DOCSLIB.ORG

INTRODUCTION the Past, the TRC and the Archive As Depository Of

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
INTRODUCTION the Past, the TRC and the Archive As Depository Of 1 INTRODUCTION The Past, the TRC and the Archive as Depository of Memory Brent Harris At a lecture presented in London on June 5, 1994, Jacques Derrida discussed the complexities of the meaning of the archive. He described the duality in meaning of the word archive ─ in terms of temporality and spatiality ─ as a place of «commencement» and as the place «where men and gods command» or the «place from which order is given».1 As the place of commencement, «there where things commence»,2 the archive is more ambivalent. It houses, what could best be described as ‘traces’3 of particular objects of the past in the form of documents. These documents were produced in the past and are subjective constructions with their own histories of negotiations and contestations. As such, the archive represents the end of instability, or the outcome of negotiations and contestations over knowledge. Yet as sources of evidence the archive also represents the moment of ending instability, of creating stasis and the fixing of meaning and knowledge. The archive has long been the hallmark for, and of, the production of history, particularly in the academy. Students of history have been taught that to do research, they have to go to the archive to ‘read’ the primary sources located there. The process, in historical research, of discovering new areas of research had tended to close the past contained in the archive. For decades most 1Jacques Derrida, Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1996, p. 1. Emphasis in original. 2Derrida, Archive Fever, p. 1. Emphasis in original. 3The term ‘traces’ is taken from Keith Jenkins, Re-thinking History, Routledge, London, 1991 and is preferred to terms such as ‘information’ or ‘evidence’ as these refer to objectivist claims and deny the subjective construction of ‘information’ and ‘evidence’. My usage of the term ‘evidence’ elsewhere in this paper should be read as an echoing of objective claims that the 2 researchers were not inclined to go back to the documents that preceding researchers had consulted, privileging not only the previous researchers’ first discovery of the documents but also their interpretations. This was partially due to the treatment of history as a science and the related assumption that research could, and that it should, be done objectively. In this event, the documents housed in the archive were taken to be neutral, and able to speak the truth. Hence, they were thought of as representing windows on the past. These assumptions have been challenged for some time now and have been dismissed in some quarters.4 It is more prevalent nowadays for subsequent researchers to go back to the archive to reread the documents that previous researchers had read. Through these practices, the past, as contained in the archive, is typically revisited, reread, reappraised, reinterpreted, revised and rewritten. In this regard, the archive does become the place from which the past commences. However, these commencements are restricted as the past contained in the archive is not complete. The archive can only hold some traces of some aspects of the past. Furthermore, the archive is itself an interpretation that influences future interpretations. From its establishment, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was seemingly presented in opposition to the Derridian sense of the archive as the place of ‘commencement’. Instead, the TRC presented itself, and was presented as «shutting the book on the country’s past», of coming to «terms with our dark past once and for all» and of closing «a horrendous chapter in the life of our nation».5 In the discursive statements of various members and components of paper is criticising. 4See, for example, Hayden White’s ‘The Burden of History’, in Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1985, pp. 27-50. 5Final Clause of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act, No 200 of 1993 quoted by Dullah Omar in The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Justice in Transition, Cape Times, c1996, p. 2; and Desmond Tutu quoted in ‘Commission «must heal nation»: True reconciliation main aim, says Tutu in first address’, Weekend Argus, Sunday, December 16/17, 3 the TRC and its public representations in the media, the TRC often referred to its role as that of ‘uncovering’ and ‘unearthing’ the past, with its functions of exhumation, identification and reburial, rather than revisiting and reinterpreting the past. Furthermore, with the TRC’s function of assembling an archive, it could be seen to represent the fixing of knowledge, the ending the instability of the meanings and the contestations over the truth of the past. The second implication that Derrida identifies in the name of the archive is more closely related to the production of knowledge. In his lecture Derrida alludes to the role of the superior magistrates or the archons in ancient Greece. «[T]he archons», Derrida says, [...] were considered to possess the right to make or to represent the law. On account of their publicly recognized authority, it is their