E EPISCOPAL CHURCHPEOPLE for a FREE SOUTHtRN AFRICA C 5 339 Lafayette Street A Phone: (212) 477-0066 New York, N.Y. 10012 fax: (212) 979 .. 1013 1 May 1998 #190 founded Z2 June Z956
'If we are called to serve Africa we can set no limits t o ourselves.'
Scourge of apartheid di~s
After his expulsion from Trevor Huddleston, mentor to South Africa, he was an inspi ration for a generation which politicians, clerics and musicians, worked in Britain for apart heid's overthrow_ He founded more than anyone made the fight the Defence and Aid Fund which smuggled in funds to to free South Africa a world South Africa for the defence of political prisoners and the sup issue, writes Victoria Brittain port of dependants_ As he grew older he seemed CHBISHOP Trevor stayed there." to grow fiercer. He would Huddleston, who de The Archbishop of Canter return from visits to Tanzania voted much of his bury, Dr George Carey, said: incensed by the ruthless desta jlJlife to the struggle "He will be remembered espe bilisation of the region by the . galnst apartheid cially for the battles he fought apartheid regime_ His outrage died yesterday, aged 84. on behalf of the ordinary black and oratory fllled meetings in The archbishop, who South African." He had been the Royal Commonwealth received a knighthood in the "a man of simple lifestyle and Society hall. New Year's Honours for bls a tireless compassionate advo . He was m ' impatient man, contribution to bringing cate for tbe poor and and lived to see his ringing about democracy in South Af· marginalised". pledge to .outlive apartheid rica, was a founder of the John Monks, TUC general come true. Anti-Apartheid Movement in secretary, said: "Bishop Hud He was Impatient with his 1959 and became its president. dleston was a hero to many allies, too, and drove them His assistant, Jill Thomp trade unionists. Many people Fr Huddleston. qed 47. sets 01I [or Tanpn)'ika hard. Everyone forgave him son, said he died peacefully at will feel they have lost a because be was equally hard 10.30am, in Mirfield, York friend." tall white man In a flowing lmmortaliBed In eome d the on himself. But he liked a good shire. "He had been feeling As a priest of the Commu cassock who came into a hostel best jazz ever written by South do, too, and at his 75th and 80th ill for the past couple of days nity of the Resurrection, Hud for blind black women where African musicians In exile. birthday parties the singing and he died of old age." dleston was posted to South Af Tambo's mother was a cook, The greatest of those musi and the food and drink outdid Bishop Desmond Tutu was rica in the early 19405. He and raised his hat to ber. For cians. Hugh Masekela. was the speeches. among the rm to paid tribute: became active in the struggle the first time, Tambo SaId, he given his tlrst · trumpet by The archbishop had a pri· "If you could say anybody against apartheid and formed realised that all whites were Huddleston. vate gentle side, too. He had a single-handedly made apart lifelong friendships with lead not the same. He wrote a book on South gift for communicating with heid a world issue, then that ers such as Oliver Tambo and As a priest in Sophiatown, Africa, Naught For Your Com children and was a friend to person was Trevor Huddles Nelson Mandela, Johannesburg, Huddleston fort. 42 years ago - a blister those be took on after apart ton. He was my mentor and Tambo, the late president of witnessed the atrocity of the ing attack on the Group Areas heid had wounded them or inspired me and many others. the African National Congress forced removal of the black Act and the Bantu Education their parents. He made sure that apartheid during its long years In exile, community - a wound which Act which pve apartheid Its got on to the world agenda and told of his astonishment at the never healed and which was backbone. SEEING 1tevor Huddleston THI J N Dlrl N DI N T changing trains at Liverpool TUISDA Y 21 Ar R JI t998 Street station, .mtl'S thl' Vl'ry ...... ,...... 19 . Rl'" Alan Webster. an East An· glian company chairman said, "For me he is a dangerous man. He makes me do good things I do not want to do, and ture. lb me it is pathetic not to enactment of Christ's dctc:rmi· stops me doing the bad things understand this." nation to JO tCl Jerusalem, even I /:lad intended." Younger people seemed to ""hen 5t Petcr urged caution Certainly the charisma and unclerstand him better than ei· and discretion. In this situation authority of this determined, ther his episcopal contempo· the Church could only be laughing. radical bishop has raries or even his Mirfield authentic in protest. been felt wherever he has brethren. To one 18-year-old The world gradually recog· worked: South Africa, the East preparing to go to Cameroon on nised him as it did no other Eng· End of London, Tanzania Bnd VSO. it seemed