Special Report Transcript Episode 70, Section 2, Time 43:38

There were the cynics of course, some called it the ‘crying commission,’ but often they were white or old allies of apartheid and scared of the guilt that came with hearing the truth, but then there were those who became part of the telling and through that some sort of reconciliation. // You have looked into the hearts of wounded, sometimes broken people. My story and that of my children is small in comparison with so many others for whom our hearts bleed. Our pain is simply a drop in the South African ocean of pain. // But what did all these who came to bear their souls seek? For many it was simply enough to tell their story to a nation whose time it was to listen. Others wanted to lay the past to rest. Again and again they asked for the remains of those who had disappeared. For some, like the family of murdered ANC cadre Phila Ndwandwe this became a terrible reality. For others, the bones were lost forever, dumped into this river, but knowing this was the beginning of the ending for them. // ‘My good God I am standing on these rocks with my husband and my child. Mrs. Godolozi and Mrs. Galela and their children are here. Our Lord who looked after us when we were in the dark that the bones, the remains of our husbands and children got thrown here in plastic bags our God, by the Boers. Forces that had immense power like Niewoudt our God, like Van Rensburg our God; forces that imposed tyranny…’

Notes: ‘Senzeni Na’; Susan van der Merwe (Husband murdered on farm); Exhumation; Joyce Mtimkulu (Victim’s mother)

References: there are no references for this transcript