TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 5

Subsection 3

Overview of violations

Violations reported

13 Of all submissions to the Commission received nationally from victims alleging gross violations of human rights, only 8.4 per cent per cent were from the western Cape.

14 Most (57 per cent) of the deponents in this region were male. Male deponents tended to talk about violations that happened to themselves, whereas female deponents much more frequently spoke about others. Statistics show that 36 per cent of women deponents were the primary victims in their submissions, whereas 72 per cent of male deponents spoke of themselves as victims.

15 The average age of deponents in the Western Cape is estimated at forty-one years. Female deponents were generally older than male deponents, averages being forty-seven and thirty-nine years respectively. This reflects the tendency for older women to testify about violations to their family members such as their children.

16 The incidence of gross human rights violations in the western Cape over the Commission’s mandate period reached two sharp peaks in 1976 and 1985/86, while maintaining a fairly constant level in the 1990s. The reasons for these peaks are discussed in the sections dealing with the relevant periods.

17 It is notable that the highest peak is reached in 1985. This pattern is similar to that of the Eastern Cape, but markedly different to KwaZulu-Natal and the former Transvaal, which recorded high levels of violations in the 1990s.

18 Severe ill treatment was the dominant violation, accounting for 52 per cent of the violations in the region. The most common form of severe ill treatment reported was beating, followed closely by incarceration and shooting injuries. Males between the ages of thirteen and twenty-four were the primary victims. Amongst women there was a fairly constant level of violations between the ages of thirteen and forty-eight.