i t i - w ^ p

Vordering met Boipatong-2

Van Freak Swart

«Ek verseker die Veiligheidsraad dat ons sal voortgaan m onspoprig5 om aan ons mense te demonstreer, aan al ons mense, dat ons omgee e dat ons nie sal afwyk vaii‘ ° ^ todig besluit om die geweid te beemaig nie," het hy gesS.

Min. Botha het ges6 die Boipatong- traeedie is onmiddellik en maks‘

die feite deur ’n behoorlike onaer soek vasgestel word.

Voorts is getuies opdrag gegee om

tP werk nie. Ondanks dit net cue ru- Dartv het ges<5 die K e g e r u i g « w e i Goldstone-kommissiesteeds enigiemand wat glo dathy °or vordering gemaak met die on_relevante getuienis beskik, om dit n | ersoek. Hulle werk 24 uur van die vore te bring.

VERENIGDE NASIES (New York). - Die Suid-Afrikaanse Polisie en dieGoldstone-kommissie maak goeievordering met hul ondersoekna die gebeurde by Boipatong, het die Mi­nister van Buitelandse Sake, mnr. Pik Botha, gister in die Veiligheids- raad van die V e r e m g d e Nasies gesfi.

Min. Botha, wat die lede van die Veiligheidsraad verseker het dat die Suid-Afrikaanse regenng net so sieg voel oor Boipatong soos enige ander party, het ges<5 die Regermg nooi

.. ' dag om die skuldiges aan die man

t8 Altesame 82. inwoners van die

nens word forensies getoets.nip Polisie het ook persoonlike be-

sittings van inwoners van Boipatong g e S w atna bewering in die nag

V D itfsdus^Sdflikdatdieow erhe-deDw a t d i e o r d e e n r e g h a n ^ ^les in hul mag doen om toe taJ sien riat die reg seSvier. Hulle moet egier

dures werk. Daar is nie langer n noodtoestand in Suid-Afnka me.

Question remains^ what evidence?. . . . . . . - 1___~ A , . rt lnor f Wi nrnn rrK nnH o n m n

Philip van Niekerk’s long attack on me avoided the central question behind my article (“Facts re­main the bottom line”, Opinion, July 7).

He has made sweeping allegations of De Klerk’s direct responsibility for B o ip a to n g and o f SAP/K oevoet in volve­m ent in the a trocity . A greed , g iv en th e ir dreadful previous record, initial suspicion of such folk is not unreasonable. But to rush into print with accusations of mur­der is something no re- ponsible journalist will do without an unassail­able basis, in fact: in the present South African context such accusations in them selves trigger m ore v io len ce , m ore

deaths, probably already have done so. One has to be really sure of one’s ground to risk that.

This is not, in other words, a debating society matter — 42 people died, horribly, at Boipatong — and more since: it de­serves our full serious­ness. If Mr van Niekerk has no evidence on which to base his allegations, my structures about the making of unsupported allegations definitionally still apply: in this case he should issue a retraction. If, however, he has such evidence, he has clearly not made it available to Justice Goldstone’s com­mission, which came to conclusions opposite to his. In which case his public duty is equally

clear.

Durban□ □ a

Congratulations to RW Johnson who reminded us in his article of what responsible journalism is all about.

When it comes to Boi­patong, The Star was guilty of latching on to sensational unsubstan­tiated information which was prominently head­lined at the time, only to see a shift of emphasis when it became obvious that there was a lack of truth in the published statements.

It would be most en­ligh ten ing should Mr Johnson, as a political s c ien tist, carry out a

thorough and complete analysis of the Boipatong tragedy as reported by The SUr. I feel sure that it would reveal many of the inaccuracies m en­tioned in his a r tic le , which amounted to weak journalism.

As Mr Johnson puts it: “In the overheated cli­m ate of today’s South Africa, we need truthful reporting and profession­al, sceptical journalism as never before.”

J F RidgardRandburgThe S ta r reported the B oipatong s to ry as it unfolded. We m ade no judgm ents, m erely re ­ported what w as being sa id by those d irec tly involved. — Editor. .

NEWS' Some ot the Boipatong survivors have still not come to terms <vith’ ft'aiitV'o'i the Situation

■ Boipatong survivors of the June massacre are still having nightmares a month after the event:

By Ruth Bhengu

IT'S a mcnth since the night hordes of hostel dwellers descended on the small community of Boipatong in the Vaal Tri­angle bu: hering men, women and children, leaving 39 dead and the whole worlds tunned.

The fuss has died down but those who survived the attack and watched in horror

as Iheir loved ones and relatives were hacked and stabbed to death are still bewildered and grief stricken.

To Tiany the reality of tNt fateful night has still not sunk in. Those who are supposed to be "lucky" because they got off with injuries are not only dealing with their grief but also with the feeling that they lived when others dk ..

So helpless“One feels so helpless,” says Mr

Fillip Msibi (42) who lost his wife and three children. “You wt.h there was something you could have done but you know there was nothing

Haunted by slaughteryou could possibly do.” On the night of June 17 when the attackers fell on the unsuspecting residents, Msibi and

~ his family were asleep. There were eight people in the four-roomed house - two adults and six children.

Msibi was saved by the fact that he was the first to get up when he heard the commotion. While the attackers stabbed and axed his family he was crouching under a car in the

yard.He crept out only when the screams stopped and the attackers' voices got fainter as they moved on to other houses.

ForeverMsibi said: “That picture will stick

in my mind for ever. It is the picture that comes up every time I close my eyes.

“My mother is taking my daughter

to the psychiatrist. I think her mind has been disturbed.

“As for me, I cannot sleep at night. I see the pictures.

The doctor gave me tablets to help me sleep. It's the same for the other boy too.

“When relatives and j^gtier sympathisers stayed with us it wasbeUerv 1

Now they have all gone and now jjie pain has started afresh. Ah, sisi, you)\ave| no idea what it's like,” Msibi said.

Boipatong: SAP salhulvasvat „ ,— ( W M h j V \ {

Deur Johan van Wyk I '

GENL.-MAJ. WOUTER GROVE, leier van die ondersoek na die Boi- patong-slagting, het sy span speur- ders gister opdrag gegee om mense wat hulle regstreeks met die onder­soek bemoei, vuor die voet in hegte- nis te neem en aan te kla.

Die stap is volgens genl. Grove no­dig omdat die Polisie se ondersoek steeds gekortwiek word omdat be- langrike getuies - onder wie die be- seerdes en ooggetuies - steeds bel'n- vloed word om inligting van die Po­lisie te weerhou.

Mense wat hulle In die ondersoek inmeng, kan dus volgens genl. Grove vervolg word weens regsverydeling, of omdat hulle 'n polisiebeampte in die wettige ultvoer van sy pligte ver- hinder.

Dit is geen geheim nie dat die ANC agter die belnvloeding sit. Die orga- nisasie het dit reeds in soveel woor- de erken en volgens Beeld se inlig­ting is dit ook prontuit erken in brie- we wat die ANC se regsraadgewers aan die Polisie gestuur het.

Die rede vir die opdrag is omdat die ANC meen die Polisie kan nie vertrou word met die ondersoek nie en eerder wil he die Goldstone-Kom- missie moet die getuienis van die mense aanhoor. . .

•10 The Star Wednesday Juiy 15 1992

Who inflamed emotions of crowd at Boipatong?• “The ANC abhors necklacing” . . . an unctuous statement. Why is' it issued only now and not when their president’s wife was proclaiming: “With our tyres and boxes of matches we will liberate this country”? When has their leader ever repudiated that bloodthirsty boast?• When the State President vi­sited Boipatong an ANC official said with evident satisfaction: “The comrades are after his blood" . . . and those comrades rtiight well have slaughtered him had he alighted from his

Tear. But who inflam ed the 1 crowd’s emotions?

•^Negotiation and mass action are com plem entary” . . . the smooth words of the ANC lead­er; tran sla ted , they m ean, "We’ll talk to you if we can hold a pistol against your head". But

let the Government talk of hav­ing to use the security forces to maintain law and order and there is a pious outcry.• “Louis Luyt shows his lack of compassion” . . . because he re­jects an ANC demand for politi­cal armbands for rugby teams. Next time they may demand he walk on his hands as a mark of sympathy and solidarity. What humbug! And how shrewd the ANC is, to count on many South Africans falling thoughtlessly for such propaganda designed to show the ANC’s muscle.• “I cannot vote in the Referen­dum (of March 17) as I am not naturalised”. Thus spoke Joe Slovo. Yet this communist for­eigner, leader of only 25 000 communists, has a seat at Code- sa to determine the future gov­ernment of a country in which

he is only a guest! Another round to a cunning comrade. “We won’t allow foreign inter­ference”, declares Pik Botha. Then close the Codesa doors to this foreigner.

The crass mistake of which we ordinary South Africans and our lead ers are constantly guilty is that of appealing — as if to democrats — to the ANC to “reconsider mass action”, “stop pernicious propaganda”, “fight the battle fairly, truthfully, hon­estly”. Have we forgotten that in communist ethics “right” is what advances their cause, “wrong” is what hinders it? Communism stands right and truth and democracy on their heads.

Edward W PryorJohannesburg

ANC rejn glo ondersoek

b en Pretoriusf t DIE African National Q»Congress probeer glo

(\) om die polisie se onder- $[[_soek na die slagting in sL die Boipatong-plak- ' kerskamp te bemoei-TlUk.— ’n Beroep is al selfs

op die plakkers gedoen om nie met die polisie

.y saam te werk nie, se 3 genl-maj Wouter

Grove, wat pas in be- 3 heer van die ondersoek

geplaas is.V* Hy volg genl-maj

Hannes Gloy op wat weens gesondheids- redes nie met die on­dersoek kan voortgaan nie.

“Die ANC het ons taak geweldig bemoei- lik ten spyte daarvan dat ons telkem ale met hulle gekommunikeer het. Daar was dae dat dit weens die spanning in die gebied onmoont- lik was om na Boipa­tong te gaan,” se hy.

Die toneel van die slagting is nie onge- skonde gelaat nie. Dit bemoeilik ook die speurders se taak.

“Dit is 0nge1 ijkjtig^so “‘ d a t' politieke,' groepe- (' ringe van die’ gefeent: heid gebruik maak om'

Genl-maj Wouter Grove

munt uit die tragedie te slaan,” se hy.

Die speurders is dik- wels ook op ’n dwaalspoor gelei.

