Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
October 9, 1996
The attitude of the Afrikaner community to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will come under the spotlight in the next week as the Commission prepares for hearings in Paarl.
On Friday, (October 11) Archbishop Desmond Tutu will address the issue of Afrikaners' attitude to the TRC when he opens a special exhibition, organised to coincide with the hearings, at the Paarl Musum.
The Students' Representative Council at Stellenbosch University will encourage students to attend, and plans to provide transport to the hearings.
"This is the first time a representative body of a university has pledged its support in this way," said Ms Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, a member of the TRC's Human Rights Violations Committee involved in the hearings.
During public meetings to prepare for the hearings, Ms Gobodo-Madikizela made special pleas to the white communities of Paarl and Stellenbosch to become involved.
"We have also had a request from the police college in Paarl, to provide tickets for their new intake," she added. "The head of the college has indicated that he hopes that exposing his students to the public hearings will give them a sense of what happened in the past..."
The exhibition at the Paarl Museum was arranged after an approach by members of the TRC working on the hearings: "The exhibition will reflect the struggles that the people of Paarl went through during politically volatile periods in the life of apartheid, which includes those who were victimised as a result of those struggles," Ms Gobodo-Madikizela said.
"A major emphasis of the exhibition is to portray the essence of what the Commission means by even-handedness. The presentation includes stories of the pioneers of anti-apartheid struggle, as well as those who died as a result of conflict between political organisations.
"It also highlights the plight of many South Africans who were forced to join apartheid's internal war, and war across the borders of the country because of conscription laws. Items showing how some resisted conscription will be displayed."
The exhibition will be opened at 10.30 am on Friday in the Paarl Museum.
Inquiries: John Allen, 082- 452-7859