T H E T H E A T R E O F V I O L E N C E NARRATIVES OF PROTAGONISTS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONFLICT Don Foster • Paul Haupt • Marésa de Beer ress.ac.za ress.ac.za p Free download from www.hsrc Funded by the Finish Embassy © 2005 Institute of Justice and Reconciliation Compiled by the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation PO Box 205, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700, South Africa www.ijr.org.za Funded by the Finnish Embassy First published in South Africa in 2005 by HSRC Press Private Bag X9182, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa www.hsrcpress.ac.za Published in the United Kingdom by James Currey Ltd 73 Botley Road, Oxford, OX2 OBS, UK www.jamescurrey.co.uk All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. ress.ac.za ress.ac.za Copy editing by Lee Smith p Cover by Farm Cover image: detail of a photograph by Guy Tillim – Kuito, Angola (2000) Text design and typesetting by Christabel Hardacre Production by comPress Distributed in Africa by Blue Weaver Marketing and Distribution PO Box 30370, Tokai, Cape Town, 7966, South Africa Tel: +27 +21 701-4477 Fax: +27 +21 701-7302 email: [email protected] Distributed in the United Kingdom and Europe for James Currey Ltd by Marston Book Services Ltd PO Box 269, Abingdon, OX14 4YN, UK Free download from www.hsrc www.marston.co.uk Tel: +44 +1235 465521 Fax: +44 +1235 465555 email: [email protected] Distributed worldwide, except Africa, the UK and Europe, by Independent Publishers Group 814 North Franklin Street, Chicago, IL 60610, USA www.ipgbook.com To order, call toll-free: 1-800-888-4741 All other inquiries Tel: +1 +312-337-0747 Fax: +1 +312-337-5985 email: [email protected] Worldwide, except United Kingdom and Europe ISBN 0 7969 2095 8 United Kingdom and Europe ISBN 0 85255 886 4 CONTENTS Foreword v Preface ix 1 After the Truth and Reconciliation Commission 1 2 Popular representations of perpetrators 27 3 Wider academic understandings 55 4 Morals and methods 89 5 Police narratives 105 ress.ac.za ress.ac.za Law and order: The story of a former Commissioner of Police 105 p Living with death: The story of a former Koevoet operative 126 6 Intelligence narratives 151 ‘Things weren’t as simple’: The story of a former general in Military Intelligence 151 ‘I never fitted’: The story of a National Intelligence Services agent 176 7 Liberation movement narratives 206 ‘A very lonely road’: The story of a former MK Commander 206 ‘A hungry man is an angry man’: The story of a former APLA Head of Operations 226 ‘I was never wrong’: The story of a former APLA Commander 242 8 Narratives of township conflicts 253 Free download from www.hsrc ‘What was the gain of killing people?’ The story of a former member of a Self-Protection Unit 253 ‘No rewards’: The story of a former member of a Self-Defence Unit 261 Former enemies forging peace 271 9 Analysis and reflection 274 10 Conclusion 316 Acronyms and abbreviations 341 References 345 Index 357 ress.ac.za ress.ac.za p Free download from www.hsrc FOREWORD To understand all is to forgive all. Mme de Stael While intriguing, the sentiment is not adequate. To understand is not to forgive. A complex, contested and always unfinished process, understanding is a struggle. Appearing 10 years after the advent of democracy, The Theatre of Violence demon- strates clearly that the promise of understanding also demands time. Drawing from the work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the writings of others who have endeavoured to explain the political conflict in South Africa, this book poses vital questions. As it details and scrutinises testi- mony from some of those who engaged in violence during the apartheid era, it ress.ac.za ress.ac.za p refuses trite answers. In this way, the volume serves to enhance our understanding of the causes and complexity of political violence. Most certainly, it opens space in which to continue and deepen an important debate. In 1995, the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, No. 34, charged the TRC to help South Africa come to terms with the truth of its past. More precisely, a key part of the Commission’s mandate was to investigate apartheid era gross violations of human rights, to help the nation understand the ‘antecedents, circumstances, context, motives and perspectives which led to violations; [identi- fying] all persons, authorities, institutions and organisations involved in such violations’. It was a tall order. In a short amount of time and amidst high expecta- tions, the Commission needed to both reveal and understand patterns of violence that defied singular explanation. Still, significant