natural to ask lish cleric. Naught For Your Mauritius. Huddleston lived for his blessing. ':All you must Comfort had been 8 best·seller. out the essentials - prayer and do is to listen," he said. When In November 1994 he was righteous action - which the a newly married pair took Hud· awarded both the Torch of Kil· The Qu.rdl." Tuesday April 21 1998 marl)Ted Dietrich Bonhoeffer dleston to the London Indian imanjaro, the highest award of laid dov.lI for that post·war restaurant Veeraswamy's, he the Tanzanian government, church he Dever lived to see. talked with all the children at and the Indira Gandhi Award Ironically, the strength of the neighbouring 18hles. When East for Peace, Disarmament and QlUrch of England at that time End parishes enacted a passion Development. 'This Subsequl'nlly, I went to a lay Dot in the common mind of ' play, The Way of the Cross, Awarding the latter, Sonia high school In .Johannf'S· the traditional establishment through the streets, Huddles!vil Gandhi, daughter-in·law of the burg. 'f bI' father!; of thp Community of the Rf'Surr£'c· but in its complete inability to again, without affectation, assassinated Indira, and widow man don, of whleh Father Tre· control the spiritual power of talked with and blessed children of the assassinated Raj iv, de· vor was a mE'mber. ran a Huddleston and his followers, on the pavements. It was as if St acribed Trevor Huddleston as a hostel f<>r young blacks In Sophlatown. wherE' I s ta\"l'd. who captivated younger Chris· Francis was walking round the "sentinel of freedom and broth· of God' I made my fi rst r£'All y good tians as did DO other religious parish ofSt Dunstan's, Stepney. erhood and a crusader against sacrampntal confE'ssion to leader in the second half of the He was exceedingly acute racism, a man of conviction and him. His office would, onl' MUST have bet-n I'II/:hl or moment. have sen'ral of 20th century. politically. He foresaw, long compassion and a champion of nlnl' " 'hen I firsl "aw Tr£'· Though he founded "Fair before the British government, universal justice and peace". vor Huddl('l;ton. though I what he called his "crt'a. I tures" pla~ing marhlE'S 011 Play" for children short of play· that apartheid would collapse if These words, spoken in the for· did not know thrn II " .. a~ he, writ('s Archhlshop Dt>s· thl' floor, IhE' next il )"ould ingfields, and the Huddleston enough pressure were applied mer Vice·Regal Lodge built by rrwnd Tutu. be his mepllng placl' •• lIh. Centre for Handicapped Chil by the outside world. He was the Empire which Huddleston's say. Yl'hudl !I1enuhin. who My mothl'r was a cook al came to play In (;hrist the dren in aaptOD, east London, clever to seize on sporting sanc parents had served. felt like a • hostl'J for blind hlack King Church. nevor Huddleston did Dot set tions against white South supreme tribute. women. Those w(Orl' th£' days when Soulh 'Africa's I uSE'd to sit on Tre,·or's out to attract the young; it sim Africa; this was not in his eyes Nadine Gordimer treasures lap. as did othl'" of his pro policies wert' onl~ ' slil/:hlly tegl's. among whom are ply happened wherever he was. bringing politics into sport, but a photograph of Huddleston in Jess Vicious than thpv be He had been warned when he simply rejecting as a kind of 1952 at the beginning of his love Archbishop WaltH Mak· caml' under the apartheid hulu, of Cl'ntral Afrle-A . and became a monk that not having blasphemy the laws which pre affair with Africa. He is looking law8. If you wl're black. ,'ou tbE' jazz trumjM'tH. lIul!h children would hit him hardest. vented black and white playing intently at a group of Africans. countl'd for littl£' In t hI' land Ma!Ol'k£'la . AfThhl.hop Tn" of your birth. As a hlack vor ~t Hugh hi' nr-:t tnlm· But he was a magnet to the games together. More than any She describes his fuceas woman, you "H'rl' 1" 'l'n pel as II gift from t hr ItrPat young, and was quick to see other international and Com lit only by a tin brazier - I pair of morl' dlsad'·anlal/:l'd. Louis Arm~lrong . Whf'n I their potential. Hugh Maseke1a, monwealth measures, these gaunt, tightly clasped hands, the treated as a perpelual c:ontractl'd tubl-rcul".I_ and who became one of Africa's sporting sanctions alerted Boer bright white band of a clerical collar minor in the eyes oflhe law. SJM'nt 22 m!JT1ths In ho<;p ilal. . .. the ear cocked intensely, and the My mothpr was nol wl'lI Fathl'r Tre"or ,'I
Yes. And what we have done will never be undone. It doesn't inatter what we do. What De Klerk does. Until the third and the fourth generation. Famished. Parched, one walts for Constand Viljoen's party to make Its submission. They form a modest group. Viljoen speaks as If he wants to capture something, bring something back, confirm some essence of Afrlkanerhood that Is wholesome. I want It too -
