Special Report Transcript Episode 72, Section 3, Time 20:40

One wonders why all the men who were named as the officers who planned and ordered these racial attacks on civilian targets were not criminally charged. It seems they did not apply for amnesty. Perhaps the Truth Commission should consider a special hearing on this, because these men are morally as guilty as these foot soldiers who did the killings. The point has often been made that senior police and army officers should also be hold accountable for the orders they gave to the men who killed. So certainly it should also apply to APLA. But the Heidelberg amnesty hearing was almost overshadowed on Wednesday and Thursday by another controversy. Shortly after the Helderberg massacre a middle aged Cape Town gardener with a standard two education, Bennet Sibaya, claimed he had seen young black men loading weapons into a white Audi in Gugulethu, an hour or so after the massacre. The type of car and registration number correspond with that of the Truth Commission’s head of investigations, Dumisa Ntsebeza. When this information became known the Truth Commission ordered an investigation and Ntsebeza withdrew from the case. The amnesty department warned Ntsebeza formally that he was implicated and that he had a right to attend the hearing. His lawyer was unhappy with that.

Notes: Max du Preez