to do with their lives after South Africa’s history of gross human rights abuses had been chronicled.

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

windows of history - reflective and self-analytical flashbacks keep open rather than close the doors of the truth commission

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

One incident that pushed South Africa to the brink of anarchy was the assassination of Communist Party leader Chris Hani. Millions loved him for his role in the ANC's armed wing, his militant speeches against white supremacy and his promise to uplift the poor. For these same reasons, apartheid supporters detested him. And on the 10th of April 1993, he was dead. Polish right-winger Janusz Walus and Conservative Party member Clive Derby-Lewis were sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment, for murdering Chris Hani. When Derby-Lewis and Walus testified for amnesty in June and August 1997, they were forced to explain why they had gunned down the man who called for peace only four days before his death. Angie Kapelianis, Darren Taylor and Antjie Samuel report on the amnesty hearing that could become a test case for reconciliation.

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

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.

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 

The defining moment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission varies from person to person. For some it will always be the moment the Truth Commission opened the floodgates of human suffering in East London in 1996. Or those rare moments of reconciliation, intimacy and even destruction between victim and perpetrator. For others, it is the pall of brutality and senselessness that has been exhumed with plastic-sealed skeletons and shattered bones from unmarked graves. Then there is the so-called "triumph of the truth" – the day that the architect of the Truth Commission, the ANC, failed in court to stop the release of the TRC’s findings. Angie Kapelianis asked the men and women tasked with exposing the truth and promoting reconciliation what defined the Truth Commission for them.

Transcript: http://www.sabctruth.co.za/sabctruth/windowsright.htm#long

windows of history - reflective and self-analytical flashbacks keep open rather than close the doors of the truth commission

© 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=Si89RLFreaw