but at the same time know It Is not to be. When Vlljoen talks about how the British took away the land of the Boers, an English-spealdng Journalist mutters sarcastically, "Ah shame!" .,.·~t help It, I spit like al ' ftam~: "Shut up, you' You didn't utter a word when De Klerk spoke ... VUJoen Is at least try ; Ing." "You must be Joklng - this poor man Is an anachronism." My anger shrivels before his Ac cent. And his Truth. Viljoen was the only political} leader who requested that a . special reconciliation commi~ slon be set up In future to deal . .' . . . _.- nd R Illation Commission have provided with "the hardenJng of attitudes THE HORROR: Graves unearthed by the Trw". a econc Picture: MICHAEL WALKER I experience dally". chlHing evidence of our past A friend who has emigrated When the truth commission After the first political sub He spreadS DIS lour slOnny visited me In the office. She an- started last year, 1 realised In- mission In August 1996, I Inter fingers under my nose. "Four swers a call for me: "It's your stlnctively: If you cut yourself viewed Archbishop Tutu. versions ... four ... exist of the child. He says he's writing a off from the process, you will "Weren't you Irrttated that you life of Christ. Which one would song about Joe Mamasela and wake up In a foreign country- . had to ltsten to four versions of you have liked to chuck out?" he needs a word to rhyme with a country that you don't know So~th Africa's past?" 1 try another question. "Why Vlakplaas." . ' and that you will never under- did the last part of the ANC's She lowers the phone. "Who stand. submission sound so paranoid? Is Joe Mamasela?" • Country . Of My Skull, by As if the whole world Is In a con- A massive sigh breaks awarrl-winning poet and journal- spiracy agalnst Thabo Mbekl." through my chest. For the first ist Antjie Krog, is published by . Tutu tilts his head In surprise. time In months -I breath. Random House and is available "You should be the last person The absolution one has given at most book stores at R89,95 to ask me this. You are sitting up on, the hope for a catharsis, with me dally, listening to what the ideal of reconciliation, the happened In the past. Many I dream of a powerful reparation - • . -,-"' people are the second and third policy ... Maybe this Is all that generation of being persecuted. is Important _ that I and my And if you don't know the past, child know Vlakplaas and you will nev~ understand t0-1 Mamasela. That we know what da:y'~ politics. happened there. _ Whites fight for The Observer 5 April 1998
Madevu. who once worked .'. as a teacher In farm schools. last bastion met agricultural union repre sentatives and warnpd that the killings could be linked to Ill-treatment of farm workers An Afiikaner Searing resentment at this She complained that blacks over the years. 'They accused 'invasion' erupted on the had all the privileges In the me of siding with black trou morning of 5 February, when new South Africa. 'OK, we blemakers. but they stopped backlash is four of the township pupils may have had things a little the indiscriminate beatings were attacked by white boys easy before, but why should on the road: he says. The wielding cricket bats and our children have to sufferT bodies of black men beaten to tearing apart sticks as they entered the Hpr companion, Marlize death are still occasionally school gates. Three black stu Rautenbach, believes whites found on roadsides 10 the dents were put in hospital for are oppressed unrler the gov province. Transvaal's several days with head and ernment's transformation pol Another source of conIllct facial wounds. Headmaster icy. 'Evrrything the blacks do Identified by Madevu Is in his I John Viljoen describes the as is right. hut when we stand up own office. 'We have one or sault as 'an isolated incident' for ourselves it is wrong.' two die-hard conservatives schools and insists the wounds were working at the town hall who superficial 'plaster cuts'. Despite Its smallness, show respect for me because 'It was not like what later Schweizer-Reneke - named of my authority, but pretend happened at Vryburg: he ar after two military leaders who they don't see me when we Schweizer-Reneke gues, referring to an Afri were killed by the local black meet In the supermarkpt.' kaans town where the school Korana people they found on Schwelzer·Rpneke and THE PLAYING fields of South was closed two weeks before the land - has flourished on Vryburg, he argues, are not Africa are emerging as a new the Easter holiday after vio the production of maize, j~ol/1tNl cases. 