Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
PORT SHEPSTONE AND DURBAN HEARINGS
Monday 12 to Thursday 15 August
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION HEARINGS
The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) will feature prominently for the very first time when many of its members appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in two simultaneous sittings in KwaZulu-Natal region next week.
The commission will hold its human rights violation hearings in Port Shepstone from Monday August 12 to Wednesday August 14 where survivors and families of victims will relate stories of gross violation of their human rights.
The hearings will be at Marburg Haven, a well known civic facility very close to the Port Shepstone city centre.
Among about 30 cases that will be heard by the panel of two commissioners and four committee members, will be that of 11 victims of a brutal massacre of IFP-aligned youths on September 4 in 1992, an incident that shattered and changed the lives of people of Nsangwini village near Port Shepstone in the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast.
The youths, all huddled in a hut at the home of local IFP leader, waiting for a bus that was to take them to a weekend conference in Ulundi, were unexpectedly cornered by unknown gunmen and massacred. Other cases due to be heard by the commission include those of murder, torture , massacres arson and kidnappings, allegedly perpetrated mainly by security forces and IFP members and officials.
AMNESTY HEARINGS
Meanwhile, the very first amnesty hearings in Durban will coincide with the human rights hearings in Port Shepstone.
The amnesty hearings in Durban will be held at the Recreational Hall at the Westville Prison, from Monday August 12 to Thursday August 15. The prison Hall is easily accessible to members of the public and the hearings will be open to everyone and entry is free of any charge. The event will be fully covered by television, radio and other media. The hearings start at 9 each morning and last the entire day.
Three members of the AWB including the commandant of the Orde Boerevolk in Richards Bay, who killed seven passengers who were traveling in a bus near KwaMashu in October 1990 have applied for amnesty and will appearing before the commission in the Durban hearings. The three men were sentenced to death, which was late commuted to 25 years imprisonment. The forth applicant for amnesty is former Empangeni murder and robbery unit detective, an alleged member of the IFP, who killed two badly injured suspects he claimed were ANC members.
MEDIA ACCREDITATION
All members of the media who will be covering both hearings need to be properly accredited and would therefore have to notify the TRC in time so that we know the numbers we need to cater for. Applications for accreditation, in a letterhead, stating name and title of applicant should be forwarded as soon as possible.
For more information please contact me.
From: MDU LEMBEDE (TRC MEDIA SPOKESMAN) PHONE 031 3076745 FAX 031 3076742 CELLULAR 082 4588464 6 August 1996