Eddie Koch
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission this week faced challenges on three fronts just as it was gearing up to hear applications for amnesty later this month from agents who committed human rights abuses in the apartheid era.
Firstly, the families of four murdered activists announced they will launch a Constitutional Court application for the commission’s hearings to be postponed so that they can sue the assassins.
Relatives of Steve Biko, Matthews Goniwe, Griffiths Mxenge and Fabian Ribeiro say the commission’s provisions — which indemnify those applicants who succeed in obtaining amnesty from civil claims — is preventing them from claiming from damages in the courts.
The Mxenge family want to sue Dirk Coetzee, a former police hitman who has confessed publicly to orchestrating the grisly murder of the human rights lawyer. They will back the constitutional action to have the commission’s hearings put on hold so that they go to court.
Secondly, a number of apartheid victims who appeared on Felicia Mabuza-Shuttle’s TV talk show this week complained the commission was offering protection to the abusers — and well-paid jobs to its officials — while taking away some basic civil rights of those who suffered the most.
Finally, Marius Schoon, whose wife and daughter were blown up by a parcel bomb in Angola, is fighting a supreme court bid by superspy Craig Williamson who wants the court to halt Schoon’s R1-million damages claim.
Williamson admitted last year he helped plan the police project to send a parcel bomb to the flat in Angola where Jeanette Schoon and her seven-year-old daughter were blown up in 1984.
Schoon is contesting the supreme court application so that he can claim R200 000 for emotional damages and R800 000 for his son who was present in the room when the bomb exploded. He does not believe Williamson should be let off the hook for the gruesome murder of his wife and believes that agent should stand trial for his role in it.
If Schoon, along with the families of the other four murdered activists, succeed in the court actions this could encourage similar claims ahead of the first public hearings by the commission, due to be heard later this month.
Alex Boraine, deputy chairman of the truth commission, told the Mail & Guardian that its staff were “deeply sympathetic to the suffering of the victims’ families and to the points made in their statements”.
He noted the amnesty clauses were part of the compromise at the World Trade Centre which made it possible for South Africans to take part in their first democratic elections. “Without that there would have been no end to the violence and many more people would have been killed or abused.”
Boraine insisted the courts could work in tandem with the truth commission. The Malan murder trial, for example, was not put on hold because of its establishment.
Where serious human rights abuses were committed and applicants fail to obtain amnesty, victims would be in a much stronger position to obtain legal redress.
“There has already been an inquest into the murder of Matthew Goniwe and his colleagues. The court failed to find those responsible, presumably because it is extremely difficult to do so,” said Boraine.
“If Mrs Goniwe were to come to the commission now, she would have sympathy and compassionate assistance from a team of investigators who would be able to make another hard probe into who it was that carried out the brutal murder of the Goniwe four.”
Boraine said it was unlikely the Constitutional Court would delay the hearings because the applicants did not represent the majority of people who suffered abuse under apartheid.
“What about the ordinary people, the little people? They have never had an inquest or the opportunity to sue their victimisers. We need a little patience so these people can have their social dignity restored.”