'ThinJAfrikaans song festival at the River in the old Transvaal school last week, took a differ republic, at the foot of a hill ent line. They were almost :SJ~M~t ~a:e~~~ ~ ock known as Mamusa, the delirious in their enthusiasm transformation have fallen on ~ town of Schweizer-Reneke lies rocky ground: 'This Is still a · t to demonstrate that inte very conservative area and .. in a fertile valley shaded by grated racial harmony Is not handsome acacia trees. sometimes that makes for ~ f • on their agenda. poor relation!!. ThE'Y may '. With its wide roads and 'Rainbow nation Is kak neatly laid-out colonial-style smile at you, but you know ~. [shit)!' exclaimed a pudgy ' you're not really welcome.' .- homes, it is like a quiet oasis youth, Piet van Rensburg, 16. surrounded by bushveld flat Madevu and his wife, who . . 'We're not interested with teaches at one of the town- I ,.. land. But a silent war against what happens in Johannes transformation is threatening ...... ", ..... burg. We were raised on farms ship's two high schools, are L • to tear apart this apparent where black people work for among the oilly three black ' , tranquillity. us, not with us. Look how families that have dared to The white population, about ! badly they live! We rl on't want move into town since the 1994 10 per cent of the 85,000 inhab to mix with them. They have elections. Soon after moving itants of this fanning commu their place and we have ours.' in. Madevu was mistaken by a rlity, is fighting to hold on to A bubbly blonde girl piped liP: neighbour as a car thief while ",hat it sees as the last bastion 'They just destroy things. My standing In his garage. )f its cultural superiority - i 'I'm not saying all the ~ucation. And the 400-pupil . dad says they may run the whites here are racist,' he 'white) Schweizer-Reneke country, but they won't run us says. 'But mostly things have :'Ugh School, which has been here: not changed much for black 'orced to enrol 30 black and The children have obvi people here - especially the :oloured Afrikaans-speaking ously learned their prejudices farm workers.' :hildren from the nearby on the family stoop, as two Even before the schoollnct .ownship, seems destined to mothers waiting outside at dent, tensions were high )e its Waterloo. tested. 'It's about knowing because of the murders of sev your place and not trying to be eral farmers over the past two friends with people who you years. In the aftermath of each know don't want you: said Ev Idillng, farmers set up com Fouche. 'We have a right to be mando-style road blocks with our own kind. I'm not a where blacks are assaulted or racist, but it's about choice: verbally abused. Monday, April 27. 1998 THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
. . -PERFECT PRISON' -. Tallest Jail May CastShadow on Africah City SIgrscraper PONTE CITY from Page 1 Rasmuss, an arcllitect. wr1t~ and lecturer on Jcr bannesburg's urbaD. environment. says the idea Ja11 for Sky uno a gtanlpeDal~ , of haVing' the .city skjUne . d~ted by' . ~ But the building's owners insist there is noth world's. taDeSt- . priso~ · is . ·~scary. : ~d · . would do HighCri.~e Ing ranc1fu1 about cbeiipropo.sal. The idea. to tum nothillg to help:the ~ of ~ e1tY hlieadY ' gener~ ' Poote City intO a prtson originated with United rilly acknowi~d to be in setioustro\l'ble. ' . By Ed O'Loughlin' ',', .... .', States architect Paul SUve:r, an in,teroationally rec By day, me streets of the downtown Cen~ : '. '. SPlCIiIIID The 01ristiat1 SciInCt'I.ImIilr ' ogniZed expert on jail construction who first came Business District still bustle With omce workers, IOtfANNUBUIIG, 501/T)f AFRICA to South Africa rwo ytMS ago at the 'Imitation of and the end to apartheid restnctions. 00 black N Johannesburg. they say the Mi.r:Ustry of Correctional Services. mo~ent has allowed strut traders to flourtsb, that tt you .llke scIence lie- Asked to find • way of providing cells for at g1v1ng an African air to what would otherwise look least 2.000 pr1soners III or near dov;ntown Jo like a mid-SiZe US city, But the often-magnificent , I Uo~, you111ove Ponte City. To\ve.r1ng , above Ahe ,;d~ hannesburg - the epicenter of a South Afric:an buildings that tower above the streets are in many town area.· Africa's · tallest crime wave thaI. illciud~ 11.000 murders each cases vacant or half-emptY- abandoned by white olp For 20 years, the She is a small woman with woman who bore a big laugh. Her story begins at the University of Natal in the Steve Biko two late Sixties. She arrived from her village, unsophisticated but children was silent a fast learner, and immersed herself in student politics. "We Now she speaks to actually started believing that we were not going to die as the Ann Treneman slaves that" our parents and our grandparents had been. about their passion We were convinced we wen: go ing to see freedom in our life and politics time," she says. "We worked every day, absolutely fired by the knowledge that freedom was going to come." She knew, even from the first, that Steve ~PHELA RAMPHELE Biko was the stuff of history. has had the kind of life that they "He was