Hy se die polisie was die aand van die slag­ting nie op ’n ge- reedheid.sgrondslag W8.i .Die bes^Abaj^

r maqskappe h^6 ' wel.rja^idie torieel'ge- Haas.

-isKKO a

Hy het meegevpel met die slagoffers, soos met die van enige mis- daad. Die polisie loop peter kwaai ondu. kri- Jlek deur. “Dit is baie demoraliserend as jy gebombardeer word met valse beweringe. Die kritiek is nie teen

‘ "Vit ao f‘rfe ^ r t Jp|ifisie- 7 Yn’aRfii’-ii/eJ' fpaar* "?e'en 7 S ieJ' j^ l^ '6 r £ a i‘iV ^ se

hy. c v ■

A c c u r a c y is im p o r ta n t in reporting ,5 V^r

argues Phillip van Niekerk, b u t also in accusa tions- i v v - ' i i - p r

is ‘proof’ in South Africa?

THERE is a school of journal- . ism which might be described as

being in the “emperor* has no clothes” tradition. -S; ' 0 <■■ ■

It is an honourable tradition in the newspaper industry — after all, it is what distinguishes "great journalism” — but it grows tire­some when reporters (ersatz and otherwise) begin running around screaming the emperor is naked when he is self-evidently clothed.

A recent practitioner of this type of journalism is the academ­ic R W Johnson who, in an article published in these columns of the Star last week, took it upon him­self to deliver a lesson to the jour­nalistic profession in’ South Afri- i

As an example of how journal­ists should work he holds up a re­cent article Rian Malan and Denis Beckett in the Sunday Star which leaves the impression that the Boipatong massacre was es­sentially the ANC’s fault, because some unidentified persons who may or may not have been sup­portive of the ANC necklaced the girlfriend of an Inkatha supporter before the massacre took place.

If Mr Johnson had read the Weekly Mail/Guardian Weekly as comprehensively: as he suggests he does, he would have noted that a version of the Malan/Beckett

uc profession in' South Afri- /afrti cl* was 111 fact carri®d 111 our criticising U .’ fotfH addM / ^ e d i t i o n . •

scepticism.- • e always anxious to"giveca

cpuvisui. ^ & g iveHe targets my^newspaper 'thev; 38 “ “ y 'perspectives as possible

..eekly Mail for the T“joumali<im ?D major news events. of allegation” . and(t in ija r t ic u la r ^ S u c h an oversight is not unusual denounces me for,' among'TotherM where Mr Johnson is concerned, things, “approvingly5’ quoting®, despite his willingness to lecture ANC Dresident Nplsnn ManHpla about truthful rprwir+ina*- ’! >

u • 7 1 *,w pic •’ j oumaus uc circles for the kind of , He indulges in derogatory ref-;£,; inaccuracy that would not lie to-

erences to the way the Boipatong^' lerated of a cub reporter on a sub­story was covered by the Weekly urban weekly, , .

icle in the Sunday Star in which >e claimed that the Winnie Man- dela/Stompie Moeketsi scandal was broken by the London Sunday Times. Investigations show that in fact the London Sunday Times did not make a single mention of Mrs Mandela for six months before the scandal was broken (by the Week­ly Mail/Guardian) and even failed to mention her name until two weeks afterwards.

But back to the central thrust of the Johnson polemic. In his bit­ter complaint that I quoted Man­dela "approvingly” he is stag­gered that I provide no evidence to show security forces involve­ment in the killings in Boipatong.

Mr Johnson has seemingly over­looked the point that the rest of the world could hardly have failed to notice.

The day before Mr Mandela made the comment, the South African Police opened fire on an unarmed crowd in front of the world’s television and stills cam­eras at Boipatong, killing three people.

To rdresh Mr Johnson’s memo­ry at ‘ the incident I refer him

' • :;.r

to Allister Sparks’ column in The Star on Wednesday June 24 in which he describes how police re­turned to the scene after Mr de Klerk was furiously ejected from the township, shot a man dead, then opened fire continously for half a minute, the people, “falling as they were shot in the back until there were two dead and 29 groaning on the ground”.

What more evidence does Mr Johnson require? Sworn affidavits from the dead?

Perhaps he relied exclusively on the Beckett/Malan piece which fails to mention, let alone grasp . the significance of, the De Klerk ; ejection from Boipatong and the j police shootings that followed it in propelling Boipatong into an in­ternational story.

Mr Johnson falls into a trap which most South African jour-/.’ nalists are usually alert to. It is a// tactic that the Government uses! and has used for decades, of ans­wering suspicions and allegations with demands that their accusers produce the proof.

As the Government they have the ability to cover up the atroci-

I V7 ' * X /:'?•ties and the corruption in which they are involved.

By dint of hard news reporting in the best tradition, the South African press has managed from time to time to expose the truth. Hence we have had the hit squad scandal (prp'npitated by the Weekly Man/Guardian) showing the Government’s deliberate use of murder as an instrument of policy.

We have also had the Gorongo- I , sa documents, showing that the !

j Government had consistently lied I | to the world and its own elec- j trorate about is support of Rena- i mo and their destabilisation cam- j paign involving horrific atrocities

in Mozambique.I We have had Inkathagate (bro­

ken by the Weekly Mail/Guard­ian), showing that the security po­lice continued to fund Inkatha as a bulwark against the ANC after February 2,1990.

We have had more recently the j. “Goniwe signal” showing one of i' the most senior military com­

manders in the country was re­sponsible for the murders of four outstanding anti-apartheid activ-

. . ».. . . .

ists in the Eastern Cape.This story was broken by the

New Nation, one of the indepen­dant newspapers about which 'Mr Johnson is so derogatory, claim­ing they never produce proof of

I the allegations they publish.To those who have not spent

their years in the ivory towers of academia, the underlying truth about South African Government’s responsibility for violence in this country is self-evident.

' From mass poisonings in the Rhodesian bush war to the atroci­ties of Mozambique, and the mur­der of Goniwe, Webster, Lubowski (the list is seemingly endless)

‘there is an accumulation of evi­dence which places an inescap­able onus on the Government, and its apologists, to prove its inno­cence rather than merely to deny guilt.

In the light of all this, it is truly staggering that Mr Johnson’s lec­ture to South African journalists to be sceptical refers almost en­tirely to disbelieving the Govern­ment’s involvement in vicflenceO• Phillip va n N iekerk is Politi­cal E ditor o f the W eekly M ail. ;

Our mostsociety on earth

La w r e n c e s c h l e m -MER, a man who usually

chooses his words carefully, has characterised South Africa as the most violent society on earth.

If there is an element of h> perbole in his startling state­ment, it is understandable: since President de Klerk launched his bid f"' a negotiated settlement on February 2 1990, more than 7 0C0 people have been shot, hacked, stabbed and burnt to death in political violence.

The Boipatong massacre of June 17 became the 49th massa­cre in which 1C t more people were murdered since July 1990, according to Human Rights Commission records.

Within hours of the massacre the African National Congress issued a statement, blaming Pre­sident de Klerk for the killings and accusing the police of direct complicity in the massacre.

T he ANC cited a 1990 amendment to the Natal Native Code decreed by Mr de Klerk, contending that it “ legalised the carrying of dangerous weapons” and that he had therefore created the opportunity for “slaughter” .

The unspoken assumptions in the ANC statement were that President de Klerk had made it legal for Zulu supporters of Dr MangosL...a Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) to carry sticks, spears and shields and to use them to kill ANC members and sympathisers.

The statement should be seen in the context of the disclosure last year that Mr de Klerk’s ad­ministration had secredy helped to finance IFP rallies and contin­ued surreptitious payments to the IFP’s trade union arm, the United Workers Union of South Africa (Uwusa), after Mr de Klerk acceded to the presidency.

PATRICK LAURENCE of our Po l i t ica l Staff re ­flects on the complex­i t ies of the v io le n c e threaten ing to destroy

South Africa.

The implications of the ANC statement — that Mr de Klerk had armed and fin? reed black “surrogates” or “mercenaries” to destabilise the ANC by killing its followers — reverberated in the aftermath of the Boipatong massacre.

The prim e suspects were Zulu-speaking men from the nearby KwaMadala Hostel, an IFP stronghold in an area gener­ally dominated by the ANC.

The case for the ANC accus­ers seems indisputable. Yet a closer look at the situation shows that it is not as simple as that.

The August 1990 amendment to the Natal Native Code of 1887 did allow Zulus to carr danger­ous weapons under specified conditions. As some of these conditions applied under the original code, the amendment did not create an entirely new situation.

What the amendment did do was to widen the scope for carry­ing these weapons — ie: make it easier to carry them — by add­ing a new condition: Zulus could carry these weapons if they could prove they were carrying . .m for bona fide purposes according to Zulu custom and tradition.

The ANC alleged that the purpose of the amendment was to legitimise the refusal of police to disarm IFP men.

Last December the Supreme Court declared the amendment null and void because of its vagueness. It made the debate over the intention of law makers largely academic.

It was superceded by the agreement of the De Klerk ad­ministration, when it signed the National Peace Accord in Sep­tember last year, to ban the pos­session or display of dangerous weapons by people attending po­litical meetings or participating in political 'marches.

It fulfilled its commitment in February 1992 by amending the Dangerous Weapons Act accord­ingly. Prohibited weapons in­cluded spears. A month later the prohibition was extended to trains and stations in a bid to curb the killing of people on trains.

At present Mr de Klerk’s le­gal draftsmen are preparing reg­ulations to prohibit the posses­sion of dangerous weapons in any public place.

Shortly after the signing of the National Peace Accord Mr de Klerk appointed a permanent judicial commission to investi­gate political violence, including allegations of state complicity.

It was headed by Mr Justice R J Goldstone, the same who de­livered a withering indictment of the police in his inquiry into the shooting of black civilians by po­licemen in March 1990.

Seen in the context o f Mr Goldstone’s finding that no evi­dence has been submitted so far to justify allegations that Mr de Klerk, his ^binet ministers or his senior security force officers were involved in the Boipatong massacre, these events modify — at the very least — the ANC’s one-dimension view of the vio­lence as the product of conspira­cy against it.

They recall the the words of the Greek poet, Archilochus, in the 7th century BC. “ The fox knows many things. The hedge­hog knows only one big thing.” South Africa needs more foxes.

bens on the Media' ** . ' *... ................... ............... " '• ..... . '* '•* * ’■ • <• •• -vyjv v ;v 1 • •’ - - '*V-v'W&J&l

I o ( J (<{Z- p L 7 1

The harassment of journalists is taking on new forms every day. In this article Webber Wentzel lawyer, David O'Sullivan, looks at some forms of censorship and intimida­tion of the media from police and the public in general.