home, in that place which is their home [...] that official documents are filed. The archons are first of all the documents’ guardians. They do not only ensure the physic security of what is deposited and of the substrate. They also accord the hermeneutic right and competence. They have the power to interpret the archives. Entrusted to such archons, these documents in effect speak the law: they recall the law and call on or impose the law. [...]6 The notion of the archon is extremely useful in thinking about the TRC for, like the archons of ancient Greece, the TRC was also, simultaneously, the guardian and the interpreter of the archive. However, the TRC was the guardian of the archive not in the sense of protecting what was deposited with them, but in the sense of ensuring the gathering, institutionalization and preservation of evidence of the past. The TRC also claimed the ‘publicly recognized authority’ and the power to ‘interpret’ the archive that it had been entrusted to establish. It claimed this authority on the basis of representing and being representative of the ‘new’ nation. Indeed, as a 1995. Emphasis added. 6Derrida, Archive Fever, p. 2. Emphasis in original. 4 governmental commission, established by parliamentary decree and enshrined in the state’s legislature, the TRC was vested with official authority. The TRC used this authority to interpret the archive that it had been entrusted to assemble. It permitted the past to speak, and called on the past to be spoken, by inviting the nation to recall and recollect the past at the TRC’s public hearings. In this way, the TRC recalled and imposed a history that became an absolute rather than a possible history. Here a tension existed in the work of the TRC: the commission was established through the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act to ‘uncover’ «as complete a picture as possible of the nature, causes and extent of gross violations of human rights» that occurred during the last three and a half decades of the apartheid era in South Africa.7 Yet it created the impression that, through its work, the past can be known ‘once and for all’. This impression was reinforced by the institutional nature of the TRC, as a parliamentary commission, by the TRC’s public hearings at which the past was presented to, and for, the nation, and by the TRC’s function of gathering evidence of the past for an archive.8 In this sense the work of the TRC was self-referential: the TRC archived the evidence it required to support the history that it produced and, by archiving its evidence, it ensured the veracity of that history and created the impression that that history is real because it is based on real evidence. The process of archiving evidence, of gathering information together for an archive, Derrida suggests, is associated with «the function of unification, of identification, of classification». This 7Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, No 35 of 1995, 3(1)(a). Hereafter, Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, No 35 of 1995, cited as Ponura. 8The latter, Archbishop Tutu described «from a research point of view», as the TRC’s «greatest legacy». It would, he suggests, be of «great value» to those «researching our history for decades to come». See ‘Chairperson’s Forward’,Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report, October 1998, Vol 1, Ch 1, pp. 1-2. Hereafter, Truth and Reconciliation 5 process, he adds, «must be paired with ... the power of consignation.»9 For Derrida, consignation refers to two related processes: one is the «act of consigning through gathering together signs» and the other is the objective «to coordinate a single corpus, in a system or a synchrony in which all elements articulate the unity of the ideal configuration.»10 Thus, while the archive does not, and cannot, house a complete past, its consignation creates the illusion of being whole, an illusion that the archive fails to acknowledge. ‘Uncovering’ the Ethical Archive The TRC was established by governmental decree to fulfil particular, predefined objectives. As such, the government delineated, or at least presented the rudimentary framework by which the TRC would order the archive it was entrusted to consign. Here the TRC was assigned the task of ‘uncovering’ the past in order to provide [...] a historic bridge between the past of a deeply divided society characterized by strife, conflict, untold suffering and injustice, and a future founded on the recognition of human rights, democracy and peaceful co-existence for all South Africans [...]11 Through this phrase, the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act which empowered the TRC, defined the commission as a vehicle for ‘bridging the divisions’ in South African society which had resulted in a legacy of human rights abuse.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • BLACK ISLAM SOUTH AFRICA Religious Territoriality, Conversion
