There are many wonderful things in the new South Africa, but they did not come for free. Many men and women died for these wonderful things. Many were young, many had just started families, many were just ordinary people making their way in the world. They died for these wonderful things that many of us today take for granted.
Today, I and many others can write freely in this publication without fear of arrest, torture or death. Today anyone can call a meeting in their community and speak as they wish for or against the government without fear of death, torture or arrest. We associate with anyone we wish to associate with. We live wherever we wish to within our means. We choose whoever we want to represent us in our local, provincial or national parliament.
These freedoms did not come for free. In communities across the country there are thousands of families whose fathers, mothers and children disappeared, were arrested, tortured and killed by the apartheid government. Their sin was that they demanded that all of us, black and white, be recognised as fully human and fully deserving of the rights to free speech, assembly, religion and so much more.
The names of those who died or were tortured for these freedoms ring throughout our history: from Steve Biko to Chris Hani, from Ahmed Timol to Neil Aggett, from Nokuthula Simelane to Griffiths Mxenge to the teenagers who were lured with booby-trapped grenades by Askaris on the East Rand and elsewhere. And so many, many more. Thousands of good, innocent, people.
Today, many of the relatives of those who struggled for these freedoms live with the unimaginable pain of not knowing how their relatives died, where they are buried, and what really happened to them. They live with these massive holes in their hearts. None of us can truly imagine the depth of this pain.
These families could, however, know the truth of what happened to their loved ones. At the birth of the new South Africa a very clear and explicit agreement was struck: if you did anything in furtherance of apartheid, then come forward and tell all. With the information you gave — no apology or remorse was required — then the Truth and Reconciliation Commission would grant you, as a torturer or murderer or whatever you may have been, amnesty and protection from prosecution.
Very few of the planners, directors and perpetrators of these crimes came forward. Meanwhile, the families of the dead and the disappeared begged the government — many leaders of which were victims of torture themselves — to do what is in the founding agreements of the new South Africa: find and prosecute those who are guilty of atrocities and have failed to come forward. The cries of these families fell on deaf ears. The National Prosecuting Authority did little or nothing. The justice ministers of six different ANC administrations did little or nothing
It is sad and tragic that the families of these heroes had to hear the Johannesburg High Court rule last month that the state can prosecute apartheid-era crimes as there is no time limit on the prosecution of crimes against humanity. It is an indictment on the ANC: in power for 31 years, it has failed to do the most common of decencies for those who have gifted us with the freedom we enjoy. It is a betrayal that is unimaginable.
Now President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a commission of inquiry into why government did not pursue these cases vigorously. That is nice, but what would be more meaningful and powerful would be the immediate, high-profile, capacitation of the NPA to finish this task. Historians, archivists, forensic investigators, prosecutors, police investigators and others — domestic and foreign — should be brought in to work on and finalise these cases immediately. This would be a far better way to spend the country’s millions than yet another wasteful, time-consuming, toothless commission of inquiry. Ramaphosa is playing politics.
One final thing. I keep coming across murmurings from many people saying why should there be investigations into the past. They say we should let the past go and move on.
These are disingenuous statements. No-one is asking anyone to dig up the past. We are asking that the law take its course.
Further, why would anyone who is innocent, or whose parents are innocent, worry about the fate of an apartheid torturer or assassin who failed to come clean? It is important to understand that the people who are demanding answers about the whereabouts of their children and loved ones want information and, where possible, justice.
They deserve justice. They deserve answers. They, and their families and loved ones, deserve the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. They deserve closure. If we are good people, decent people, then we should do everything possible to give it to them.
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