absolutely stunning, make films about. She was a .very attractive, very jovial,larg revolutionary and the long er than life." She describes a life time lover of the anti-apartheid of politk'S and parties and talks leader Steve Biko. She gave . of her love for Biko only in su birth to two of his children, the perlatives: it was a relationship, last one being born shortly af she says, that degenerated into Hl1eo stayed married but the tt:r he was beaten to death in passion. affair continued. Mamphela Revelations: Mamphela custody by South African Dut then, for someone in got pregnant with their first Ramphele's autobiography, police. For nearly 20 ye~ she love, she did something odd. child in 1973. The baby, a A Ufe, sets straight 20 let the gossips have their say She married someone else. daughter, died from pneumo years of gossip and and then decided enough was "Naivety is the thing when nia. "We decided not to have movie myth enough. The result was her a~ you are young. You really have another child until we had sort Photograph: David Rose tobiography, A Life, and a hIS gn:at difticulties making serioUs ed out this three-cornered re tory corrected. It is not so assessments. So even though I lationship," says Mamphe1a. In a way the book finishe ~ Shaka statiiecasts ~ , ' ~' .. a giant· sha40w ()ver South Africa . ~ (; "'1,~ "i 3' . .: :. . .'{~;~~ :.~ ; . . . Alec Russell in Durban reports on cont~ovetsy' 6ver a Zulu hero THE long and bloodstained both Durban and South Swedish and half Zulu and is shadow of King Shaka, the Africa. Its backers excitedly co-ordinating the project on Zulus' warrior founder, is compare it to the Statue of behalf of the tourism author ./' onCe more looming over Liberty or the Eiffel Tower ity of KwaZulu-Natal. South Africa because of a and say it is time South · "The idea was to make it a controversial plan to honour Africa had a monument statue of unity. But there s him with a giant stone untainted by apartheid. always been this suspicion in statue. But it has provoked out- . South Africa that anything In the nearly two centuries rage. Environmentalists say that projects Zulu national since Shaka's impis (regi the proposed waterfront site . ism is dangerous and leads to ments) carved out his empire is home to several protected secession. in a series of brilliant but species. Historians are quar "There is talk of compro genocidal campaigns, histo relling O\'er how to portray mising with an abstract war rians have clashed repeat Shaka and whether he should rior as many people, even edly over his record. be fat or thin. some Zulus, say that far from Whites saw him as a bar Many local whites and being a symbol of unity he baric dictator while blacks Indians are concerned was a bloody tyrant." hailed him as their Napoleon because both the region's old A committee from the city whose legacy fuelled a proud enemies, the Inkatha Free council and the port author and independent spirit. dom Party and the African ity is considering the pro Now plans to build a 140- National Congress, are posal. It is estimated it foot stone statue to him at believed to be backing the would take five years and the entrance to South Afri project. about ~: 4 million to build. ca' s largest port have Their fear is that the statue - Only a few years ago it rekindled the dispute which symbolises the two parties' would have been impossible goes to the heart of post new, cosy rapport, which to erect a Shaka statue as the apartheid politics. risks sidelining non-Africans ANC derided tradition The blueprint is for a from politics. because Inkatha used it as an grass-skirted Shaka com Critics are also wary of integral part of its political plete with a head-high raw lionising a black despot at a message. hide shield and spear tower time when South Africa ;is Now many Zulus hail the ing over the city on the bluff trying to move away from its statue as a sign of their prov opposite Durban harbour. divided past. "I'm having to ince's two-year-old peace It is intended to be part of a tread very carefully," said accord which ended a decade grandiose " rebranding" of Eric Apelgren, who is half of on·(lff civil war. BY BLACKMAN NGORO Military-issue hand grenades However, Western Cape dettmce have been recovered during joint force spokesman Colonel Riaan Large quantities of weapons are police and military patrols on the Louw said the military did not know disappearing from South African Cape Flats. of missing weapons. military bases. Tony Yengeni, the chairman of But Yeary said he had personally Top government sOurces suspect the parliamentary joint defence investigated the case of a large they are being used in cash-in-tran committee, said weapons theft was a quantity of weapons that the sit robberies or by other gangsters. growing trend at South Africa's mil SANDF was supposed to have de