Special Report Transcript Episode 2, Section 2, Time 01:14

In the first half of the century opposition to colonialism and apartheid was muted and mannered. By the late 1950s a new militancy seized liberation movements. On the continent African Uhuru boldly took shape and back home the South African state bared its teeth. The 1960s Sharpeville massacre started a period of open state terror. The 90 day detention law was passed on May 1, 1963. A series of arrests began soon after. Head of Umkhonto we Sizwe in the Cape Peninsula Looksmart Khulile Ngudle was the second death in detention under 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 now deputy president of the senate, Govan Mbeki, also in prison in 1963, received a note from Ngudle informing him about his torture. // In the note he wrote that he was being heavily tortured and he told me he was being tortured and then he showed me on his hand, I think it was the left hand, small rings indicating that it was electrocuted. // As a result of the state’s vicious response the ANC adopted a military option in 1961. Isaac Rani was one of the first MK guerrillas to undergo training. He was arrested and tortured. // Yes, I was arrested in Rhodesia, we got split up; we didn’t know where the others went to. We didn’t know what happened to the others, nobody told us anything. We were tortured and beaten up.

Notes: Historical drawing, Cape Town; Historical photographs and film of events discussed; TRC testimony: Christmas Tinto; TRC testimony: Govan Mbeki; TRC testimony: Isaac Rani