    BLACK ISLAM SOUTH AFRICA Religious Territoriality, Conversion, and the Transgression of Orderly Indigeneity Dissertation zur Erlangung des Grades Dr. phil. im Promotionsfach Geographie am Fachbereich Chemie, Pharmazie, Geographie und Geowissenschaften der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz vorgelegt von Matthias Gebauer geb. in Lichtenfels 2019 i Abstract Social alienation and the struggle to belong in the South African society are not only matters of political discourse but touch the practical sphere of everyday life in the respective places of residence. This thesis therefore approaches the entanglements of religion and space within the processes of re-ordering African indigeneity in post-apartheid South Africa. It asks how conversion to Islam constitutes the longing for a post-colonial and post-racialized African self. This study specifically engages with dynamics surrounding Black and Muslim practices and identity politics in formerly demarcated Black African areas. Here, even after the official end of apartheid, spatial racialization and social inequalities persist. Modes of orderings rooted in colonialism and apartheid still define what orderly belonging and African indigeneity mean. Thus, the inhabitants of those spaces find themselves in situations every day in which their habitat continuously ascribes oppression and racialization. The post-1994 promise for equal citizenship seems to be slowly fading, becoming a broken promise, on whose fulfillment the majority of people who were previously—by official definition and demarcation—only granted the right of being a migratory workforce, sojourners in the White spaces, are still waiting. Against this background, this thesis engages with the attempts to reformulate and recreate African indigeneity on the basis of a counter-hegemonic ideology of being Black and Muslim.
    [Show full text]
  • Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report: Volume 2
    VOLUME TWO Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report The report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was presented to President Nelson Mandela on 29 October 1998. Archbishop Desmond Tutu Ms Hlengiwe Mkhize Chairperson Dr Alex Boraine Mr Dumisa Ntsebeza Vice-Chairperson Ms Mary Burton Dr Wendy Orr Revd Bongani Finca Adv Denzil Potgieter Ms Sisi Khampepe Dr Fazel Randera Mr Richard Lyster Ms Yasmin Sooka Mr Wynand Malan* Ms Glenda Wildschut Dr Khoza Mgojo * Subject to minority position. See volume 5. Chief Executive Officer: Dr Biki Minyuku I CONTENTS Chapter 1 Chapter 6 National Overview .......................................... 1 Special Investigation The Death of President Samora Machel ................................................ 488 Chapter 2 The State outside Special Investigation South Africa (1960-1990).......................... 42 Helderberg Crash ........................................... 497 Special Investigation Chemical and Biological Warfare........ 504 Chapter 3 The State inside South Africa (1960-1990).......................... 165 Special Investigation Appendix: State Security Forces: Directory Secret State Funding................................... 518 of Organisations and Structures........................ 313 Special Investigation Exhumations....................................................... 537 Chapter 4 The Liberation Movements from 1960 to 1990 ..................................................... 325 Special Investigation Appendix: Organisational structures and The Mandela United
    [Show full text]
  • Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd Is Assassinated in the House of Assembly by a Parliamentary Messenger, Dimitri Tsafendas on 6 September
    Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd is assassinated in the House of Assembly by a parliamentary messenger, Dimitri Tsafendas on 6 September. Balthazar J Vorster becomes Prime Minister on 13 September. 1967 The Terrorism Act is passed, in terms of which police are empowered to detain in solitary confinement for indefinite periods with no access to visitors. The public is not entitled to information relating to the identity and number of people detained. The Act is allegedly passed to deal with SWA/Namibian opposition and NP politicians assure Parliament it is not intended for local use. Besides being used to detain Toivo ya Toivo and other members of Ovambo People’s Organisation, the Act is used to detain South Africans. SAP counter-insurgency training begins (followed by similar SADF training in the following year). Compulsory military service for all white male youths is extended and all ex-servicemen become eligible for recall over a twenty-year period. Formation of the PAC armed wing, the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army (APLA). MK guerrillas conduct their first military actions with ZIPRA in north-western Rhodesia in campaigns known as Wankie and Sepolilo. In response, SAP units are deployed in Rhodesia. 1968 The Prohibition of Political Interference Act prohibits the formation and foreign financing of non-racial political parties. The Bureau of State Security (BOSS) is formed. BOSS operates independently of the police and is accountable to the Prime Minister. The PAC military wing attempts to reach South Africa through Botswana and Mozambique in what becomes known as the Villa Peri campaign. 1969 The ANC holds its first Consultative (Morogoro) Conference in Tanzania, and adopts the ‘Strategies and Tactics of the ANC’ programme, which includes its new approach to the ‘armed struggle’ and ‘political mobilisation’.