■-K;;

• • ••

KSalS:*4 \

FLASHBACK... Police firing on fleeing protesters after President FW De Klerk’s visit was aborted when angry mobs forced him out of Boipatong township.

RENEWED tension in South Afr' i’s townships, particularly after the Boipatong massacre, has been ac­companied by renewed harassment of journalists from two sources as

they aiempt to report on the bloodshed.Journalists face severe intimidation from

township youths.Recendy, newspapers have run numerous

\ articles about youths assaulting journalists in ! the townships, oraccusing them of being “State

killers” , “Gatsha’s soldiers” , or just simply i “policemen” - a frightening allegation which 'could create a life-threatening situation if acted 'on by an angry crowd.S Not surprisingly, journalists are becoming

^ftcreasingly reluctant to go into the townships.The unfortunate but obvious result is that an

accurate picture of just what is happening is not adequately reflected in the newspapers - and it's not the journalists who are solely to blame.

Journalists are also up against their old adver­sary - the security forces, who have powers in terms of unrest regulations to effectively pre­vent journalists from witnessing township strife.

Law and Order Minister Mr Hemus Kriel has declared seven “unrest areas” , including the country's most volatile townships: Boipatong, Sharpeville. Sebokeng, Vosloorus, Katlehong, Tokoza, Soweto and Alexandra.

In these “unrest areas’ ’, the security forces - 1 members of the police, defence force and pris­

ons service - can order journalists to stop what they are doing and to get out of the area under certain circumstances.

Any member of the force, no matter how low his rank, can issue the order if he's of the opinion that the presence or behaviour of the journalists

" ' ould cause various forms of unrest such as blic violence, disorder or riots.He can also order journalists out of the area if

he feels it’s necessary to prevent a situation becoming violent,

j Journalists have to obey the command imme­diately, otherwise they can be arrested. The security forces can use as much force as they feel is necessary to get the journalists out.

The security force member' word is final, the correctness of his decision cannot be ques­tioned. cn if journalists feel he has over­reacted or has sized up the potential dangers incorrectly, they have to obey the order.

Any journalist worth his salt will try anything to get back into an unrest area if a big story is brewing. The question is: how long does such an order remain in force?

Obviously it doesn’t operate indefinitely, so when can journalists go back into an unrest area?

This question was debated at length during an appeal by World-wide Television News sound man, Brian Green, against a conviction for

re fusi ng to obey an order to leave Vosloorus - an unrest area.

Mr Justice Petrus Schabort (a Codesa co- chairman) agreed with Mr Justice Peter Schutz that the unrest must be over before the journal­ists can flock back in.

They were strict in deciding precisely when the situation is back to normal. People milling around in what Green called the “regular kind ofpost, kind of feeling” was still unrest accord­ing to the judges and therefore a no-go area.

The judges decided that journalists would have to make appropriate inquiries to decide if unrest was over. Since the security forces are given the power to decide when unrest occurs, they presumably will be the ones to decide when it's over.

Appropriate inquiries, no doubt, will have to be directed their way.

Yet that's what journalists must do when deciding if they can re-enter a trouble zone.

Journalists are up against many obstacles in unrest areas: they face arrest without a warrant, detention for up to 5J days, their cars being searched without a warrant. Their refusal to obey the security forces could result in a fine of up to R20 000 or 10 years in jail, or a jail term without the option of a fine.

Critics of the media are quick to point a finger and accuse them of not accurately reflecting what is going on in the townships. But given the constraints under which journalists operate, it’s surprising that anything is published at all. j,}

Intimidation from township youths and un­rest regulations imposed by the security forces stymie a journalist’s work and result in vital information about the state of the nation being kept under wraps. .-

THE WEEKLY. MAIL, July 10 to 16 1992

about the right beatr u n ----------- . ___THE unexpected task of assessing a massacre investigation in a foreign country was an arduous one for London metropolitan policemen Commander Tom Laidlaw and Detectivc Superin­tendent David Don.

Asked, on 12 hours’ notice, to fly to South Africa and undertake a week’s auditof the police inquiry into the Boipa- tong killings was one thing. Then there was the question of being seen to be liaising with the South African Police.

But the two officers — accompanied by English academic Dr PeterWaddington, directorof criminal justiceat Reading University — believe their expertise stood them in good stead. Being outsiders, (hey also believe they were able to maintain a degree of objec­tivity essential to their task. ‘There arc strengths as well as weaknesses in being an outsider, said Don. “The strong point is that is one can look at things from an objective point of view.

“We wouldn’t presume to understand the political or historical circumstances in this country. It would mean living, eating, breathing and sleeping here to understand that. But we do understand policing ... We understand, from our perspective in England, the right and proper thing to do.”

Waddington added: “That is what Judge Richard Goldstone wanted. He wanted an assessment of how well the SAP had responded to the circum­stances measured against international

British experts asked to assess ^ '°Hce investigations intn thr

Boipato/jfr massacre are unable to release their

_______findings yet, but theydiscussed with

LINDA RULASHEsome lessons for restoring

public confidencestandards.”

The men were unable to discuss their report, which will only be released when the Goldstone Commission of Inquiry into the Boipatong massacre begins on August 2.

Though dealing with an inquiry of this nature was new to them, they said the process of auditing is a common one in the London police force.

Don explained that it is not unusual to initially use “a couple of hundred offi­cers in an inquiry. This eventually winds down to a “normal team” of about 30 officers, depending on the inci­dent and how long it takes to solve.

“Any murder is considered a major inquiry by us. Fora man in my position, this means dealing with the probler ,f running a large team of detectives all gathering information. That’s some­thing you gain by experience.”

The closest England has come to an

poncing the police... Commander Tom Laidlaw (left), Dr Peter Waddington and Detective Superintendent DavidDon Photo: KEVIN CARTERinquiry like Boipatong’s was after the collision (later found to be an accident) between a passenger riverboat and another boat on the Thames, in which 152 people died. “We are very fortunate in that we don’t tend to get as many deaths in publicdisorder,”said Laidlaw.

The officers have been involved in protracted inquiries into rail disasters, aircraft crashes and serial murders. These inquiries are usually followed by internal investigations to assess the police progress, they said.

Laidlaw, who has investigated vari­ous demon , ..tions and riots, said: “There was a significant riot in central London in March 1990. The next year a

large report was compiled to learn all the lessons that could be leamt from the subsequent inquiry. A rather lesser out­break occurred some months later and a similar report was produced for that.

“This process of review and satisfy­ing oneself about whether the right or wrong thing was done is something all pol ice forces m ust do.”

Ever conscious of the way they are regarded by the public, the English police constantly reassess their role, sa Waddington.

Restoring public confidence in the SAP is a key task the Goldstone Com­mission has set itsel f. In a statement read at the commission’s preliminary hear­

ing into the Boipatong massacre this week, Judge Goldstone said: “The com-} mission is of the view that in order for a I government to gain the respect and sup­port of its citizens whom they serve, it must be able to demonstrate that it has full control of its security forces.

“In turn, the security forces must be, able to secure the lives and homes of the people. Such a state of affairs cannot be brought about without active oo-opera- ion between the security forces and the

majority of the citizens and their politi-: cal representatives.

“How to bring about such a state of affairs is the most urgent and daunting task of the commission.”

~ |_i cyfj') 'c7 ? pj

The ghost of Boipatong must be exorcised

THE temptation is almost over­whelming, to call down Mercutio’s curse on them: “A plague o’ both your houses”, for they have indeed made worms’ m ea t. .

A photograph arouses the ’ense of fury and disgust. Taken with considerable courage by a (white) colleague at last week’s Boipatong funeral, it shows a scrawny youth on his knees, with his naked back to the camera, being spoken to by four others bending down towards him. They are part of a mob and they are telling the youth he is about to die.

The four faces belong to Goya. It would be a relief to describe them as mad, but the expressions are only too human: of fake concern, incredulous interrogation and, worst of all, greedy anticipation as of a starving man being shown his seat at the banquet.

The condemned youth, subse­quently id en tified as S tan ley Nagaga, is a suspected Inkatha member. The murderers (for that they became, hitting, kicking, and hacking Stanley before driving over him with a mini-bus and setting him on fire) are ANC supporters. Was it for this we picketed Trafal­gar Square?

Looking up from the photograph, the eye is caught by another col­league, laughing in a comer with a group of black journalists. He was meant to have been a victim of the othe' “l" " South African military oioUb-..A;i gangster up from Cape Town to Johannesburg to murder him. The killer fumbled the contract and he survived. But the sigh t of him brings back memories of others like him who did not survive; the gentle face of the anthropologist, Dr David Webster, before he was blown apart with a shotgun by a more efficient army assassin; the engagingly raffish figure of Anton Lubowski, before he was machine-gunned to death by another of Pretoria’s pro­fessional murderers outside his house in Windhoek. As Mercutio had it: “And s andly too: your houses!”

The murderous line of thought has been precipitated by what might be described as an exercise of revisionism stemming from the latest atrocities in South Africa, which has caused some controversy here, as well as in the columns of the Guardian Weekly. Questioning the justification for the uproar arising from the Boipatong massa­cre, a number of journalists — both South African and foreign — have suggested that reporting and hence

an understanding of the ma ssacre has teen one-sided.

Specifically, they suggest the massacre may have been precipi­tated by the necklacing of Inkatha supporters in the preceding days; that security force responsibility for Boipatong may thus be “a figment of the ANC's imagination” and, at the very least, that “the traffic in township mayhem is not all one way”.

Exactly where the dividing line lies between civil strife and civil war is a moot point, but it is cer­tainly a hne which South Africa is fast approaching. As ever in a con­flict of its type, viciousness of an extreme order is being exercised increasingly by. both sides. And in the state of anarchy develop:.ig in the townships it is a Herculean (specifically Augean) task to at­tempt w appor*ion a moral balance. But some sort r understanding is demanded as to where responsibil­ity lies for the township carnage, particularly as this is South Af­rica, w!iere recent history has shown that international opinion

By David Beresford in Johannesburg

does have a significant impact on political developments.

There are different levels at which the township violence can be ex­amined. There is the level at which those satanic faces leered down at Stanley Nagaga; moments out of which passionate indignation are born, but which provide elusive points of reference.

