Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
MEDIA ADVISORY BY WESTERN CAPE OFFICE OF THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATIONS COMMISSION
Media Advisory on Peninsula hearings from 26-27 November in Cape Town.
November 21, 1996
The Western and Northern Cape Regions of the TRC will hold three days of human rights violations hearings next week focusing on events in the Peninsula during the mid-eighties.
The first day will consist of various cases of violations during 1985, including the Pollsmoor March of August 1995, and events resulting from it. The next two days will be devoted to a Special Event Hearing on the Guguletu Seven, as the deaths of seven young men in a shooting incident on March 3, 1986 became known. The men allegedly died at the hands of the police, who said they were hoarding weapons. Two inquests followed, where the SAP was cleared from unlawful conduct.
On the first day of the event hearing, Wednesday November 27, family members of the deceased and other witnesses will testify before the TRC panel. On Thursday, November 28, nine policeman who have been subpoenaed by the TRC's Western Cape Investigative Unit, will be questioned on the alleged role of the police in the deaths.
On Tuesday, November 26, the panel will consist of TRC chairperson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Commissioners, Adv Denzil Potgieter, Glenda Wildschut and Mary Burton, as well as Human Rights Violations Committee member, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela. Archbishop Tutu will be present during the first morning of the Event Hearing, after which Investigative Unit Head, Commissioner Dumisa Ntsebeza will take over.
The hearings will be held in our Cape Town Head office, at 106 Adderley Street.
To comply with special security provisions at our head office, journalists and photographers wishing to attend, are asked to submit their names, their positions and their media organisations to the TRC by tomorrow, Friday, November 22. These should be faxed to Christelle Terreblanche, fax number: 021-245225.
Media representatives are also advised to go through the security check by 08h30. The hearings are due to start at 09h00. Photo-ops are provisionally confined to the opening statements between 09h00 and 09h30.
There will one room for SABC television and radio, a different room for non-SABC broadcasters, and one for print media. Monitors and DA's will be available in these rooms. Broadcasters are advised to bring field equipment. They can phone Solly Terblanche ahead of time at 0825724221 to check the compatibility of their equipment with the DA. About 40 seats in the hall are reserved for media.
For more media information please call Christelle Terreblanche at 0824588461.