Carol’s Column

Hearing reflects horrors but also a chance for hope

How horrifying yet moving these past days of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings have been; the days in which the alleged activities of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and the Mandela United Football Club (MUFC) have been brought out into the open.

Like others, I have read reports of the proceedings and watched television. I have listened to the open hearings broadcast daily on Radio 2000.

At times, the truth is not believable. Accounts of mayhem and murder. Sometimes the truth is a lie. There are accusations, counter-accusations, condemnations and denials. This is a surrealistic nightmare unfolding and often. It's only the measured tones of the chairman of the commission, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, which bring a sense of reality to the hearings.

But this is more than just a hearing. It is a litany of our recent and tragic history. It is a documentation of brutality committed by many people on all sides. Often, the horrors are too much to bear.

The abduction of four boys, including Stompie Seipei, from a mission house and his subsequent murder; the murder of MUFC members including Toli Dlamini; the alleged and strange suicide of Sizwe Sithole in police detention; the murder of Dr Abu-Baker Asvat in his Soweto surgery; the disappearance of two young people, Lolo Sono and Sibusisi Tshabalala; the list of murders is endless.

Some witnesses are truthful, of that there is no doubt. There are others who practise duplicity and obfuscation. Their evidence is contradictory. They answer questions in ways that are less than clear. Statements made previously under oath are denied. I hear church and community leaders prevaricate as they try to explain how they failed to stand up to Madikizela-Mandela in the 1980s.

There is the ugly evidence of the Stratcom operators who admit to lying and spreading dirty rumours about Winnie and harassing her 24 hours a day.

I hear police commissioner George Fivaz admit that self-confessed murderer Jerry Richardson was a police spy who was paid R10 000 for “services to be rendered”. Superintendent HT Moodley and other policemen ducked and dived as they explain why the murder of Dr Asvat was not fully investigated.

After watching the BBC documentary of Albertina Sisulu, I cannot altogether understand the seeming contradictions in her evidence. Yet a more upright, honest and good person I cannot imagine.

During these hearings, there have been moments of profound sorrow, such as when convicted murderer and MK cadre Charles Zwane breaks down as he describes his torture by the police. I am not excusing his actions. Murder is inexcusable. But I see how his situation might have come about. It is conceivable that a young schoolboy, living in a repressed and brutalised society, might take up arms for the struggle in order to liberate his people.

One cannot help but weep inside when Nicodemus Sono, father of Lolo, describes how he begged for the release of his son, who he last saw battered but alive, with Madikizela-Mandela in her minibus. She refused. According to evidence, Lolo is presumed dead.

It is as if these hearings are the baring of the hidden truths about mankind.

Sadly, the evil things that have happened in this country - murder, violence, depravity, torture - are not unique to us. They've happened since time immemorial. More recently in Spain, Germany, Chile, Argentina, Vietnam, China, Russia, Uganda, and Rwanda.

What is unique and so remarkable in South Africa is that our truth hearings are enabling the terrible past to be laid bare in an open and frank way.

This is a chance for all humanity.

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