| Time | Summary | |
| 25:09 | Welcome back. As the Truth Commission enters the last few crucial months of its work, the work of its investigative unit is coming under increasing pressure to show concrete results. This week the Commission led five families to Mpumalanga where the remains of five former ANC activists lay in secret graves. On Thursday two of these families were shown the secret graves of their loved ones for the first time. | Full Transcript and References |
| 25:39 | The families of ANC activists Kenneth Mabuza and Steve Tsotsetsi gathered here in the barren mountain graveyard near KaNyamazane outside Nelspruit. Both men had been brutally murdered by the notorious Kabasa gang that assisted police in fighting the UDF in this region during the 1980s. | Full Transcript and References |
| 26:12 | Mr. Fanie Molapo who has been leading the investigation. Cpt. Faan Molapo, he is one of the leading investigators in the TRC is indicating that grave number 2265 is Tsotetsi’s grave. | Full Transcript |
| 26:39 | The bodies of Mabusa and Tsotetsi were not exhumed. Their graves were simply identified and pointed out in the presence of their families. One of the reasons, the Truth Commission said, was that the bodies had been burnt beyond recognition before their secret burial. | Full Transcript |
| 26:57 | Grave number 2267 is the grave of comrade Kenneth Mabuza. This is the grave. | Full Transcript |
| 27:06 | The way in which bodies were disposed of in this country took various shapes and forms. The bodies of the Pebco Three were burnt whilst those that killed them were having a braai. The bodies of Siphiwo Mtimkulu and Topsy Madaka in the Eastern Cape were burnt whilst those who had killed them were having a braai. I wouldn’t like to think that it was different in the case of this person or all the persons whose bones we do not even want to disinter because we know they were burnt. | Full Transcript |
| 27:50 | It is the first time in my life that I see a flat grave. And the person who buries another person and makes the grave flat, is because he or she intends to make the grave secret. A person who buries another person without showing the beloved ones, the family relatives, where that grave is means that that person wants to do so in secret. Now, as I was standing here, trying to control my own shock, I’m wondering how many times have we unknowingly walked on flat graves in this country. | Full Transcript |
| 29:00 | It’s a big day today for my family because we’ve been missing my husband for many years and I don’t know where to find him. I’ve been looking for him for eleven years. So from last year when they come here and tell me they’ve already found him it was like a shock to me. And today, it’s so much sad inside me but it will calm down. I say thanks to God to what happened, the TRC to come and show me the grave of my husband. | Full Transcript |
| 29:42 | We have been suffering all along not knowing where Steve was. Until now eventually we discovered that Steve has been killed by the Kabasa. We felt that it wouldn’t be proper that we should dig this grave again. It will cause more pain than now. | Full Transcript |
| 30:07 | I know it’s not easy, it’s very difficult, but the national situation demands that we continue to unearth the truth and look into ourselves, look into our past and take a vowel and say never again shall we allow this type of things to happen to any one of us, black or white. Never again shall we have policemen and women, or soldiers in our forces who behave in the manner in which the nation suffered this type of casualties. | Full Transcript |
| 30:41 | On Friday the process of identifying graves continued. The Truth Commission’s investigative unit moved onto Piet Retief, this time to actually exhume the remains of three MK soldiers. The men were all members of the elite MK Special Operations unit that fell under the command of the late Joe Slovo. | Full Transcript and References |
| 31:00 | The sabotage of the Sasol oil refinery in the 1980s was one of MK’s success stories. The unit that carried out this attack was also responsible for the attacks on Voortrekkerhoogte Air Force base in Pretoria and the Koeberg nuclear plant near Cape Town. A commander in this crack sabotage unit was this young man called Barney Molokoane. In 1985 he and two of his comrades were on their way back to their base in Swaziland when their luck ran out at a police roadblock. | Full Transcript and References |
| 31:35 | Barney and his company arrived from Swaziland and then went for the sabotage at Sasol, Secunda. Unfortunately things didn’t go well for them and then they met their fate awaiting them in Piet Retief. They died there in Piet Retief. | Full Transcript |
| 31:55 | I heard over the wireless that he had been gunned down in Piet Retief with two of his members. | Full Transcript |
| 32:06 | This week, 12 years after their deaths at the hands of Piet Retief Security Branch, the families of Barney Molokoane, Victor Khayeyane and Vincent Sekete came to the place where the three MK cadres had been buried by the police. The Truth Commission led the way to the secret overgrown graves marked not by name but by number. // It was going to be an emotional, dramatic day for the huge crowd that gathered on the graveyard hill in Thandokukhanya township, but it was also a day committed to the painstaking gathering of forensic evidence that would ensure the positive identification of the bodies that lay beneath the soil. Mpumalanga’s Premiere and former MK commander, Matthews Phosa started the digging with the families at his side. | Full Transcript |
| 33:39 | The Truth Commission has got a mission to unearth the truth, whether the truth be in the offices of Government or in the graveyard. They have a responsibility to unearth that truth and the families which are here today are very happy that they know the truth about what happened to their sons. And they’re very happy to receive, painful as it may be, the bones so they can give the young heroic soldiers honourable funerals so the community can acknowledge what these guys have done. It is not hidden somewhere in a secret grave under false names as we discovered here today. | Full Transcript |
| 34:19 | As the sun rose higher and the graves deeper the anticipation of the crowd was almost tangible. The strain on family members was starting to show. Finally, grave 1070 revealed its first clues. The bones were gently removed from the earth; every shard carefully collected. The single bones became whole heaps. One of the most dramatic moments of the day came when this pair of boots was lifted out of Barney Molokoane’s grave. His family immediately recognized them and for them the painful puzzle started falling into place. | Full Transcript |
| 35:33 | The significance of the shoes that came from the grave, I think it elate all the doubts that one would have, because for now these things that we seek – people being exhumed – you don’t know really, really is this is the truth? But now, with a shred of evidence like what I saw, I’m convinced I’m on the right track in retrieving my brother’s bones. Those shoes, I personally bought them. | Full Transcript |
| 36:06 | Slowly the other graves of Victor Khayeyane and Vincent Sekete also yielded their grim contents. Bit by bit the bones were drawn up out of the ground, they were tagged and placed in makeshift coffins. The remains of the MK cadres were sealed, ready for a journey to the forensics laboratory in Pretoria where their identities will be finally and formally established. But the last chapter in the life story of these three young men will only be closed when their grieving families take them home to a final resting place. | Full Transcript |
| 36:58 | I feel pleased that this has happened, because I felt sorry before when he died and I didn’t know where he had been buried. I feel much better. | Full Transcript |