Colonel Puzo Tladi, a South itary bases. stroyed, including illegal AK-47 au African National Defence Force Yengeni expressed anger that the tomatic rifles and TNT explosive. spokesman, said there were also s?S' old·guard military establishmet.t He said an AK-47 that was sup picions that the weapons were bemg posed to have been destroyed was ignored the theft of weapons from stolen for use by a "third force" to found at the scene of taxi violence. under their own noses while they destabilise next year's elections. Last year right-winger Willem expressed concern at the smuggling Senior Superintendent Jeremy . . Ratte tried to steal RPG-7 anti-tank of firearms into South Africa from rockets and 81mm mortars from Yeary, head of police intelligence in Mozambique. the Western Cape, has confirmed the Pomfret military base in the North "I'm going to bring this to the ern Cape. disappearance of weapons from sev attention of the defence committee eral bases in the province. Weapons Right-wing sources in Pretoria at our next meeting. Somebody must have said there will be an attempt to have also been reported stolen from take responsibility - ultimately na other bases around South Africa, in take over the government before the tional defence force chief Georg lB99 general elections. cluding in the former Transkei. Meiring is responsible." ISSN 0952-7524 A Bulletin of Southern African Affairs VoL13 No.8 17 April ______l4J 1998 ~I ~,,~~------I r=~~------~~~ , SA POLITlCS : trial the impulse for revenge, most black South Africans are relishing the rare sight of a former apartheid strongman Evidence in Botha trial raises being made to answer for his actions from a court dock . fresh racial polarisation fears Initial evidence led against Botha seems damning. TRC Dramatic evidence implicating former president PW executive secretary Paul van Zyl handed the court docu Botha in the murder of anti-apartheid activiata w .. ments he said confirmed that killings of political opponents heard this week in a South African court, after he had had been approved at the highest levels of the apartheid snubbed an offer to teatify in a cloaed hearing before state. The documents included minutes of secret SSC the Truth and Reconciliation Commiuion. meetings. TRC sources say the negotiations to keep him out of the The minutes contain paaaages authoriaing the "elimi dock (which lasted more 10 hours) stemmed from concerns nation and neutralisation~ of political opponents -phrases, among sot:.le commissioners that the spectacle of h:lving Van Zyl told the court, which meant killing activists. Other Botha publicly confronted with allegations that he had documents retrieved by TRC investigators last year from the state archives detail further illegal, covert operations ordered the "elimination ~ ofso-called "enemies ofthe state~ during the '80s could become a fulcrum for right-wing authoriaed by the former president, Van Zylsaid. Asked reaction. whether Botha had been present at the minuted meetings, After initial evidence from the minutes of the now Van Zy 1told the court try es, he was either presen t at all the defunct State Security Council was led the case was then meetings or he received the minutes~ . Botha bad therefore postponed to June 1 to allow more documents to be re had full knowledge of the orders, he claimed. trieved from state archives, despite angry denunciations Originally set up by Botha in 1972 as an advisory body, 1 from Botha, who said that the allegations made in court the SSC was revamped under his presidency into SA's de against him would not be tested until then. facto governing body in the early '80s. Chaired by Botha, The contempt of court trial ofthe former state president it gathered top political and military leaders and was finally got underway mid-week, after the TRC failed in its tasked with co-ordinating the apartheid state's attempts to last-minute efforts to persuade him to testify about his role quell the so-called 'total onslaught' mounted by anti in the SSC during the '80s. Botha had ignored three TRC apartheid fortes. It became a powerful policy-making body subpoenas summoning him to hearings. If convicted he and the pinnacle of an elaborate national, regional and I faces a $4,000 fine (or a two-year priaon sentence), but may local system of security committees known as the National then - if the political will is there - be open to criminal Security Management System. charges on the substantive issues revealed in court this week. Worst scenario Both Botha and right-wingers in general have long Botha, unlike some 8,000 former members of the spumed the TRC as a "vendetta ~ against whites. Botha has apartheid security forces and the liberation organisations, called the commission a "circus" and accused it of waging a bas not applied for amnesty. The evidence presented in