For example, the hypothesis that Boipatong could be blamed on the prior necklacing of Inkatha sym­pathisers overlooks the fact that the days preceding the massacre also witnessed the assassination of a white police commander by black

-gunmen in the area.That killing could equally justify

a hypothesis that the claimed presence of white gunmen among the killers, and the use of security force vehicles in the attack on the Boipatong township, was more than a "figment of the imagina­tion”.

Perhaps a more persuasive measure of responsibility lies in the tally tables ottered by monitoring groups such as the Human Rights Commission, which last week pub­lished its accoun ting of 49 massacres, claiming some 1,250 lives over the past two years. By their reckoning, the massacres have teen the overwhelming re­sp o n sib ility of In katha , w ith

persistent evidence of collusion be­tween members and the security forces.

‘There can be little doubt that there is a design and purpose be­hind most of them that places them alongside the gas chambers of Nazi Germany in sheer cold-blooded cynicism and brutality,” the Com­mission said.

The HRC is identified with the ANC by many who would regard their rhetoric of the gas chambers as exaggerated. But it is a refer­ence which brings one to another level of understanding of the vio­lence — a thread of history which provides perhaps the most telling perspective.

It is a thread which can be picked up as dis intly as the Rhodesian bush war, when the South African military were involved in activities truly worthy of Nazi war criminals. They included experim entation (with black human guinea pigs) in the use of poison and the subse­quent application as a weapon of war against Zanu and Zapu — epi­sodes of infamy recorded by at least two veterans of the Rhodesian con­flict, including Ian Smith’s former intelligence chief, Ken Flower. The thread can be pursued to Mozam­bique with the development on an almost unprecedented scale of the strategy of destabilisation through the training, equipping, and pro­motion of Renamo by the South African security services.

The blatant use of state terror­ism and murder as an instrument of policy was extended to the do­mestic front with particular effect in the eighties. One example of it was the murder (by burning) of the anti-apartheid leader, Matthew Goniwe, and his three colleagues in 1986.

It is now nearly two months since the present head of Military Intel­ligence, General Christoffel “JofTel” van der Westhuizen, was publicly branded as the man responsible for that particular massacre. Pretoria has not so much as denied the charge, much less acf?d against him.

It is a history which has bred an extreme and justifiable prejudice against the South African authori­ties in both the international and black, domestic communities. It is a curse worthy of Mercutio which Pretoria can only lay to rest by a sustained dem onstration of its claimed, new-found principles. It is also a curse which the ANC would do well to bear in mind when faced with the deaths of such as Stanley Nagaga.

Apportioning the blameThe Guardian Weekly” j

July 10 to 16,1992 ’

for Boipatong massacre 1In restricting their account of the

period before the horrific massacre in Boipatong to a mere two weeks, Malan and Beckett (July 5) simply obscure the issues. In taking such a narrow view they ‘d a lly ignore the massive amount of evidence that e.dsts showing government involvement in the killings of the past decade. They ignore the evi­dence of death squads operatir"; in the townships both organised and supported by th police. T t ey also ignore the evidence that high ranking government officials au­thor' -_d the assassination of a leading trade unionist. The exten­sive financial links that Inkatha has received from the regime was also ignored by Malan and Beckett.

If the events of Boipatong are put in this context of a regime up to its neck in the blood of the townships, then the claims of the ANC are perfectly believable. To suggest otherwise is nothing short of scan­dalous.

The ANC do not need to “manu­facture” or provoke massacres —

which are an i sential part of the strategy of a brutal regime that is fighting for its existence. The provocation that the ANC has committed is to demand that blacks

; should hdve equ-' rights in South : Africa — rights that the apartheid . regime is not prepared to give.I It is clear that the regime has not \ fundamentally altered and that the Uifting of sanctions has been in re- ispdnse to changes that have been jcosmetic. S anctions should Tpe Ireimposed immediately and main­tained until the racist regime has 'been overturned. \

D Brow n,Glasgow

Since January 1989 1 have spent much time amongst black South African workers collecting data about their working and living conditions. I was present during the transition from official oppres­sion to the dialogue with the ANC. My information came exclusively from blacks. To the outside world,

us do the job? If he is sincere about ending township violence, they add, then why not treat every black death with the seriousness ac­corded to every white death? There are similar questions about every­thing he does.'

There is np doubt that open political activity is prefer -e to underground! subversion but in Svery other respect the position of blacks has deteriorated since de Klerk came to power.

There has always been violence in their livea but the rate of kill­ings is higher now than at any other time in the history of apartheid. Unemployment is around 40 per cent. M illions are increasingly homeless or; are living in make­shift shacks^ There is intensifying poverty in the rural areas through the drought;’ and neglect. The de­pression I is ca u sin g the infrastructure of black society to collapse entirely.

For most flacks everything F W de Klerk does, even giving sympa­thy to the; bereaved people of

de Klerk’s reforms were breath­taking but to blacks they were merely legal acknowledgements of changes already present. The le­gal colour bar had been abolished in 1988, the pass laws to prevent the urbanisation of blacks were a dead letter; a sprinkling of blacks has already penetrated the luxu­rious white suburbs and Hillbrow in the centre of Johannesburg has been transformed into a black ghetto:

Although the ANC was banned, there was a flourishing clandes­tine internal ANC committee and a vigorous United Democratic

\ Movement. Apartheid was being 'dismantled by its own internal contradictions.'F W de Klerk could go in only one

direction but the speed and enthu­siasm with which he went raised expectations. They were short- liveo^ however, and now there is cynicism and anger at being mis­led. If l e is sincere about destroying apartheid then, blacks say, whynot simply give us the vote and let

V\

Boipatong, is regarded as a ma­noeuvre to divide and defuse black resistance, placate international opinion, and preserve white power. His involvement at Codesa ha3 to be seen in that light. But it is a dangerous game. If the ANC goes along wi: :t then it will lose con- \ trol of its own constituency. If de Klerk persists then violence will spread to the white suburbs. There will be carnage. The solution is not negotiation, for the blacks have nothing to contribute to the process except their basic rights and these are indivisible. Nego­tiation is all about meeting white demands.

Only one course can satisfy black opinion in the immediate future;' and that is a simple, short state^f- ment by de Klerk that everyone id South Africa will have equal, ba­sic dem ocratic r ig h ts w ithout delay. Z-d;

(Prof) V. L. A llen, • -Keighley, ,V^.<West Yorkshire. . - -M

Beeld-Kommentaar5 3 5425 Johannesburg 5 2 1466 Pretoria

D O N D E R D A G , 9 JU L IE 1992

B i. lO

Dwa&lspoorDIE weg van massa-optrede en konfrontasie waarop die leiers van die ANC en sy bondgenote hul volgelinge lei nadat hulle m die onderhandelingsweg afgewyk het, is ’n gevaar- like dwaalspoon dit word elke dag duideliker.

Een van die groot gevare is dat dit tot ’n toename in die reeds kommerwekkende vlak van politicise geweid kan lei Die soort geweid het juis in die ^erste ses maande van vanjaar 34 persent meer lewens ge6'is as in die ooreenstemmende tyd- perk verlede jaar. Junie, die maand waarin die slagting van Boipatong plaasgevind het, was ook landwyd op twee na die swartste geweldsmaand van die afgelope twee jaar. Dit blyk uit syfers wat pas bekend gemaak is.

Teen di£ agtergrond het die leiers van die ANC, Cosatu en die SAKP die Boipatong-treurspel uitgebuit om hul politieke teenstanders van die regerende Nasionale Party swart te smeer.

Pleks van die groot begrafnissaamtrek te benut om ’n vre- desboodskap te bring, het daardie leiers verdere geweid aan- geblaas. Hulle verdien minstens ’n deel van die blaam vir die halssnoermoord by die begrafnis en die tientalle sterf- gevalle weens politieke geweid sedertdien.

Eweneens moet hulle verantwoordelikheid aanvaar vir die intimidasie en geweldpleging wat gepaard gaan met die sta- kings en ander vorms van massa-optrede wat hulle aanstook. Daaronder tel reeds eergister se aanranding met onder meer ’n byl op ses verpleegsters van Port Elizabeth.

’n Verdere groot gevaar is dat die geweid en ontwrigting van die konfrontasie en massa-optrede ernstige skade aan die landsekonomie kan aanrig. Dig boodskap het sakeleiers eergister aan die ANC-leier, mnr. Nelson Mandela, oorgedra.

Soos die Xhosa profetes Nongkwasi van anderhalf eeu ge- lede kan die ANC-leiers deur ’n verwoesting van die ekono- mie hul mense tot ’n massa-selfmoord lei.

Dit is die weg waarop mnr. Jaj Maidoo, hoofsekretar: van Cosatu, al die mense van Suid-Afrika wil saamneem hpl toe, soos hy op die begrafnissaamtrek ges£ het.

Hoe gouer die volgelinge van daardie organisasies besef dat hulle op ’n dwaalspoor gelei word, des te beter.

10 The Star Thursday July 9 1992

Why attack cameraman?It was with sadness and revul­sion that I saw your front-page pictures (The Star, June 30). I refuse to accept that F W de Klerk can be held responsible for these brutal murders. The animosity between the ANC and IFP is not caused by the gov­ernment of the day, but is a result of the power struggle be­tween themselves.

If the ANC and IFP insist on the involvem ent of a “ third force”, then why were the cam­eramen taking the photographs m en tion ed th e m se lv e s a t ­tacked? Are the ANC and IFP, in fact, trying to hide the truth? ■

Stephen AndreCramerview

□ □ □When the ANC was unbanned, political violence started. It has been on the increase ever since. With ANC and trade union influ­

e n c e , unemployment has in­

/witness brutal deathBy Broowyu WUkinjoa

Two horrified news photo­graphers saw a man being dragged out of a Boipatong boose and beaten uncon­scious before being shot and neckiaced during yesterday's mass funeral for victims of the June 17 massacre.

S tar photographer Joao S ilv a and W eekly M ail c o u n te rp a r t Guy A dam s

■ were chased from the scene at gunpoint after witnessing the murder.

They described how a crowd pulled a man said to be an Inkatha Freedom Party member from a house.

“They started.to beat him senseless with sticks and then threw rocks at his head.

“As the crowd got tN^man -------- -------

creased and the economy nas shown negative growth for the last 10 quarters.

Coupled with the recent news that the ANC’s role-model gov­ernment in Zimbabwe has driv­en their inflation up to a stag­

gering 43 percent, it is not sur­prising that the SA Government and others are fighting to pre­vent an ANC dictatorship.

