TRC Final Report

Volume 1

Chapter 10

Subsection 9

Theme hearings

14 Theme and event hearings were hosted with the aim of understanding patterns of abuse, motives and perspectives. Although the focus was on victims, theme hearings focused on groups of hearings rather than on individuals. These included hearings on:

a women as subjects of gross human rights violations

b youth and children

c Caprivi trainees in KwaZulu-Natal

d Moutse/KwaNdebele incorporation conflict e Soweto 1976 f the killing of the ‘Guguletu Seven’ g the ‘Bisho massacre’ h the ‘Seven Day War’ in KwaShange/Imbali in 1990 i the ‘Trojan horse’ incident (Athlone, Cape Town) j the issue of compulsory military service k the special hearing on the disappearance of Siphiwe Mthimkulu in the Eastern Cape

Institutional hearings

15 Institutional hearings focused primarily on organisations as opposed to individuals within those organisations. These hearings examined:

a the prison system

b the media

c the legal system

d the role of business during apartheid

e the health care sector

f the faith communities

g the state security system

h the role of the armed forces

i the involvement of the former state in chemical and biological warfare

Statement taking

16 Policy was also developed to govern the gathering and processing of information, including for example:

a designing a statement (protocol) form, which would serve as the information gathering instrument to record the experiences of victims;

b training statement takers to enable them to record the oral testimony of victims in a professional manner, recognising that the language of the oral testimony might differ from that used in the record;

c designing and developing a database management system that would serve the analytical needs of the Commission, and in particular the Human Rights Violations Committee;

d appointing and training appropriate staff to operate the database;

e determining what would constitute a sufficiently ‘corroborated’ statement in order that findings could be made;

f identifying technical enhancements to the database, such as the pre-findings screen, the corroboration details screen and the findings register;

g preventing political parties and organisations from using their submissions for political or publicity purposes.