this ! "witchbunt" against Afrikaners. trial could therefore form the basis for further criminal But not all on the right-wing are keen that Botha should proceedings if the attorney-general decides a prima facie I instead appear in court - there are concerns among some of case for such action bas been established. his supporters that ifthe ailing 81-year-old makes a garru Observers say this could be the worst poaaible scenario lous defence in court he will damage his and their positions. for Botha, the government The trial poses a major conundrum for the TRC and the and the TRC, which was set I government, which has been faced with resurgent racial up in 1995 by the African tensions, with the reopening this week of a racially divided National Congress govern- school in VryburginNorth West Province, and with Pres i ment both to side-step calls dentNel80n Mandela's personal intervention after a white for Nuremberg-style trials farmerwas alleged to have shot and killed a black infant on and to defuse the threat of his land. right-wing reaction (by ex In Vryburg white parents beat up black high school empting perpetrators of -trouble makers~, but the tensions there are replicated in a human rights abuses from less extreme way in many rural towns throughout the prosecution via amnesties if country, still physically segregated and with whites or they fully disclose their ganised in ratepayers' associations and blacks in townships deeds). According to one represented by the mayor and majority in the town council. TRC official, the commission - Meanwhile, white farmers are again accusing the gov bas "long been extremely ernment of not doing enough to protect them against sensitive to right-wing sen attacks by black aaaailants. They and many others in their timents and criticisms~ - so communities reject a recent intelligence report that the much so that investigators attacks are not politically motivated and aimed at driving have reportedly been asked them off the land (SouthScan v 12144). to track down more victims But while white right-wingers clai11l to detect in Botha's ~ SouthSCIn Vol.13 No.8 17 April 1998 of ANC bombings so as to counter charges that it has Many black South Mricans recall Madikizela-Mandels's adopted an unbalanced approach to human rights abuses. live, televised appearances before the TRC last November Should Botha goon trial for his role in what was the most which topped SouthMrican TV ratings. She was subjected brutal repressive phase of the apartheid era, many ofthe to nine gruelling days of questioning on her alleged role in political and racial schisms the TRC was meant to bridge abuses carried out by her team of bodyguards, the self could yawn ominously wide again. styled Mandels United Football Club, during the '80s. The This week, TRC deputy chair Ales Boraine seemed TRC later devoted another four days of hearings to the concerned by this prospect. "} don't want to comment on activities of the "club". wha t the court might do," he said. "But the charges are very In contrast, only six days of hearings have been held on serious and Botha will have to face up to the co~equences the SSC, which is believed to have co-ordinated one of the once the verdict is known." most brutal phases of repression in the country's history. But the chances of Botha going on trial specifically for Critics inside the TRC say this week's negotiations with his involvement in human rights abuses are very slim, Botha (which drew in most of its top figures) distracted the believes Steven Friedman, director of the Centre for commission from a formidable workload. It has to hand in Policy Studies. "Basically, that assumes a zealous attorney its final report to Mandela by end-July, which effectively general who wants to go out and derail the 1993 political gives it two months to complete its work. Yet, almost 3,000 settlement and that's highly improbable." amnesty applications still have to be processed. Meanwhile, the TRC's efforts to save Botha from the Among those awaiting resolution are applications by the humiliation of a court case on the current, lesser charges, killers of former SA Communist Party leader Chris Bani. has re-opened divisions within its own ranks, say TRC A verdict is expected later this month. According to TRC sources. sources, the likelihood is that Clive Derby.Lewi. will re "The value of what PW Botha has to say is absolutely ceive amnesty, while th~ actlUllassassin, Polish iID.ID.igrant zero - he'll never admit to anything," one TRC investigator Januaz Walua will be refused. told SouthScan. "But the point is that he has to be publicly To date some 5,000 of the more than 8,000 applications accountable like everyone else,just as Winnie (Madjkiu-la. have been rejected, most on administrative grounds. Mandela) had to be." By Mary Braid I intt:nd tll ht: in I hl' W