F W ThorpeHalfway House,Midrand

to visitby top

UN envoyPolitical Staff, Srpa-APJohannesburg

FOREIGN Affairs M inis­ter Pik Botha has stressed the need for resumption of negotiations and has urged all political leaders to accept joint responsi­bility for further steps to curb the violence.

Welcoming news of a possible “goodwill visit” led by former US politician Cy­rus Vance, the government suggested the visit take place “as a matter of urgen­cy” before the meeting of the Security Council next week.

In a letter to United Nations Secretary-G eneral Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Mr Botha said the government made the sug­g e s tio n for the fo llo w in g reasons:

‘O bservation s’• “ After their return the

mission can apprise you of their observations and the factual sit­uation in South Africa;

• “ You will be in a better position to advise the council;

• “ Your report will facili­tate a b f r-informed discus­sion in the council.”

“ Should a visit by the good­will mission not be feasible be­fore the Security Council meets in open session, my govern­ment would support a council meeting to authorise the Secre­tary-General to send a goodwill mission which will report to you and to council as soon as possible,” Mr Botha said.

He reiterated a proposal made during a meeting with Mr Boutros-Ghali in Abuja, Nigeria, last month, that all Codesa participants should be heard by the Security Council.

“ In my opinion, the council will not be in a position to con­duct a balanced debate on the

situation in South Africa unless it has all the facts and points of view before it,” Mr Botha said.

The Security Council has scheduled an emergency ses­sion for next Wednesday to discuss the deteriorating situ­ation and a possible UN role in South Africa. The Organisation of African Unity, which re­quested the meeting, was ex­pected to send a delegation of nine foreign ministers.

South African officials at the UN said Mr Boutros-Ghali had telephoned Mr Botha on Tues­day evening and proposed sen­ding Mr Vance.

The present crisis in South African politics is a result of the ANC withdrawal from the talks after a massacre on June 17 in the township of Boipatong, in which more than 40 people were killed.

The ANC and other groups involved in the negotiations said the talks could not resume until an international commis­sion was permitted to investi­gate township violence. More than 8 000 people have died in the past three years.

InstigatorsThe governm ent b b s

most political violence ou a power struggle between the ANC and Inkatha Freedom Party, while the ANC accuses government security forces of instigating violence and helping Inkatha destabilise the black opposition.

The OAU council of minis­ters requested the Security Council “ to examine the issue of violence in South Africa and to take all appropriate action to put an end to it, as well as to create conditions for negoti­ations leading towards a peace­ful transition towards a demo­cratic, non-racial and united South Africa” .

Mandela" unbending on Codesa

issuePolitical Staff and Sapa-Reuter

JohannesburgTHE ANC will not return to the Convention for a Dem o­cratic South Africa (Codesa) until the government had ad­dressed its demands, ANC pre­sident Nelson Mandela said last night.

Addressing a meeting in En- nerdale, Mr Mandela said the organisation was determined not to hold talks with the gov­ernment or return to negotia­tions until its demands, put in a memorandum follow ing its withdrawal from Codesa as a result o f the June 17 Boipatong killings, had been addressed.

His statement came after a | day-long meeting of the ANC’s National Worldng Committee in Johannesburg yesterday to ! discuss a memorandum ‘from the government in response to . the ANC’s 14 demands.

The ANC was yesterday ex­pected to respond to the gov­ernment’s memorandum, but a spokesman said a statement would be issued later.

In an hour-long speech meant to woo the coloured community to the ANC in preparation for forthcoming elections, Mr Mandela said Mr Justice Goldstone’s interim re- j port that there was no evidence j implicating the government or : the security forces in the Boi- j p aton g m assacre w as i “premature” .

RELIGIONTurning to the coloured i

community’s fears about an j ANC government, Mr Mandela i said rumours that the organisa­tion was against religion were unfounded.

He said . jse who had given the NP their support had to be won over to the ANC instead of being called “ traitors” .

Mr Mandela assured his au­dience the ANC would not na­tionalise people’s businesses. However, nationalisation re­mained a policy option for his movement.

• If steps were taken to curb violence in South Africa, “everyone could be quite keen to go back (to negotiations)” , senior ANC official Thabo Mbeki said yesterday. His re­marks — which will fuel opti­mism in government circles that Codesa might yet be sal­vaged — came after the nation­al working committee meeting.

We lisk our lives in striving , for peace and stability

I. 'M.

I .

\'.f,

SIR,I refer to the letter by Dean

Robin Briggs which was published in The Pretoria News of June 24. Dean Briggs requested con • ment from the police, and we are happy to oblige.

If anybody is aware and can appreciate the magnitude of the fear, despair and senselessness of the violence in the black town­ships, it is the South African Police.

It is (mainly) young police­men who face danger each and every day in order to protect and to serve the black communi­ties.. • Unlike many of our' Critics ’ who are largely armchair critics, :: our policemen and policewom­en are actively involved in try in g ( to bring peace and stability to • the affected areas. J

Dean Briggs’-comments are apparently based either solely or largely on media reports. Here- . in lies the tragedy concerning much of the criticism of the SA Police.

If one considers the allega­tions of the involvement of ex- Koevoet members in the Boi­patong killings, then this becomes clear. Even The Pretoria News carried banners which stated “Koevoet slaughter unit probed” .

I wish to point out that the media gave the impression that t*v‘,s was fact. What needs to be pointed out is that these allega­tions were hearsay, based on the word of an ANC/NUM official who claimed he was informed of this by one of the ex-Koevoet members.

The latter denied this dur­ing his testimony before the Gold- stone Commission.

Dean Briggs also poses the following question to the police: “ Why did the police, whom you de: 'ribe as standing between the impi and the people, appar­ently do nothing to arrest and dis­arm the imp., who were clearl) engaged in striking terror into the hearts of the people of Boipa­tong by intimidating them? Is this permitted?”

The police did not “stand between the impi and the people”, as is alleged. When the police arrived the fighting was already over and the attackers had withdrawn. (This evidence was ,

'furnished to the.G oldstqn^,.,^ , Commission.)

■ .The SA Police lias stated on^ nuriiefous occasions1 that it will not tolerate intimidation —* from*Aft% whatever quarter.'** yt\?

While your concern is un-;‘i; derstandable, Dean Briggs, please don’t fall into the trap of criti­cising the police on the strength of media reports. Some media to a large extent, either wittingly or unwittingly, act as forums ■: through which certain organisa­tions channel their anti-police propaganda.

While we have many faults; policemen and policewomen countrywide risk their lives every day in order to protect and to serve their communities (the fact that we have lost some 100 members so far this year ^ears testimony to this).

When praying for the vic­tims of the violence, I would urge you to remember each and every member of the SA Police as well.(Lt-Col) R A CREWE SAP Public Relations, Pretoria.

I, f. t V

We need fan, balanced journalismSIR,

I refer to an article written by john Carlin under the heading “Who gains from the blood­letting?” (The Pretoria News, June 24).

Much may be said about the work of the author but one thing it

• is not — objective. Mr Carlin’s views concerning the security forces in general, and the SA Police in particular, are well known.

In the article, Mr Carlin states as fact: “ In Boipatong, as in the vast majority of other mas­sacres, the people who actually do the killing are blacks linked to the Inkatha Freedom Party, the right-wing Zulu organisation headed by Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

, . ' .Those who direct them are ; whites operating within the intel­l i g e n c e structures of the police ‘f|yand army.”

In this regard, I wish to re­fer both Mr Carlin and your read­ers to the statement issued by Mr Justice Goldstone on July 6. The paragraph in question reads:

“ No evidence has been sub- 1 itted to the Commission which

While I saw Mr Carlin ob- . serving the proceedings of the

i&Goldstone Commission on Boi- llp a to n g , he did not offer to furnish

/fyis “evidence” to the Commis- ,f;;'sion. I wonder why.■vfcyiMr Carlin also asks: “The P'only issue in doubt is: How high ’ jgV.UP does the authority come c vfrom? Does it stop at ‘the securo-

. crats’ —j the generals and colo- ; f riels who effectively ran the coun-

,the 1980s? Or does

in any way justifies allegations of any direct complicity in or planning of current violence by the State President, any member of the Cabinet or any highly placed officer in the South African Police or Defence Force. But if such evidence is submitted to the Commission it will be thor­oughly investigated.”

In light of above, I wonder't ' ; whether Mr Carlin (and the ANC ; for that matter) would be prfe*i\ij$$ pared to apologise for their urisubJ?« stantiated allegations? ■< (v«

.jiY R W Johnson, a Britisti po5 litical scientist currently work!

. : ; r, [in $oiith Africa, has said'the over-heated climate of-toa. (South Africa we need tri}thful ]j

'We 'can only! ments. For years now we have*]

. ’ been asking for objective re-,V f i \ porting which would ensure,faji (v ‘and balanced journalism.'facts. . • n.iF;

ti, remain the bottom line.^ t*cd i) r a'Crf.we

h ^N elson Mandela'claims?’ Sfcrtf ‘SAP-Public PVSSWiretr

Beeld-KommentaarEE3 5425 Johannesburg ES3 1466 Pretoria

WOENSDAG, 8 JULIE 1992 at .

*■ * *T .ONS kan nie anders nie as om nogmaals na die Goldstone- verslag oor onder meer die Boipatong-slagting terug te keer. Boipatong het nie ’n bloedbad van die omvang van die Sharpeville- en Soweto-slaeting verteenwooruig nie, maar in grusaamheid was dit daarmee vergelykbaar.^Boipatong het, net.soos Sharpeville en Soweto, as ’n nuwe w'oord oor die w£reld gespoel, gewetes geprik en mense aan- gespoor tot aggressiewe solidariteit teen die Suid-Afrikaanse regering. Die uitgangspunt van al die optredes was dat pres. F.W. de Klerk vir die slagting verantwoordelik is.: Die ANC het gemeen hy het ’n absolute propaganda-wenner opgesaal toe hy boonop die mense van Boipatong opdrag gee om nie met die ondersoek saam te werk nie. Daardeur, het hy gemeen, sal die smet altyd aan die Regering kleef.

Maar ’n bloedbad van Boipatong-omvang kan nie toege- smeer word nie. Die Regering moes ook geweet het dat, as

| hy daarmee verbind word, hy geen morele bestaansreg meer I het nie. Vir die hele politieke proses vorentoe is dit dus be- j langrik om te weet wat by Boipatong gebeur het.

