Press Release - 21 MAY 1997
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS HEARING MOOI RIVER
27 - 29 MAY 1997 MOOI RIVER TOWN HALL
The TRC will be holding a 3 day hearing at the Mooi River Town Hall, beginning on Tuesday 27th May 1997.
Evidence will be heard on the first day about gross human rights violations which took place in towns and townships around Mooi River, including Estcourt, Wembezi, Steadville and Bergville. These violations will focus on the political conflict between the UDF (and later the ANC) and the IFP from approximately the mid 80's to the early 90's.
Day 2 and 3 of the hearing will focus on the intense political conflict in Bruntville township, particularly between 1989 and 1991.
Bruntville is the small township of the Natal Midlands town of Mooi River. For most of the 1980's Bruntville escaped the political violence that engulfed the bigger urban townships of Natal, and was widely regarded as a peaceful and progressive township. However, towards the end of the 1980's it became apparent that it was not immune from political conflict.
In Bruntville, the protagonists were not as politicized as was often the case later. To begin with, one saw the normal parents versus youth split and the breakdown of the authority syndrome. This progressed to a confrontation between the community and the elected town council of Bruntville. A civic association soon entered the fray, and eventually existing social tensions between the community and the hostel dwellers led to violent clashes between them and the community. This conflict became politicized when the hostel dwellers turned to Inkatha for support, while the civic openly aligned itself with the United Democratic Front, and after 1990, the ANC.
The tensions and conflicts in the township culminated in two massacres, perpetrated by hostel dwellers, in which over 30 people were killed. This lead to the flight of many people from Bruntville, and the disruption of education and community services.
The Truth Commission will be looking at Bruntville as a case study of the sort of social and political tensions which arose in many other areas in Kwazulu Natal and areas on the East Rand , where IFP hostel dwellers and non IFP township residents resided adjacently to each other, and became involved in political conflict.
The Truth Commission has gone to great lengths to attempt to persuade the midlands IFP region to participate in the hearing, and to tell the Commission of the perceptions of hostel dwellers, and to give their version of the events. The IFP has made it very clear that it will not participate in any way in the hearing, on the basis that it does not believe that the TRC will assist in revealing the truth and will not bring about reconciliation.
This places the TRC in a very difficult position. Our primary job is to uncover the truth and when we attempt to do so by holding a hearing, and inviting both sides to give their perspective, the IFP refuses to participate on the basis that we will not uncover the truth.
The TRC will nevertheless proceed with the hearing, and because of the IFP's refusal to participate, we have requested a highly respected, independent social scientist, Dr. Anthony Minnaar (ex Human Sciences Research Council) to give an overview of the conflict in Bruntville. He will in the course of his address to the Commission, refer to the submissions made by the IFP to the Goldstone Commission on the violence in Bruntville, and draw on his own knowledge and research of this period. In this way the Commission hopes to try to create a balanced picture of the conflict of the time.
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