TRC Final Report

Volume 5

Chapter 7

Subsection 16

107 The generalised categorisation and dehumanisation of the other was chillingly expressed by amnesty applicant Victor Mthembu when asked why children as young as nine months of age were attacked. He replied: “a snake gives birth to another snake”. While the expressed aim was given as an attack against the ANC and particularly the SDUs organised by the ANC, Mr Mthembu said: “… we did not discriminate, it was not discriminated against as to who was attacked”.

108 It may be noted that social identity theory does not explain violence itself, but the preconditions of violence. It is employed here in order to emphasise the necessity of locating explanations of mass violence at the inter-group rather than the interpersonal or intrapsychic levels alone. It is obvious enough that racialised identities loomed very large on the South African landscape. There is plenty of evidence of racialised prejudice, stereotyping and distancing. Here are three examples from reports to the Commission:

I’d say that Apartheid turned me from being a human being into a white man, and so for me the motivation of joining the struggle against Apartheid was to seek to recover my own humanity I’d been robbed of by Apartheid … under Apartheid I found it impossible to be a neighbour to a person of a different colour … I was locked into the relationship of oppressors and oppressed. (Father Michael Lapsley, victim of a parcel bomb.)

At the time of the killing we were in very high spirits and the white people were oppressive, we had no mercy on the white people. A white person was a white person to our eyes. (Mr Ntombeki Peni, granted amnesty for the murder of Amy Biehl.)

… the Lord wished separate peoples to maintain their separateness (Apartheid) … respect for the principles of Apartheid had God’s blessing. (DRC’s submission to the Commission.)

109 While racial and ethnic identities (which also promoted division among black people) were made particularly salient as a systematic part of apartheid and Christian-National ideology, these were not the only pertinent identities. Religious identities, for instance, became intertwined with the military defence of apartheid:

Through the idea of the total onslaught, the Church immediately became an ally in the war. The total onslaught concept assumed that only twenty per cent of the onslaught was of military nature, eighty per cent was directed against the economical and spiritual welfare of the people … the Church was now totally convinced that we were fighting a just war. Almost every synod of the DRC during this time supported the military effort in their prayers. (Reverend Neels du Plooy, during the hearings on compulsory military service.)

110 An additional form of salient identity, often ignored in explanation of mass atrocities, is that of masculinity. It is most surprising to find, in masses of literature on atrocities of many kinds, the sheer neglect of a simple fact: most of these acts are committed almost exclusively by men. Few women were found among perpetrators in the South African case. Although this is a matter which requires further investigation, this pattern of overwhelming male predominance among perpetrators appears to be confirmed in the preliminary analysis of the period under review by the Commission.

111 What is the relation between masculinity and violence? There have been many and varied efforts to explain male aggression: genes, hormones, socialisation, roles, essence, archetypes, peer pressure, status, careers, warrior mythology, the Oedipal complex and more. Patriarchy, the ideology of male domination, portrays men as protectors and defenders of women, property, territory and nation. Patriarchy is a significant explanation of the male’s apparent propensity towards violence, but patriarchy as ideology itself requires explanation. It is beyond the scope of this report to explore the issue fully, but it remains an important part of the understanding of violence. In South Africa, it is clear that patriarchy and the cult of masculinity has been embedded deeply in each of the various cultural streams: black, Boer, British. Its significance as a contributing factor should not be undermined.

112 Masculinity intertwines with other identities, for instance those forged in military establishments. Baumeister lists egotism (self-pride or group-pride, bordering on self-aggrandisement) as one of the key motives of perpetrators. Masculinity intertwined with militarism jointly act as constituents of potentially lethal forms of egotism. Here again is Mr John Deegan, later a Koevoet operative, talking about police training. Apart from fear, discipline and propaganda there was also pride.

Pride was also worked into the equation and in the closed smallness of our lives under training, pride became of paramount importance. Pride in ourselves and our platoons. Pride in the company of platoons. Pride in the college. Pride in the police force, the nation, the country, the flag. Pride and patriotism. By the end of our training we were fully indoctrinated in the functions of the established system … they strip away your individuality and they make you a man, kind of thing.

113 Here is a more stark statement given at the special hearing on compulsory military service:

Action, especially for young national servicemen, is often a thrill, an ego-trip. There is a tremendous sense of power in beating someone up – even if you are the most put-upon dumb sonofabitch, you are still better than a kaffir and can beat him up to prove it.

114 This last quote is a stark example of the intertwining of multiple identity forms to produce violence. A threatened sense of masculinity is interwoven with a racialised identity and militarism to effect a volatile mixture. It bears repeating that it is not merely a single identity form that leads to violence. Multiple social identities such as masculinity and racial, militaristic and national patriotism combine with religious, ethnic and political identities to render people quite willingly capable of murderous deeds in the play of egotism and pride. If the construction of particular identities provides the preconditions for violence, it is the contradictory pushes and pulls, sequences and spirals of situations that provide the triggers.