By gebrek aan getuienis moe's die Goldstone-kommissie die Regering en die sekuriteitsmagte vryspreek. Ongelukkig be­gin dit lyk of die ANC pleks van om apologetiese nederigheid te vertoon, nou subtiele bedenkinge oor die kommissie wil laat ontstaan.

Een ANC-woordvoerder s£ dit lyk of regter Goldstone klaar besluit het, terwyl 'n ANC-verklaring die opdrag-raamwerk van die kommissie bevraagteken. Is dit die begin van ’n pro­ses om die kommissie los te torring as die ANC nie tevrede is met sy bevindinge nie? Indien wel, gaan Suid-Afrika verder in die wildemis beland as hy sy waghonde probeer verwyder.

Die waarheid is dat die jongste Goldstone-verslag ongemak- like leesstof vir alle partye is. Feitlik almal is p. versuim en/of opswepende optredes skuldig. Niemand kan dit bekos- tig om die eerste klip te gooi nie.

As die krisis in daardie gees benader word, is daar hoop, want dan sal almal positief begin werk aan beter toestande pleks van om net die opponent by te kom.

dladsy 2 B eeld*-*

i ANC wil met dooiepunt wys FW sal

VVoensdag, 8 Tulie 1992

nie swig/an Ons Politieke Redaksie

P AAPSTAD. - DIE ANC het geen al- ;matief vir Kodesa nie en het die ooie punt in onderhandelinge be- .erkstellig om aan sy ondersteuners

.e toon dat pres. F.W. de Klerk nie maklik voor druk sal swig nie.

DW opsienbarende onthulling het die koerant Sowetan gedoen na aan- leiding van ’n geheime dokument wat aan hom laat uitlek is. Dit is ge- grond op 'n voorligting wat mnr. Cy­ril Ramaphosa, die ANC se sekreta- ris-generaal, op 17 Mei aan afgevaar- digdes van drie vakbor.de gedoen het Dit was die dag nadat Kodesa n

in die dooie punt gee indig het.Die dokument - indien dit eg is -

bevestig die Regering se standpunt dat die ANC vir die dooie punt by Kodesa n verantwo^-ielik is.

Die ANC se erkenninL dat daar geen altematief vir Kodesa is nie, na die organisasie se militante houding sedert Kodesa n en nou na' die Boi- patong-slagting, plaas volgens die Sowetan ’n vraagteken agter die ANC se onttrekking aan die same- sprekinge.

Mnr. Ramaphosa het met afge- vaardigdes van die Chemical Wor­kers' Industrial Union, die Trans­port and General Workers’ Union en die S A Commercial, Catering and Al-

Mnr. Cyril Ramaphosa

lied Workers' Union gepraat. Die do­kument is een van die afgevaardig- des se notule.

Mnr. Ranaphosa het daarvolgens onder meer gese‘: “Ons moet nie die proses in Kodesa verlaat nie. Daar is geen altematief nie.

“Dit is nog moontlik om terug te keer na die ou vorms van stryd. Die" dooie punt is deur onsself bewerk- stellig. Ons het geweet die vyand sal nie instem nie. Ons wou die dooie punt h£ sodat ons mense kan sien ons het met ’n vyand te make wat nie maklik sal ingee nie.”

Mnr. Ramaphosa is met “hoorbare geluide van ontevredenheid” begroet toe hy s£ die ANC het ingestem tot

'n noodtoestand en iot aanhoudings- magte in die tussentydse periode.

Hy het op vrae oor aanhouding en of aitiviste nie weer aangehou sal word nie, geantwoord dat streng re^ls vir aanhouding sal geld en dat dit ’n soort van “wittebrood-aanhou- ding" van maksimum 48 uur sal wees.

Vrae is ook gestel oor ANC-kom- promie6' by Kodesa en of vakbonde nie moet kom help nie.

Hy het gese' die ANC het wel kom- promie^' aangegaan. “Ons het dalk te veel uit ons pad gegaan om hulle (die Regering) tegemoet te kom,” het hy luidens die dokument gese-.

Hy het aan die vergadering ges£

die algemene staking later vandees- maand is die regte ding en moet nie verander word nie aangesien onder­handelinge en massa-optrede 'n “on- afskeidbare tweeling” is.

Mnr. Chris Hani, die SA Kommu- nistiese Party se sekretaris-generaal, het reeds in Desember verlede jaar gese' hy en sy bondgenote sal massa- optrede gebruik tot steun van hul eise om 'n tussentydse regering bin- ne ses ftiaande en ’n grondwetgewen- de vergadering binne twee jaar te kry.

Mnr. Ramaphosa het aan die So­wetan bevestig dat die voorligting plaasgevind het, maar gese" daar is onakkuraathede in die dokument

Hy het nie ges£ daar ij geen alter- 1

natief vir Kodesa nie, aangesien massa-aksie die ander opsie is, het | hy aan die koerant ges£. Hy het dit beklemtoon dat die voorligting na' Boipatong plaasgevind het , .. - .

Hy het ook ontken dat hy ges£ het die ANC het die dooie punt by Kode- j sa bewerkstellig en ges£ wat hy “sou | gese het is dat die dooie punt onaf- j wendbaar was aangesien die regime I geweier het om tot ’n grondwetge^ wende vergadering in te stem”, '.'j

Hy het ook aan die vergadering gese' net ’n grondwetgewende verga­dering sal die geweld kan stopsit en bygevoeg: “Geweld sal nog vir ’n tyd ’n kenmerk van ons gemeenskappe wees." ’ i

p . I q

isM andela’s P otch

FROM the moment we en­tered this tricky transition from apartheid to democ­racy, it was clear the main

problem was going to be whether the principal leaders, President de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, would be able to carry their followers with them into a negotiated settle­ment

Both sides have constituency problems — the National Party with the right wing, the African National Congress with the black radicals.

On the one side the Conserva­tive Party waits to capitalise on any alienation of the white con­stituency; on the other the Pan- Africanist Congress and Azapo wait to cash in on any alienation of the black constituency.

All three refuse to participate in the negotiations, as they stand by to pick up the fall-out from its setbacks.

If either side succeeds, the ne­gotiation process will collapse and South Africa will slump into anar­chy and ruin.- The NP’s constituency crisis reached a climax with the Pot-

t

chefstroom by-el e ion on Febru­ary 19. The shock lc^s of that seat marked the peaking of a long build­up of anxieties and resentments in the white population, and flashed a warning signal to the NP that it was on the point of alienating a large part of its constituency.

De Klerk responded by calling a white referendum. It was a dra­matic, high-risk step to deal with the crisis and, thank heavens, it succeeded. But crucial to its suc­cess was the fact that Mandela re­cognised the jam De Klerk was in and helped him out of it

Galling though it was to suffer the indignity of yet another poll from which his own people were excluded, to have the whites vote alone to determine the future of the whole country, Mandela recog­nised the importance of De Klerk’s action to deal with the right-wing threat and was at pains not to do anything to increase his difficulties.

He did not seize the opportunity to destabilise the NP in its mo­ment of crisis, as he could easily have done by mounting a mass ac­tion campaign of protest ? ' .ast the whites-only referendum. t.e did

not take advantage of De Klerk’s difficulties to weaken the NP with an eye to gaining more votes for himself in a future post-apartheid election.

Instead he kept a low profile throughout the referendum and in the end even called on the ANC’s white supporters to vote “yes”.

Today it is the ANC that is in trouble with its constituency. Its crisis reached a climax with the Boipatong massacre, the peaking of a long build-up of black resent­ment at the rampant vigilante at­tacks in the townships, the grow­ing perception that the police are involved, and the failure of the ne­gotiations to rectify any of this.

But this tim e De Klerk has shown no equivalent understand­ing or restraint to help Mandela deal with > constituency crisis. Instead he has stepped up the pres­sure with a reversion to old-style

(' 5 4 o r - ^ / 7 / ? 3 l

intransigence and kragdadigheid.The black constituency is boil­

ing with rage, but Dp Klerk seems not to notice. He btueves the hos­tility shown him when he visited Boipatong after the massacre,was . not genuine, but “orchestrated”.S i! ■"

It’s the old Nat illusion of the contented Bantu who would be happy with apartheid if only you could keep the agitators away.'

The fact is that in political terms Boipatong is Mandela’s Potchef- stroom It is his warning signal that he is in danger of losing a large part of his constituency unless he can make an effective response. And because his people have no vote, and he can call no referen­dum, all he can do is try to re-mo- bilise his support through mass ac­tion.

That may be galling for De Klerk, just as the whites-only ref­erendum was galling for Mandela, but he should recognise and un­derstand the need for it and re­spond acordingly.

Unfortunately the conditioned reflexes of the National Party make that difficult. It is so steeped in the habits of macho politics that

it is congenitally incapable of back­ing down in the face of pressure. It must respond e ggressively.

Conciliation may come a month or two later, in its own time and in another guise, but f " first re­sponse must be kragdadig. The .''P must sh' , that it is tough, that u can crack down, that it is in charge, that it will tolerate no nonsense.

So it has been unable to meet the crisis with a gesture of concili­ation which might have defused it in a day. The ANC’s demands were, after all, in Cyril Ramaphosa’s words, “eminently reasonable and do-able”.

But De Klerk, Gene Louw et al had to put on their Samurai act. It leaves Mandela’s constituency cri­sis unresolved, and with no option but to deal with it in the only way open to him.

It must be said, though, that the ANC and its allies did not make it easy for the Government to re­spond differently. Anger at the massacre was justified and, the cir­cumstances, politically necessary. What was not justified, or smart, was turning it into such a persona­lised attack on De Klerk.

Posters at the Baipatong funer- al labelling him a “murderer”-and speeches accusing him of being personally -responsible for the massacre were both unwarranted and politically foolish. Inevitably they made it harder for the NP to make a conciliatory response.,

What now? One must hope both sides are going through a learning curve about each other’s responsl behaviour. After all they have not known each other for 30 years,-and politics across the colour line ii still raw in its newness.

We are probably in for some weeks of strife as Mandela.irei sponds to his constituency’s anger1 and De Klerk shows us that he! won’t put up with such rabble-rtms-,1 mg. The economy will suffer, more' people will die and the atmosphere for negotiation will be further! fouled. !

At some point in this decline! there will be a turning back, when; both realise once again that, iikei it or not, they are locked in’ anj embrace of necessity — and that survival depends on becoming more sensitive and responsive to each other’s critical needs. □ " !

