Special Report Transcript Episode 70, Section 1, Time 14:55

The politicians can say we didn”t give that order, because they didn”t give that order. It”s nowhere stated that we said so and so should be killed. We said so and so should be eliminated, but we meant that that person should be detained. And then never having any real knowledge, or real appreciation of the effects of that misinterpretation. It places the politicians, would you agree, in the lucky, enviable situation that they can formulate an approach to a problem but not bear the immediate consequences of that policy in the way in which it is carried out. // I wouldn”t describe my position here today as lucky or fortunate but I want to say this. This document in which ”eliminate” and ”take out” and so on appears, this document comes from eleven years ago and eleven years ago we didn”t think that we would sit here today and have to explain the use of those words. // How do you account for the fact that right across the country, across all sections of particularly the security police, there is a systematic misinterpretation of policy directives emanating from the State Security Council and senior echelons of government? // It”s difficult to answer for what they did. I think they will all appear before you, before the Amnesty Committee, and they will have to explain why they did what they did. I never knew that they were torturing these people and I never approved it. // Is it not so that the security police within the police structure in fact had license to engage in systematic unlawful activity. // No I deny that vehemently. No member of the South African Police had license to act illegally.

Notes: Glenn Goosen; Adriaan Vlok

References: there are no references for this transcript