    [Show full text]
  • Islamic Liberation Theology in South Africa: Farid Esack’S Religio-Political Thought
    ISLAMIC LIBERATION THEOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA: FARID ESACK’S RELIGIO-POLITICAL THOUGHT Yusuf Enes Sezgin A thesis submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2020 Approved by: Cemil Aydin Susan Dabney Pennybacker Juliane Hammer ã2020 Yusuf Enes Sezgin ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Yusuf Enes Sezgin: Islamic Liberation Theology in South Africa: Farid Esack’s Religio-Political Thought (Under the direction of Cemil Aydin) In this thesis, through analyzing the religiopolitical ideas of Farid Esack, I explore the local and global historical factors that made possible the emergence of Islamic liberation theology in South Africa. The study reveals how Esack defined and improved Islamic liberation theology in the South African context, how he converged with and diverged from the mainstream transnational Muslim political thought of the time, and how he engaged with Christian liberation theology. I argue that locating Islamic liberation theology within the debate on transnational Islamism of the 1970s onwards helps to explore the often-overlooked internal diversity of contemporary Muslim political thought. Moreover, it might provide important insights into the possible continuities between the emancipatory Muslim thought of the pre-1980s and Islamic liberation theology. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to many wonderful people who have helped me to move forward on my academic journey and provided generous support along the way. I would like to thank my teachers at Boğaziçi University from whom I learned so much. I was very lucky to take two great courses from Zeynep Kadirbeyoğlu whose classrooms and mentorship profoundly improved my research skills and made possible to discover my interests at an early stage.
    [Show full text]
  • The Fifth Annual Imam Abdullah Haron Memorial Lecture
    The Fifth Annual Imam Abdullah Haron Memorial Lecture “Has tolerance no limits?” Why the education crisis persists Jonathan D Jansen University of the Free State 2 October 2012 Introduction Two events of seismic proportions shook the Western Cape in the closing days of September 1969. The first was the Ceres-Tulbagh earthquake of 29 September which registered 6.3 on the Richter scale with aftershocks that continued as far forward as the 14th of April 1970 and whose effects were felt more than 1000 km away in Durban. The earthquake was said to have caused physical displacement of 26cm of ground over a distance of 20km, and that it was caused by “a shallow tectonic failure along the Saron- Groenhof lineament.”1 The second seismic shock was the murder on the night of 27 September in the Maitland police cells of the 44-year old Imam of the Stegman Street Mosque, the Editor of “Moslem News”, the husband of Galiema, and the father of three young children— Shamila, Mogamet and Fatima. That death—the 12th of a political prisoner to die in police custody between 1963 and 1969—sent forth tremors of grief and protest that registered shockwaves well beyond the borders of South Africa. The killing of the Imam displaced the political grounds in the Cape; indeed it shook complacent communities into political action for this noble martyr was killed by a shallow political and moral failure that was rightly laid at the door of the politicians (apartheid’s NP 1 Paragraph draws on http://www.stormchasing.co.za/articles-and-news/historic-weather-archive/184-tulbagh- ceres-1969-earthquake 1 parliamentarians) and their professional collaborators (lawyers, doctors, police) who tried to prop-up an immoral and racist system.