Security Council to meet onSA

U N r T E D g ^ / S X ' -TIONS. — The U N Security Council, will meet in an emergency session next W ednes­day on the violence and breakdown of peace talks in South Africa.

Council President Jose Luis Jesus, the am­bassador of Cape Ver­de, told reporters after closed consultations yesterday that the 15- nation council agreed to the request from the Or­ganisation of African Unity for a meeting.

The OAU was to send a delegation.

He did not know whether African Nat­ional Congress leader, Mr Nelson Mandela would attend.

Mr Jesus said only that the meeting would be held to hear views on the deteriorating situa tion. He declined to say what action, if any the council might t^ke.

PAGE 2

Security douncll on SAmeeting with Mr M an^J^itv Council si

On Monday, African nations' called for an urgent council session to help end violence in South Africa and create conditions for peace talks. .~.

Secretary-General ~ Boutros Boutros-Ghali reported yesterday to the , council about his

■ ;i: ;'ic!meeting with Mr Man--'■S^jty Council should dis- dela last week in Dakar? v cuss the matter.Senegal, at the summit of the Organisation of African Unity; He also met South African offic­ials. . ... ’ .-4

; J.V'j : ■ y Mr Boutros-Ghali has '

said that; all sides - in;^. South Africa favour^ some type of. UN pres- vP ence and that the Secur- '

South Africa, howev­er, would be willing to consider UN presence in a joint monitoring group, including rep­resentatives of the gov­ernment, the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom P artyS ou th - African diplomats said. Such a body could act to defuse dangerous situations.\ After the Boipatong massacre last month, Mr Mandela telephoned the secretary-general and sought help from the United Nations, es­pecially the Security Council. The ANC said that South African Police were involved in the killings of more than 40 Blacks.

The Council of Minis­ters of the OAU has re­quested the Security Council “to examine the issue of violence in South Africa and to

■ take all appropriate ac­tion to put an end to it, ais well as to create con­ditions for negotiations leading towards a

; peaceful transition to­wards a democratic, non-racial and united South Africa”. .

Ar It has asked Mr Bout­ros-Ghali to take all necessary steps to help end violence and create conditions for peace talks: -j— Sapa-AP.

a ., —■. • •'>V£T>*£T

in Goldstone probep m .experts"

Citizen Reporter and SapaTHE first Goldstone Commission committee to consist entirely of for­eign legal experts, is to start an investigation into the effects of mas„ action in Cape Town today.

The committee, under the chairmanship of Prof Phillip Heyman of Har­vard University, forms part of a government de- , cision to draw in internat­ional legal experts to look at the reasons for viol­ence.

Prof Heyman will be assisted by Prof S Fijnaut of the Rotterdam Univer­sity and Dr P A J Wad- dington of London.

Last week a former Chief Justice of India, Mr Justice P N Bhagwati, sat as an assessor on the com­mittee investigating the Boipatong massacre. Mr Justice Bhagwati will re­turn to South Africa on August 3 to help continue , the investigation.

The committee investi­gating Boipatong is one of very few committees actu­ally chaired by;the* chair­man of the pojdstqne Commission,, tyr,Justice R E Goldstone. * ,’

Although all ‘reports of the Goldstone Commis­sion of Inquiry,into viol­ence in South 'Africa ap- " pears under the name of Mr Justice i^CJoldstojxe,

most of the investigations are actually ha died by Supreme Court advocates and a retired magistrate.

Apart from the investi­gation into the Boipatong massacre, violence in Na­tal and in Schweizer-Re- neke, Mr Justice Gold- stone has delegated all the other investigates to other members of the committ'tc as well as to non-permanent members.

These include Mr M R Wise, Mr B Nugent, Mr Gert Steyn, Mr B Ros- souw, and Mr M N S Sit- hole. Apart from Mr Steyr, who is a retired Re­gional Court President, all the others are advo­cates in the Supreme Court.

Officials of the Com­mission said in Pretoria yesterday the main reason for the fact that Mr Jus­tice Goldstone only han­dled a small part of the actual investigations, was the fact that he still had to give attention to his work as a Appeal Court judge.

This left him with limi­ted time for the investiga­tions itself although he was in constant contact with all the uc6mtnittees involved.

Mr Justice Goldstone did, however, have the fi

■ nal say in any report drawn up by the commit-

Jees,.i

Meanwhile Conserva­tive Party leader Dr An- drics Treurnicht yester­day accused the Gold- stone Commission of making political state­ments that could damage the commission's neutral­ity.

Dr Treurnicht criticised a comment reportedly made by Mr Justice Rich­ard Goldstone to the ef­fect that lie was in favour of 3 transition to full democracy in this coun­try.

Dr Treurnicht said the creation of a unitary state by the NP-ANC-SACP could not be regarded as a transition to full democ­racy.

He said creating such a ! state would seriously in­fringe on people’s demo­cratic right to self-deter­mination. • — ■ ^

THE CITIZEN

COMMENT

i

MASS action is beginning to take shape.;Strikesi like the onV in hospitals, were not

originally part o f niass action, but have been incorporated into the campaign.

Other, local or regidnal moves will also be co­ordinated with th&national campaign.

What is clear at this point is that there will be stayaways, business boycotts, strikes, sit-ins, marches, rent, bond and service charges boy­cotts, flag burnings and other protests culmi­nating in a general strike on August 3 of “un­precedented proportions” .

There is also talk of disruption of government services, transport and communications.

The aim is to force State President De Klerk to accept an interim government, one man one vote majority rule, and other constitutional demands of the ANC.

The ANC and its a llies including Cosatu, sug­gest that the mass action is peaceful and democratic.

They rather fancy themselves as being on a par with the forces in Eastern Europe that won their freedom, only, ironically, they were fighting Communist regimes.

Here they are seeking to overthrow a reform­ist government.

Be that as it may, the ANC and its allies are insincere when they talk of peaceful mass ac- tion.

If it were peaceful, there would be no chance of creating conditions that might force the government to capitulate to the AN C’s de­mands (not that it will).

We have only to look back on mass protests in the past to understand that when protesi-is organised on the'mass scale envisaged, when acts of civil disobedience accompany acts of protest and defiance, the fuse is lit for a massive explosif i. ;

Even now, while the ANC, Cosatu and unions talk of peaceful protest, the hospital strike has taken its ugliest turn, with six nurses be­ing assaulted in Port Elizabeth, one of them being cleaved with an axe.

There have also been incidents o f violence and intimidation at other hospitals.

Mr De Klerk is right when he warns that mass action will lead to violence. It will.

There will also be massive intimidation.Just look at the Vaal Triangle where there is a"

boycott of businesses because of the Boipa­tong massacre.

An organisation called the Broad Forum is making residents virtually prisoners in their own townships.

Under an "enforced protection programme” , residents are prevented from leaving the townships — or going to work — unless they can provide “ acceptable reasons” for doing so.

fcven then they have to be escorted out by Broad Forum marshals.

We can be sure that many workers will be forced to stay away from work — in stay­aways, strikes and a general strike — by in­timidation, which the ANC has down to a fine art.

There usually is violence when those who ig­nore the calls to stay home try to get to work— or after they return home.

The National Party’s chief Codesa negotiator. Public Enterprises Minister Dr Dawie de Vil- liers, made it clear this week that the govern­ment would not bow to mass action and dis­ruption.

This was not Eastern Europe and the loyalty of the security forces would ensure that the government did not succumb to mass press­ure, he said.

However, if the ANC alliance sought massive confrontation with the security forces, there was danger the confrontation would turn bloody.

Meanwhile, as Dr De Villiers points out, for­eign investors are frightened off by what is happening here.

“W e were looking for 2 to 3 perce it growth this year. Nov we will be lucky to get half a percent,” he says. . ..•> •

What everyone yearns for most is a fair, nego­tiated settlement, a return to prosperity and blessed peace. • , f {r, <

If the ANC carries on the way.it-is doing,".we ^ h S v e no hope of achieving any o f these. v’.r V‘

I WANT toexprcss my deepest sympathies to relatives of victims of the Boipatong' massacre.

M L MOTS El Sfiarpeville, Vereeniging.

V ", Whoever !^ behind all this must, know, that God is* wa^hmghiinMd3all,w ho_w erethere^^ji^ ;.^A ^^^

Jgij Imagine a toddJeavof nine months and the mother beings ' stabBed to death. You will'never get peace of mind for the,

rest of your life.; - '■&£ Scores of people died and cries from thechildren pierced .

' the night; All the sorrow was seen and, heard only by the person who'did the killing arid not those who gave the ■■ ■' ,T

i f * ■ ■■■■■- . *commentS o ^ -tcxv^ sl'ffqa p . a

I t is unfortunate that cach time Mr Justice Richard Goldstone submits a report or issues a statement on the violcncc, it is open to misinter­pretation.

This is again the cai with his state­ment at the preliminary hearing into ihc Boipatong massacre.

As stated previously in this column, we believe Goldstone is eminently qualified to get to the truth and expose those responsible for an act of wanton sav­agery perpetrated on the Boipatong community on June 17.

Ilis bona fidcs arc accepted and he has credibility across the South African political spectrum.

Apart from the tragedy, the massacre has assumed an importance that impacts strongly on the prospects of peace and democracy in South Africa.

This has weighed down the Goldstone Commission with an added responsibility to ensure that its eventual findings on the massacre are going to be acccptablc to most South Africans.

It is regrettable, however, that his initial statement has not helped the process.

His exoneration of the Government and senior police and SADF officers of complicity in the violence is somewhat premature.

With the full inquiry expected to start next month, it would have been proper if this finding was made after evidence had been led.

We understand the difficulties or the commission - it can only base its findings on evidence placed before it.

In this regard, organisations like the ANC must ensure that credible witnesses and relevant information at its disposal are made available to the commission.

A failu re to do so will m ean th a t />* ''•

, t Goldstone’s final report on the massacre v will be open to misinterpretation again .'#

j,._. v—'.'

T;.hk Government is accusing theANC of wanting confrontation rather than reconciliation.’

It says it is committed to negotiation. However, the Government’s concep­

tion of negotiation is willingness by the other party to be dictated to.

T’-^ is precisely the reason why talks between Nehawu and the TPA, a Govern­ment body, have deadlocked. The TP A refuses to accommodate the striker’s reasonable demands. They even refuse to have arbitration. ^

Arbitration would allow an independ­ent party to decide on the arguments presented by Nehawu and the TPA.

In refusing to have arbitration, the ,;-4 TPA is admitting that its arguments arc flawed. It is now stubbornly holding ou t -I In other words, Nehawu must be dictated < to.

