| Time | Summary | |
| 17:09 | Hopefully we are rid of that problem forever. In July 1985 the minister of police declared a state of emergency. The police and the military were given extraordinary powers to quail the rage that was bursting out of the black communities all over South Africa. But people refused to be put down. By August many townships were virtual no-go zones for the security forces. On the edge of East London, Duncan Village was simmering. The assassination of community leader and human rights leader, Victoria Mxenge was the spark that ignited a Powder Keg of discontent. It led to a fortnight of battles between the people and the security forces. Jann Turner reports on the Truth Commission’s look at an event that became known as the Duncan Village massacre. | Full Transcript and References |
| 17:58 | Sunday August 11th 1985. Residents of Duncan Village township in East London travelled in busloads to the funeral of Victoria Mxenge. // Victoria Mxenge and other leaders, even her late husband Griffiths Mxenge, meant a lot because they knew we were oppressed by the government of the day. We were glad when we saw them there up front. They were our leaders; that is black people’s leaders. That is why we were upset about her death. One of our leaders was killed, someone who was taking us out of oppression towards freedom. | Full Transcript and References |
| 18:47 | Victoria and Griffiths Mxenge were both lawyers based in Durban, but home for them was the Eastern Cape. During their short lives they worked with and for impoverished communities like Duncan Village. Griffiths was eliminated in 1981by security policemen Dirk Coetzee and Joe Mamasela. Victoria was assassinated four years after her husband. While his killers are now facing trial, her murder is still a mystery. On the day of her funeral enraged mourners necklaced a Ciskeian soldier who was caught up in the procession to the cemetery. | Full Transcript and References |
| 19:29 | We came back from that funeral and we could see what was happening. We had councillors here in Duncan Village that we didn’t like. They were selling us out to the whites by arranging our removal to Mdantsane. At the same time they kept raising our rents. So when we came back from that funeral we burned down the rent office and beer hall. | Full Transcript and References |
| 19:56 | Monday August 12. The anger of the mourners sparked further outbursts all over the township. The revolt gained a momentum of its own that outstripped attempts by leaders to control it. // Most people were killed around the place where there’s Gombo community hall. There was a bottle store in that area and there was a space next to the hall and there were roadblocks next to that. So that is where I think plus minus eight people were killed in that particular area alone. Then after they were driven down by the police, people started blocking the police from entering the township. They dragged all the old cars in the bridge below, next to the hall, blocking the road. What happened when the police were no longer in a position to get into the township, the army took over, which was together with the riot unit at that particular time. We were not able to identify who at that particular time was the commander of those particular two units. But the guy who was known to be shooting, it was a ...more | Full Transcript and References |
| 21:28 | When Tuesday dawned the death toll was almost 10, the battle was now at its height with the Duncan villagers pitting their sticks and stones and burning barricades against the tanks and guns of the security forces. // It was on 13 August. I was sitting outside my place with my girlfriend reading a magazine. A lot of people walked by but they weren’t threatening. Later on a soldier came past and he said to me ‘stand up you kaffir!’ So I stood up and dropped my magazine as I put my hands in the air. I pleaded with him not to shoot and he lowered his gun so I thought he’d go away. Then I heard the shot and I fell to the ground. My whole body felt weak and I realized he’d shot me in the leg so I swore at him. I said he should do it properly and shoot me in the head. | Full Transcript |
| 23:14 | By Thursday there were at least 23 dead. The people were battered and exhausted. The local UDF leadership grasped this opportunity of a pause in the fighting to step in and take control. // On Thursday afternoon we had to call a meeting to say to the people look now we have so many victims and the enemy’s advancing, and you’re still fighting. It’s important that we take some political retreat. | Full Transcript |
| 23:44 | I want to know who shot me. I saw him but I don’t know who he was that person who shot me. Then if I reconcile with him I can reconcile with someone that I know. | Full Transcript |
| 23:58 | Summing up at the end of two days of submissions. Commissioner Bongani Finca requested that the officers in charge of those police and soldiers come to the TRC with an explanation of their actions during that terrible August in 1985. | Full Transcript |
| 24:25 | Ten years ago Nomasonto Khumalo lived here in Duncan Village with her mother, Vuyelwa her older sister Nomakasasana and their two children. This week, after the commissioner had heard the story of the Duncan Village massacre unfold Nomasonto told a different tale of sorrow. She lost her mother and sister in 1986. They burnt to death after their house was petrol bombed by those they knew best, men and women with whom they shared neighbourly greetings, whom they broke bread with, and whom they sat in the same meetings with. But on the night of March 4 1986 they discovered another face of terror. | Full Transcript and References |
| 24:55 | We were woken up by stones which were thrown to the house, we had to wake up. I peeked through the window and I saw many people and I could recognize some of them, because they live in the same street. I also went to the back window and then I saw one with a petrol gallon, it is Maqotinala Xonti. I went to my mother’s room where my child was sleeping and I could see the fire. On the next day my mother died 9 o’clock in the morning. It was on Wednesday. On Friday my sister died. | Full Transcript |
| 25:38 | Nomasonto and her badly burnt three year old daughter Ayabulela returned to their family home just outside King Williamstown. It is on this windswept smallholding where her mother, a local schoolteacher all her life, was born and buried. Nomasonto, a UDF member, was the only one of her family who was politically involved. Today she is sad rather than bitter that her sister and mother died at the hands of her comrades. She believes the perpetrators were ill-disciplined youths who regarded anyone who did not toe the line as the enemy. // That time there was a misunderstanding between the youth in Duncan Village. So say they want to do something bad and you sort of ask them not to do it or stopping them they think you have AZAPO ideas and they label you as an AZAPO member. But in Duncan Village at the time there was no AZAPO, there was only one organisation, the UDF. | Full Transcript |
| 26:50 | While Nomasonto has come to terms with the unreasonable deaths of her family, she struggles with the damage to her living, her daughter in particular. // Well, she’s doing fine and I’m doing counseling, I’m counseling her. When she comes home crying and telling me that some other kids are calling her ‘Kentucky Fried Chicken’ because of her burns. I sort of tell her, just listen, you are my baby, I love you. Tell them that your problem is outside, it’s visible. Maybe their problems you can’t see them. And your mother loves you as you are. | Full Transcript |