    [Show full text]
  • EPISCOPAL CHURCHPEOPLE for Afree SOUTHERN AFRICA
    ---- --- - ---- -~--_"---._~----_':""-'~-~--""-1 E EPISCOPAL CHURCHPEOPLE for a FREE SOUTHERN AFRICA C 339 Lafayette Street S New York, N.Y. 10012 A Phone: (212) 477-0066 jJ.JO 6 January 1988 PEOPLE'S EDUCATION VS PRETORIA 'PeopZe's Education is fundamentaZZy different from the '~Zternative education" programs that shun the reaUty of the confl,ict in South Afri­ ca, and, in some cases, have a hidden agenda of the aepo~iticisation of education and the creation of an apoUticaZ bZack middZe cZass. In reality" of course, these hidden agendas and int~ntions have a bZatant poZiticaZ pur­ pose: the defenc~ of the present situation. PeopZe's Education, by contras--t, becomes an integraZ part of the struggZe for a non-rac­ iaZ, democratic South Africa. ' - Eric Molobi, November 1986 The National Education Crisis Ccmnittee came into being at a conference at the University of the Witwatersrand in Jo­ hannesburg in December 1985. Teachers, students. parents, academics and activists from across the country were intent on bringing order out of the chaos Pretorian apartheid had wrought upon education for black South Africans. They en­ visioned a system of learning cleansed from top to bottom of bantu education. The theme of the conference: 'People t s Education for People's Power' . :>etoria I s response - as it has been to all opposition..: political, church, trade union, student, corrnnunity o:cganization - has been savage. Its bantu education is the most fundamental kind of control mechanics for the perpetuation of apartheid and minority exploitation. Ideas, translat­ ed into act~on~ are more dangerous than bullets.
    [Show full text]
  • South Africa
    National Plans of Action for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights - South Africa CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction Background A Brief South African Human Rights History The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action - 1993 Developing South Africa's National Action Plan (NAP) The Concept of the NAP How the NAP was Developed Measures to Strengthen The Protection of Human Rights The National Action Plan (NAP) Incorporating International and Regional Human Rights Instruments into Our Law How the NAP is Set Out The Rights: Civil and Political Rights Equality Life Freedom and Security of the Person Privacy Labour Rights Political Rights Access to Justice Just Administrative Action Citizenship Aliens Refugees Freedom of Expression Rights of Arrested, Detained, Convicted or Accused Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Employment Housing and Shelter Health Food Water Land Social Security Education Freedom of Culture, Religion and Language Rights of Children and Young People The Rights to Development, Self-Determination, Peace and a Protected Environment The Right to Develoopment Environment The Way Forward Implementation Monitoring Acknowledgments The government of the Republic of South Africa gratefully acknowledges the assistance of: • The Government of Finland for funding the production and printing of the NAP document and a public awareness campaign on the NAP • The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for providing resources for the NAP co-ordinator and assistant co-ordinator • USAID for funding the consultative process
    [Show full text]
  • University of Groningen African Renaissance and Ubuntu
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Groningen University of Groningen African Renaissance and Ubuntu Hensbroek, Pieter Boele van IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2002 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Hensbroek, P. B. V. (2002). African Renaissance and Ubuntu. s.n. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 12-11-2019 &217(176 Introduction 3 Thabo Mbeki 9 ,$P$Q$IULFDQ Dirk J. Louw 15 8EXQWXDQGWKH&KDOOHQJHVRI0XOWLFXOWXUDOLVPLQ 3RVW$SDUWKHLG6RXWK$IULFD Priscilla Jana 37 $IULFDQ5HQDLVVDQFHDQGWKH0LOOHQQLXP$FWLRQ3ODQ Ineke van Kessel 43 ,Q6HDUFKRIDQ$IULFDQ5HQDLVVDQFH $QDJHQGDIRUPRGHUQLVDWLRQQHRWUDGLWLRQDOLVP
    [Show full text]
  • This Thesis Has Been Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for a Postgraduate Degree (E.G