We warned last week that the negotia­tions’ honeymoon is over. Nationalists at all levels of Government are once more their olej arrogant selves. ^

* r H h & P>\. i _

NP eis ANCVeral die Regering en die Polisie word uitgesonder vir hul

versuim om belangrike en dringende aanbevelinge uit te

voer wat die kommissie al maahde gelede gedoen h'et._

Deur Arrie Rossouw en Sapa

DIE Nasionale Party het gisteraand ’n verskoning van die ANC geg'is na- dat die Goldstone-kommissie geen bewyse kon vind vir beweringe dat die Regering en senior ofllsiere van die Weermag of Polisie vir die vlaag van geweld verantwoordelik is wat die land teister nie.

Die NP s6 in 'r :rklaring die ANC, en in besonder mnre. Nelson Mandela, president, en Cyril Rama- phosa, sekretaris-generaal, skuld p r e s . F . W. de K l e r k e n d i e Veiligheidsmagte 'n verskoning, aangesien hulle die beskuldigings en gerugte versprei het.

As mnre. Mandela en Ramaphosa werklik eerbaar is, sal hulle die saak in die openbaar regstel, lu i die verklaririg.

Volgens mnr. Piet Coetzer, woord- voerder van die NP, is regter Gold- stone se verklaring ’n bewys dat die ANC die tragiese gebeure by Boipa­tong vir eie gewin probeer uitbuit.

“As die ANC ernstig is oor 'n vreedsame oplossing, sal hy ophou om wilde aantygings te maak en na

Regter Bhagwati van Indie en regter R. J. Goldstone (voor) het onlangs saam Boipatong besigtig. , . --.w..,. -

die onderhandelingstafel terugkeer,” het mnr. Coetzer gese'. \-v

. Die ANC het in sy reaksie ges^ die kommissie het die kwessie van die

staat se aanspreeklikheid beperk tot regstreekse betrokkenheid by ge­weld of die beplanning daarvan. Dis ’n misvatting omdat medepligtigheid die opdrag tot geweld of die versuim om geweld te bekamp, Lnsluit." (Be- rig op bL 2.)

Regter R.J. Goldstone het gister in ’n verklartng Pretoria by die kom- m issie se voorlopige verhoor oor die Boipatong-slagting gese' geen bewyse is nof, aan die komndssie voorgele' dat die Staatspresident, lede van die Kabinet of senior ofiisiere in die Vei- ligheidsmagte medepligtig is aan ge­weld of dit beplan nie.

Beweringe deur sekere politieke leiers en koerante dat die' mense reg- strggji^verantwoordelik is vir ge- weldsdade, is “onwys, onregverdig«n gevaarlik”. ' - ’........... ..

1 Terselfdertyd het die kommi'sie sof&S'Skerp kritiek gelewer op die Regering, die Veiligheidsmagte, die ANC en sorr— ge leda van die media.

Hy het veral <‘:e Regering en die Polisie uitgesona- vir hul versuim om belangrike en dringende aanbe- velinge uit te voer v«at die kommis- sie al etlike maande gelede gedoen het, soos oor die or.iheining en pa-

trollering van hostels.Regter Goldstone het die blote be-

staan van 'n groep oud-lede van die Polisie se Koevoet-eenheid in die land bevraagteken.

Die kommissie het voorts begrip daarvoor dat die slagoffers van ge­weld nie met die Polisie in ondersoe- ke wil saamwerk nadat lede van die Veiligheidsmagte medepligtig was aan geweldsdade of dit aktief onder- steun het nie.

Di- jmmissie het ook op al die land be leiers ’n beroep gedoen om maniere te vind om die soeke na ’n vreedsame oorgang n? ’n demokra- tiese regering voort te sit.

Genl. Johan van der Merwe, Kom- missaris van Polisie, het gisteraand volledig op die kommissie se kritiek

- geantwoord en ondemeerri om dring- end aandag aan die saak te gee.

Mnr. Hemus Kriel, Minister van Wet en Orde, het in sy reaksie die bevindinge oor die Staatspresident, Kabinetslede en senior offisiere van die Veiligheidsmagte verwelkom.

In die lig van die feit dat ongestaaf- de beweringe oor die Veiligheids­magte se betrokkenheid by geweld reeds enorme skade aangerig het aan

Terselfdertyd het die kommissie soms skerp ; . kritiek g e lew er- op die Regering, die Veiligheids­magte, die ANC en sommige lede van die media.

die polisie-ondersoek na die Boipa- tong-slagting, kan maar net gehoop word dat die haatveldtog teen die Po­lisie deur sekere organisasie nou end sal kry, het hy gese'.

Regter Goldstone het gese' die kom­

missie het bevind beweringe dat Re- geringsleiers en senior ofiisiere in die Veiligheidsmagte regstreeks be- trokke is by die geweld, is veral ge- vaarlik omdat dit waarskynlik die geweldsklimaat sal vererger en po- gings sal belemmer om geweld in be- dwang te bring.

Geen bewyse om hierdie bewerin- ge te staaf, is nog aan die kommissie voorgele' nie, maar ' lien dit voor- geM word, sal dit ■ ,-glik ondersoek word.

Regter Goldstone het gese in die klimaat van wantroue en agterdog teen die Veiligheidsmagte moet ge- meenskapsleiers in die t js o n d e r versigtig wees om nie allerlei aanty- ginge van polisie-wandade of -mede­pligtigheid te doen wat nie met feite gestaaf kan word nie.

Die kommissie erken voorts die belangrikheid van die reg wat die “stemlose meerderheid” in Suid- Afrika moet h£ om in die openbaar te demonstreer. Terselfdertyd '»vys hy daarop dat die reg nie op 'n wyse uitgeoefen moet word wat daarop ge- mik is om tot geweld te lei nie.

Nog berigte oor die Gcldstone- verklaring en reaksie op bl. 2.

\W/SAP - geweldbeweringe bekykNick Bezuidenhout

"VSE dat lede van die middel- en : ange van die Veiligheidsmagte reeks by geweldsdade betrokke dat Regeringsleiers en die vei- idsmagte onwillig of nie in staat i geweld te voorkom nie, is aan ;ommissie gelewer en word on- x:k, het regter R.J. Goldstone, sitter van die kommissie van rsoek na geweld en intimidasie, •rgestf. .' het in 'n verklaring wat ten van die kommissie se voorlopi-

■rhoor na die Boipatong-slagting retoria uitgereik is, in die' ver- I die volgende voorvalle genoem: )ie optrede van 32 Bataljon in Ap-

.1 Pholapark. Ander beweerde ge- Isdade deur lede van die veilig- smagte word tans deur die kom- ;ie ondersoek. Die kommissie sal

v o o r t g a a n om b e w e e r d e eldsdade deur ondersteuners die ANC en IVP te ondersoek.e kommissie is bekommerd dat sy aanbevelinge deur die Rege- geignoreer is. Dit kan die kom-

’** ** die Regering se geloof- rdlgheld en doeltrefTendheid

B l c2)verminder of selfs venvoes, het hy ges£.

• Die kommissie se aanoevelinge in Januarie vanjaar oor polisie-optrede in Mooirivier en dat 32 Bataljon nie vir die bewaring van vrede moet ge- bruik word nie, is geignoreer en geen redes daarvoor is gegee nie.

• Die Regering se enigste reaksie op die kommissie se aanbevelinge ra- kende hostels - dat dit onmiddellik met lemmetjiesdraad omhein word en die Polisie die beweging van wa- pens na en van die hostels voorkom- was, volgens die kommissie, 'n verklaring dat R294 miljoen toege- wys is vir die opgradering daarvan.

Sover die kommissie se kennis strek, is geen optrede tot dusver ge- doen nie.

• 'n Saak waarin polisiemanne klaarblyklik betrokke was by 'n on- suksesvolle plan om ’n ANC-leier op Schweizer-Reneke te vermoor, is in Desember verlede jaar deur die kom­m issie na die Prokureur-generaal van Transvaal verwys.

Die Polisie-ondersoek het egter so' lank geneem dat die kommissie die ondersoekbeampte moes inroep om in die openbaar redes vir die vertra- ging te gee.

• Die kommissie se aan beveling

rakende die dra van gevaarlike wa- pens in die openbaar is gedeeltelik, maar onvoldoende in werking gesteL

Die kommissie meen die reg tot openbare massa-optrede is veral be- langrik omdat die meeraerheid Suid- Afrikaners nie stemreg het nie en geen ander wyse van vreedsame po- litieke optrede het nie. Hierdie reg moet egter nie so' uitgeoefen word dat dit geweld kan veroorsaak nie.

Die kommissie verwag nie dat sy aanbevelinge noodvendig aanvaar of toegepas moet word nie. Hy ver­wag egter nie dat dit geignoreer moet word nie.

As aanbevelinge nie aanvaar of toegepas word nie, moet die kommis­sie en die publiek daarvan gestf word en redes moet verstrek word, het reg­ter Goldstone gese\

• Sekere koerante wat onlangse be- vindinge van die kommissie vooruit- geloop het, is in die verklaring ge- kritiseer sonder om name te noem Hoewel die kommissie lewendige openbare debat verw elkom oor kwessles wat na hom verwys is, be- treur hy kommentaar op die geloof- waardlgheld van getuies en die felt dat bevindinge gegee is oor kwessles waaroor die k imissie nog moet be-sluit, aldus die kommissie.'•*- -i ^

Collection Number: AK2672 Goldstone Commission BOIPATONG ENQUIRY Records 1990-1999 PUBLISHER: Publisher:- Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand Location:- Johannesburg ©2012

LEGAL NOTICES:

Copyright Notice: All materials on the Historical Papers website are protected by South African copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, or otherwise published in any format, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

Disclaimer and Terms of Use: Provided that you maintain all copyright and other notices contained therein, you may download material (one machine readable copy and one print copy per page) for your personal and/or educational non-commercial use only.

People using these records relating to the archives of Historical Papers, The Library, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, are reminded that such records sometimes contain material which is uncorroborated, inaccurate, distorted or untrue. While these digital records are true facsimiles of the collection records and the information contained herein is obtained from sources believed to be accurate and reliable, Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand has not independently verified their content. Consequently, the University is not responsible for any errors or omissions and excludes any and all liability for any errors in or omissions from the information on the website or any related information on third party websites accessible from this website.

This document is part of a private collection deposited with Historical Papers at The University of the Witwatersrand.