comrades

‘Thank you comrades, can we settle down please.’ // The last word however belonged to the workers of COSATU. They were not amused by the apologies, explanations and sometimes fancy footwork of big business.

To the human rights violations hearings in the Free State town of Parys now. We have listened to many painful stories the last year, but what really stood out at the Parys hearings were the bizarre and inhumane methods of torture used by the police and the comrades during the 1980s and 1990s.

... television story. The dead, the wounded, the scarred and the policemen who did the shooting. We also focus on two different stories of how young comrades of the struggle lost their way and became a problem to the communities they had to help protect, the story of the self defence units and the ...

... this law. Police claimed that he had committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell, and then denied that he was ever tortured. This week former comrades gave testimony. // I heard a loud sound, the policemen were celebrating. They were saying ”we got Looksmart.” // Rivonia trialist and ...

Mrs. Mandela said I should take the minibus and go fetch those boys from the Methodist centre and I went to Winnie to find out if she had really said that. And I took the bus, after she said yes, with the other comrades.

Steve Nkwenya, an attorney at the time, represented many members of the then Wesselton Action Committee and so-called comrades who were defending their community.

By the 15th of June, 1986 many of the experienced activists were in detention or in the underground. But across the valley a group of young comrades had gathered on a hill to prepare for the next day’s June 16 commemoration. Again the enemy came in the night. When they had finished their job six ...

... The first person they met was Philip Matela who is now asking for amnesty for their murder. // They said to me they were looking for the ANC comrades and we knew that the right wingers and the Russian vigilante group were going to attack people in the ...

... vigilante wit doek and police activity designed to flush out progressives as well as affect the state’s removals, led to open warfare between the comrades and ”fathers.” The result: Many homes burnt down, 50 000 homeless, countless deaths. Lenox Maphalane was on his way home to his mother ...

... We were merely lying there. All of us. Trying to defend Mrs Mandela. I actually wanted to report the matter to the police but I thought Winnie’s comrades were going to crush me or kill me. So I decided not to say anything, just keep my gap ...

Although the comrades were no match for the gang, retaliation was on the cards. // I think the community realised that this was only a few people. At least if we faced the police then it’s better than facing many people who are coming from different sides. They decided this people should go, and ...

The members of the security branch who took part in the torture of the comrades in Botshabelo are as follows: Lieutenant Shaw, Lieutenant Erasmus, Warrant Officer Ramasoeu, Warrant Officer Tsoametsi, Warrant Officer Gillian, Warrant Officer Koch, Sergeant Mamome, Warrant Officer Cronje, Warrant ...

... or the impimpi tag would decide your fate, often a horrific one. As were the Masupa family in Daveyton, whose house was burnt to ashes after comrades decided that one member, Hendrik Masupa was an informer. Four inhabitants burnt to death and four others were injured. Phinias Ndlovu who ...

... between those in the struggle and those perceived to be sell-outs. Metabo Mantsunyane was a member of the Dikwankwetla party in QwaQwa. The comrades branded her a traitor and burnt her house three times. // After they’ve burnt my house we went to the police station and the police came ...

... including one in London and the killing of more than 40 people. According to this list at least three policemen were killed by their own comrades. A whole list of other explosions are also mentioned: Khotso House, Joubert Park, JG Strydom hospital, a community centre in Cape Town and ...

Or those still haunted by the horror of a death at the hands not of the enemy, but comrades. The smoke of the necklace or the shining panga still sticking through their dreams.

Could there possibly be ANC cabinet ministers and senior government officials who spied on their comrades for the apartheid police? The claim was first made during Jacques Hechter’s evidence and then amplified by his legal counsel, Roelof du Plessis. // There are people in the current ...

... on charges of killing activist David Webster. His former girlfriends and wife have been spilling the beans about him and now some of his former comrades are also beginning to speak out. Inevitably, region 6 of the CCB came up this past week. But not unexpectedly, the information did not go ...

... around the older traditionalist headmen or ‘fathers’ and younger militant activists or Maqabane. The ‘fathers’ controlled Crossroads, the Comrades held the satellite camps. By 1986 the pass laws were scrapped, but at this moment of victory for the township and squatter residents ...

a state of emergency across the land. Ten days after the state of emergency ten young men disappeared from Mamelodi. It is known only that they were comrades. Like most black youth at the time they were prepared to do battle against the big men with their mighty powers. Ten years later, this week, ...