    This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: • This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. • A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. • This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. • The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. • When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Identity Construction in Post-apartheid South Africa: the Case of the Muslim Community Rania Hassan PhD in African Studies The University of Edinburgh 2011 Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................................................................I ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................................III DECLARATION..................................................................................................................................V GLOSSARY.......................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report
    VOLUME THREE Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report The report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was presented to President Nelson Mandela on 29 October 1998. Archbishop Desmond Tutu Ms Hlengiwe Mkhize Chairperson Dr Alex Boraine Mr Dumisa Ntsebeza Vice-Chairperson Ms Mary Burton Dr Wendy Orr Revd Bongani Finca Adv Denzil Potgieter Ms Sisi Khampepe Dr Fazel Randera Mr Richard Lyster Ms Yasmin Sooka Mr Wynand Malan* Ms Glenda Wildschut Dr Khoza Mgojo * Subject to minority position. See volume 5. Chief Executive Officer: Dr Biki Minyuku I CONTENTS Chapter 1 Introduction to Regional Profiles ........ 1 Appendix: National Chronology......................... 12 Chapter 2 REGIONAL PROFILE: Eastern Cape ..................................................... 34 Appendix: Statistics on Violations in the Eastern Cape........................................................... 150 Chapter 3 REGIONAL PROFILE: Natal and KwaZulu ........................................ 155 Appendix: Statistics on Violations in Natal, KwaZulu and the Orange Free State... 324 Chapter 4 REGIONAL PROFILE: Orange Free State.......................................... 329 Chapter 5 REGIONAL PROFILE: Western Cape.................................................... 390 Appendix: Statistics on Violations in the Western Cape ......................................................... 523 Chapter 6 REGIONAL PROFILE: Transvaal .............................................................. 528 Appendix: Statistics on Violations in the Transvaal ......................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Special Committee on Apartheid Begins Work for 1972
    Special Committee on Apartheid begins work for 1972 http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.nuun1971_02 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org Special Committee on Apartheid begins work for 1972 Alternative title Notes and Documents - United Nations Centre Against ApartheidNo. 1/71 Author/Creator United Nations Centre against Apartheid Contributor Farah, Abdulrahim Abby Publisher Department of Political and Security Council Affairs Date 1971-01-00 Resource type Reports Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) South Africa Coverage (temporal) 1971 Source Northwestern University Libraries Description Text of the statment by the Chairman of the Special Committee, H.E.
    [Show full text]
  • Premier of the Western Cape – Ebrahim Rasool
    Premier of the Western Cape – Ebrahim Rasool List of Honourees receiving Provincial Honours 2004 1. Commander of the Order of the Disa awarded to Nelson R. Mandela As a young man, hearing the elders’ stories of his ancestors’ valour during the wars of resistance in defence of their fatherland, Nelson Mandela dreamed also of making his own contribution to the freedom struggle of his people. He served articles at a law firm in Johannesburg where years of daily exposure to the inhumanities of apartheid, where being black reduced one to the status of a non-person, kindled in him a courage to change the world. On joining the Youth League of the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela became involved in programmes of passive resistance against apartheid’s denial of political, social and economic rights to South Africa’s black majority. In the revolution led by Mandela to transform a model of racial division and oppression into an open democracy, he demonstrated that he did not flinch in the face of adversity. As the world's most famous prisoner, leader, teacher and man, he exemplifies a moral integrity that shines far beyond South Africa. 2. Commander of the Order of the Disa awarded to F.W De Klerk When F.W de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC and other organisations in 1990, he set in motion a new era of transformation in South Africa. This end to apartheid and South Africa’s racial segregation policy paved the way for negotiations, resulting in the release of Nelson Mandela and culminating in the first ever racially inclusive elections in South Africa in 1994.
    [Show full text]