Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
May 8, 1997
Archbishop Desmond Tutu tonight called on political leaders to make pilgrimages to the sites of atrocities committed by their supporters and apologise to the victims.
He suggested in a speech delivered in Cape Town that:
- President Nelson Mandela should go to Church Street, Pretoria, where a car bomb was set off outside Air Force headquarters,
- Mr F W de Klerk should visit the site of the Boipatong Massacre,
- Dr Stanley Mogoba should go to St James Church in Kenilworth, Cape Town, and
- Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi should go to KwaMakhutha.
"Would it not be wonderful if the leaders of each political party could go to the site of a notorious atrocity committed by his side and say, 'Sorry - forgive us'," Archbishop Tutu said. "We would all be amazed at the response."
He was speaking at a function in Cape Town to introduce the new editor of the Mail and Guardian, Phillip van Niekerk.
The full text of his address follows:
Introduction
I can hear your groans, "Oh no, not him again". I can sympathise with you, (Presbyterian minister) - it could have been worse.
I want to pay a very warm tribute to Anton Harber whom I first met when he was reporting on the Eloff Commission for the Rand Daily Mail 1982/3. This was a Commission really meant to give a veneer of legitimacy to Government harassment of the South African Council of Churches. It would be common cause to say he has gone on to be an outstanding innovative and courageous journalist producing a news- paper held in very high regard round the world for its independence and fearless speaking of the truth without fear or favour.
Philip I met most recently in Nigeria when I was on a mission as President's envoy to General Abacha to get him to release Chief Abiola and to introduce democratic civilian government. Philip had typically ferreted out sensitive news about soldiers who were being secretly executed in that great land being brought so harshly to its knees. I am sure he brings scintillating credentials to the editor's chair and will continue a splendid tradition started by Anton.
I had toyed with speaking about the Press. I could have regaled you with the accounts of reading in liberal English newspapers regular descriptions of accidents reading "five people and a Native were injured", and I could have gone to town about their role in the struggle against apartheid. I could also have spoken about outstanding newsmen such as Raymond Louw, Gander, Pogrund, Woods, Sparks, Qoboza, Sisulu, Klaaste, Herd and how they battled in the claustrophobia of apartheid's legislative miasma to be true to the ideals and traditions of a free press. But I have resisted that temptation and have decided to talk a little about the TRC. Stifle your yawns and groans.
Reactions to the TRC
Perhaps we were naive to expect something different but it has fairly taken away the breath to be confronted by some of the reactions to the TRC, coming mostly from certain political parties and from almost exclusively Afrikaans newspapers, apart from an English newspaper with a quite dubious pedigree. We are accused of not being even-handed. The evidence is otherwise. (Drunk) I have said we started hearing the testimony of victims/survivors in April 1996 and virtually from Day 1 of our first hearing alleged perpetra- tors were named. Had we been intent on a witch hunt we should have gone after them from the outset. Did we? No, it was only in November 1996 that we issued our first subpoenas against some of those implicated.
We have tried to ensure that those who testified would represent the broadest possible spectrum, so you had people who were necklaced or their relatives, victims of bombings by liberation groups, etc.
When President Mandela attended a hearing in Gauteng he sat through a tirade by someone who claimed to have been tortured in ANC camps. If we were the lackeys of the ANC surely we would have saved the President all that embarrassment?
When it seemed as if the ANC was claiming to give itself amnesty I threatened to resign and we got an undertaking that they would in fact be applying for amnesty. That threat is an odd manoeuvre if we were biased in the ANC's favour. Again, recently we expressed concern that not many high profile ANC members had applied and we were given assurances that we would be pleasantly surprised at the applications that would be forthcoming.
We have started subpoenaing ANC members. One of the harsh truths people don't want to accept is what I call the demography of apart- heid. Apartheid was designed to benefit whites and to disadvantage blacks. It was an evil system that had ipso facto to use equally evil methods to maintain itself. The demography of apartheid ensured inexorably that the vast majority of victims would be black and the vast majority of perpetrators would be white. That is an inescapable and brute fact. Hence the fact that there would be more white perpetrators than black perpetrators. That is a fact some find too hard to swallow and so they must find whipping boys which the Commission provides so very conveniently.
At the unveiling of the Bisho massacre memorial I urged the Eastern Cape Government to consider a memorial for those maimed and killed in the Kingwilliams Town golf course attack.
Because of our commitment to even-handedness, we have pleaded with the IFP to co-operate with the Commission. We said our report would be incomplete and lopsided if their contribution was missing. We succeeded to some extent in that the IFP made an important submission. But we went further and urged them to encourage their people who might have been victims to come forward since otherwise they would forfeit their right to reparation. They believed they could apply directly for reparation before they had appeared before either the Amnesty or the Human Rights Violations Committees. If we were not even-handed why should we have been anxious about the involvement of the IFP. This has been to such an extent that we deliberately chose to launch our Designated Statement Takers' programme in KwaZulu Natal to highlight our concern at the paucity of statements from the IFP, they are in danger of dealing in self-fulfilling prophecies through their non-co-operation being able to say we are biased in the ANC's favour. We have had to cancel a hearing that was to be devoted to ANC atrocities against the IFP because the IFP did not co-operate with us and are then accused by the IFP of being biased against them. We are trying to see Chief Buthelezi to make a last ditch effort to enlist their co-operation.
I am deeply distressed at what is happening to Mr de Klerk. No one can take away from him the crucial role that he played with his 1990 very courageous initiatives. His place is assured in our history. But I am distressed to see how he is eroding his own credibility and stature. He is upset by the reactions of people to revelations that have not come from what the TRC has done. The damage has happened as a result of revelations from Amnesty applications. We cannot force anyone to apply for amnesty. These people have come voluntarily and it is their public testimony and Mr de Klerk's response to that which have dented his image.
And the impression that the TRC is targeting former members of the security forces is erroneous. It was not the fact of subpoenaing people. It is the revelations which have shocked our people and those have come from amnesty applications. The revelations are new. Whereas many members of the liberation movement were involved in public trials. The police boasted of their successes then. The details of those incidents, eg Amanzimtoti or Magoo's Bar bombings were widely publicised then and the police got kudos. The perpetrators were tried and sentenced, many were executed. There is little to set off against the very novel revelations of the atrocities committed by the security forces. The spotlight hurts - and to divert attention, attack the TRC. We did not specifically go after anybody - amnesty applicants told us about the secret burials and that has sent an enormous shock wave through our society.
In sacramental theology we are taught right at the beginning - the penitent must confess only his own sins, not those of another. I want to suggest to politicians - concentrate on your own sins and not those of others.
Grab this opportunity. When someone stands up and says, "I'm sorry, forgive me" - certainly in Christianity you're under obligation to forgive. The terms of amnesty are so wonderfully generous. Use them for the sake of our country. This is a golden opportunity which will never return. All it requires is for somebody to say, "I am sorry. Forgive me"; "We are sorry. Forgive us" with no qualifications, no "buts or ifs".
Would it not be wonderful if the leaders of each political party could go to the site of a notorious atrocity committed by his side and say, "Sorry - forgive us". - if Dr Mogoba went to St James' Church; if Madiba went to Church Street, if Mr de Klerk went to Boipatong, if Chief Buthelezi went to KwaMakhutha - and just said sorry. We would all be amazed at the response.
The TRC belongs to the whole Nation and it wants to see the whole Nation healed and reconciled.
Perhaps the media could carry that message.
Inquiries: John Allen, 082- 452-7859