progress was made. Of the many Free download from www.hsrc findings presented in the 1998 TRC Report, the Commission’s chapter (Volume 5) on the causes, motives and perspectives of perpetrators was described by several commentators as perhaps the most important chapter in the TRC Report.It suggested that, unless the underlying factors that contribute to a milieu within which perpetrators emerge, are nourished and prosper, are addressed, the chances are that these kinds of violations will happen again in one form or another. The purpose of The Theatre of Violence is to reach into the complexities of politi- cal violence and further our understanding about the dynamics of political violence, patterns of conflict that drew South Africans into a vortex that risked outright disintegration. Its focus is on the accounts, often contradictory and confusing, of those who acknowledge having committed some dreadful deeds. It seeks not to attribute blame, nor does it call for prosecution of those who, from the perspective of retributive justice, deserve condemnation. It further recognises that v THEATRE OF VIOLENCE guilt rests not only with those who pull the trigger, but also with those who winked when the shots were fired. The bright lines are blurry. Are those who gave the orders to kill more or less guilty than those who pulled the trigger? What about those who were indifferent or scared to restrain the killers? The Theatre of Violence wrestles with just these sorts of questions. Without directly addressing questions of culpability, this is what makes the study suggestive and intriguing. In many ways it is an optimistic study, holding out the possibility of a society that can understand and take steps to minimise the perpetration of gross violations of human rights. It considers the possibility of partial social redemption, allowing for what, in the final chapter, are referred to as partly healed people, being able to find a measure of self- understanding and peace in the wake of the deeds for which they are responsible. The final words of this book, drawing on Sophocles’ Oedipus the Tyrant, belong to the people of Thebes: Then learn that mortal man must always look to his ending As none can be called happy until that day when he carries His happiness down to the grave in peace. ress.ac.za ress.ac.za The Theatre of Violence attempts to grasp the bigger more complex truth about p political violence, addressing a range of questions that are often not considered, perhaps cannot be considered, in a dispassionate manner. Preoccupied with the important need to identity who did what to whom, we often fail to realise how few political perpetrators and protagonists were either psychopaths or predisposed in some obvious way to violence. In many instances they are normal, socially balanced people who are also responsible for violent deeds. They were exposed to a range of experiences and conditions that opened for them the possibility of deviant violent behaviour. Perhaps then the potential for perpetration is more widespread than we would like to believe. The intention and capacity of the per- petrator to do harm is often a case of the circumstances in which a person finds him or herself. This underscores why understanding is not forgiveness. It also means that to explain is not to condone. We are required to take responsibility for Free download from www.hsrc our own actions. There are people, raised in similar circumstances, faced with the same choices and given identical opportunities as those who undertook violence, who resisted the allure of force. Some took it on themselves to oppose the violence, often at significant cost to their own well-being and that of their families and closest associates. The reasonable personal or social responsibility that enables, at the very least, a minimal civic decency to shape the ethos of a nation is, however, often more difficult to engender than hoped. The idea of trying to understand what makes people commit dreadful deeds was born in conversations between Don Foster and myself in the wake of the publica- tion of the 1998 TRC Report. Don wrote the TRC chapter on the causes, motives and perspectives of perpetrators. I was responsible for weaving it into the matrix of the bigger five-volume report. We shared many insights, ideas, anecdotes and harrowing stories. We visited and interviewed a number of ‘common criminals’ in vi FOREWORD Pollsmoor Prison, pondering what makes an apolitical perpetrator different. Within this context we drafted a proposal to enable us to interview political pris- oners. I met with Paul Haupt, who also worked in the TRC, a short while later.