Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
3 June 1997
STATEMENT BY THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION WESTERN CAPE OFFICE
The TRC's focus on the role of children and youth during the Apartheid years, will culminate in the Western Cape with an interfaith service on National Youth Day, held in the St George's Cathedral, Cape Town.
Altogether nine young people testified at the Special Event Hearing on Youth, held in Athlone on Thursday, May 22, this year. Several context statements were presented, highlighting the plight of children and youth during the struggle, primarily since 1976.
"The Commission's research shows, that it was the youth, those between 15 and 25 years, who bore the brunt of gross human rights violations", a submission by Profs. Andy Dawes and Pamela Reynolds stated. "It is therefore necessary to offer a particular opportunity for the young to tell their story. It will prompt us to reflect on how our society treats its children, and how we might take concrete steps to prevent the abuse of the young. In so doing we may begin to redefine what it means to be a child in South Africa."
To further this ideal the TRC's Western Cape office is hoping to further focus on the future of youth and not only the past.
During the fortnight between June 1 - International Day of the Child - and June 19 - the 21 st commemoration of the Soweto School uprising, now celebrated as workshops will be held in the Peninsula to further consientise and heal young people.
The workshops are part of the Children's Ubuntu Project which held a one-day youth programme in St George's Cathedral late last year, focusing on images of the past, reality and truth. Children had the opportunity to create their own narratives about the past.
Another workshop by the Project, jointly run by the Western Cape TRC, the St George's Cathedral Foundation and the Religious Response to the TRC, kicked off today for 70 eleven year olds at the Athlone Technical College in Thornton Road. Two further separate workshops for children of different age groups will follow soon. The events culminates in the lighting of the Ubuntu candle of hope, inserted in an orange, representing the globe, which in turn is wrapped in the national flag, to represent the context in which they are living.
During the weekend of June 8 and 9, about 100 young people from 20 schools, aged ban intensive two-day workshop, including a Healing of the Memories workshop, run by the Religious Response and the Trauma Centre.
Children between 12 and 14 will attend the last of the three workshops on June 12.
Children have been selected from school across the racial, language, gender and religious spectrum. The Youth Day Interfaith Service on June 1 will also be conducted by young people exclusively.