African National Congress Statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission August 1996 Contents Executive Summary ANC Statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission 1. PREFACE 2. INTRODUCTION 3. THE HISTORICAL AND INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT 3.1 The prehistory of colonialism, dispossession and segregation 3.2 The history of the ANC to 1960 3.3 Just struggle in the international context 3.4 Apartheid and human rights 3.5 Apartheid human rights violations in an international context 4. THE NATIONAL PARTY, APARTHEID AND THE ANATOMY OF REPRESSION, 1948-1994 4.1 The post-1948 legislative programme of apartheid 4.2 The repressive apartheid security state, 1960-1974 4.3 The institutional violence and social consequences of apartheid 4.4 Judiciary and other forms of repression 4.5 Forced removals and forced incorporation 4.6 Mass repression by the regime in response to mass protests against apartheid 4.7 The height of apartheid repression 4.8 Apartheid and the destabilisation of Southern African countries in the 1980s 4.9 Covert action and state sanctioned gross violations of human rights in the negotiations era of the 1990s 5. PHASES OF STRUGGLE AND ANC POLICY FOUNDATIONS, 1960-1994 5.1 New forms of struggle after Sharpeville and the banning of opposition groups (1960-1969) 5.2 A changing scenario and new challenges (1969-1979) 5.3 Towards "People's War" and "People's Power" (1979-1990) 5.4 The ANC and internal revolt: The role of the Mass Democratic Movement in the 1980s 6. DID THE ANC PERPETRATE ANY GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS? 6.1 The approach, standards and conduct of the ANC in relation to human rights 6.2 Armed operations and civilian casualties 6.3 Excesses in relation to state agents 6.4 ANC members who died in exile 6.5 The Mass Democratic Movement and excesses in the mass revolt of the 1980s 7. CONCLUSION: RECONCILIATION, REPARATIONS AND THE CHALLENGES FOR THE FUTURE 7.1 The ANC's own conduct 7.2 An approach to reparations 7.3 Lasting reconciliation Questions which require the attention of the Commission Appendices 1. MK Code of Conduct 2. Deaths in Exile Executive Summary [This summary serves merely to identify the primary issues in the submission and should not detract from the matters raised in the main document] 1. INTRODUCTION The ANC supports the work of the TRC. By knowing what happened and why it happened, South Africa will be better placed to ensure that the evil deeds of the past are never repeated. This submission aims to relate directly to matters within the TRC's jurisdiction, while providing a context within which the points in the submission can be better understood. It is neither a definitive or comprehensive account of the period under review. 2. HISTORICAL CONTEXT 2.1 COLONIALISM AND RESISTANCE TO 1960 The process of colonial conquest lasted over two centuries, culminating in the formation of the racially-exclusive Union of South Africa. In 1948, the National Party came to power and between 1948 and 1960, legislation was introduced to give material meaning to previous racial segregation and discrimination, to limit civil liberties and to suppress political dissent. Formed in 1912, South Africa's oldest national political organisation, the African National Congress' core principles were to promote unity, counter racism and work towards equal rights for all South Africans. In the early decades of its existence, the ANC was conspicuously committed to act within the law. The Sharpeville massacre on 21 March 1960, and the subsequent banning of the ANC signalled the beginning of a new era in South African history - an era in which repression and conflict were to reach their peak. 2.2 THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT The ANC was internationally recognised as a liberation movement. Various UN resolutions on liberation struggles are significant in that they: legitimise armed resistance to forcible denial of self-determination; and allow third states to assist the liberation movements in their struggle. It was argued, and accepted, in the UN that the self-determination of the South African people had not taken place. Thus, it would be morally wrong and legally incorrect to equate apartheid with the resistance against it. While the latter was rooted in the principles of human dignity and human rights, the former was an affront to humanity itself. An examination of relevant international conventions, declarations, resolutions, judicial decisions and the practice of the United Nations and its organs and the practice of regional organisations and states yield affirmation of the following propositions of international law in relation to the apartheid regime: Gross and systematic violation of the provision of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, especially those provisions which must now be regarded as part of customary international law; Apartheid often produced outcomes similar to those of genocide - a practice now proscribed by the international community, leading to criminal sanctions; The policies of apartheid were a negation of the United Nations Charter and against humanity, thereby giving universal jurisdiction for its suppression and punishment, on general principles and by treaty. The South African regime had no right to represent the people of South Africa, its illegitimacy arising from systematic breaches of peremptory rule of international law. 3. NATIONAL PARTY, APARTHEID AND REPRESSION Apartheid was founded on, and represented an intensification of, the colonial system of subjugation of Africans, coloured and Indians. To entrench and defend Afrikaner and white dominance, the NP set about to transform the judiciary, the army, the police, intelligence services, academia, the civil service, economic and labour relations and parastatals; and it increasingly relied on force. Apartheid oppression and repression were therefore not an aberration of a well-intentioned undertaking that went horribly wrong. Neither were they, as we were later told, an attempt to stave off the 'evil of communism'. The ideological underpinning and the programme of apartheid constituted a deliberate and systematic mission of a ruling clique that saw itself as the champion of a 'super-race'. 3.1 APARTHEID REPRESSION From the outset, the National Party introduced a combination of social and repressive laws to pursue its overall political and economic objectives. During the 1960s the government's transgression of human rights became more blatant. Central to the new authoritarianism were sweeping restrictions on political behaviour; an increase in the powers of the police and further subversion of the independence of the courts; and sweeping provisions for detention without trial that created conditions in which the use of torture during interrogation became widespread. From its inception in the early 1960s, the security legislation and its implementation have generated widespread reports of mental and physical abuse of people held in detention. Individual officers abused their powers of interrogation; interrogation became torture; torture became routine. 3.2 INSTITUTIONAL VIOLENCE AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES During the 1960s, concurrent with the new security legislation, the apartheid rulers embarked on radical new forms of social engineering designed to entrench white minority rule. Instances of such "bureaucratic terrorism" included: huge numbers of arrests for contravention of pass laws; large-scale forced removals and resettlements; the redefinition of all Africans as 'citizens' of ethnic bantustans. Basic apartheid measures systematically denied black South Africans 'first generation' rights like the franchise, civil equality, freedom of movement and freedom of association. The social order underpinned by apartheid also ran roughshod over 'second generation' rights, such as the right to education, health care, security and social welfare. 3.3 JUDICIAL REPRESSION Whole sectors of South African society - the law courts, churches, media, education, business, sports and cultural sectors - both actively and indirectly reinforced apartheid exclusion, discrimination and the violation of human rights. The South African judicial system was racially and ideologically biased in the interests of the apartheid system. Selected judges were in many cases put in charge of political trials and were responsible for the judicial murder of people fighting against apartheid. In many cases judges allowed evidence that was extracted under torture or duress. Judicial commissions produced ideologically-oriented reports which promoted the goals of the apartheid state. Law societies and bar councils struck from the roll anti-apartheid activists convicted of political crimes. The catalogue of legal discrimination and injustice that occurred under apartheid needs to be acknowledged if a human rights culture is to flourish in the new South African legal system. 3.4 MASS REPRESSION IN 1970s In the early 1970s, spontaneous and organised mass resistance started to surface for the first time in a decade. The response of the regime was brute force. The actions of the regime in 1976/7 brought out in bold relief the government's intention to deny human rights at all costs. Notes taken by then Minister of Police Jimmy Kruger illustrate this: "10.8.76 Unrest in Soweto still continues. The children of Soweto are well-trained. The pupils/students have established student councils. The basic danger is growing black consciousness, and the inability to prevent incidents, what with the military precision with which they act. The minister proposed that this movement