Eddie Koch
No one can say the tacticians of the truth commission did not expect a battle. Only it came with surprising speed and ferocity from an unexpected quarter.
For months, commissioners have been warily watching the movements of what has become known as the sleeping dragon, agents of apartheid’s death squads, for signs it will be provoked by scrutiny of its past.
Instead, in the week leading up to the commission’s first public hearings, members of the army’s most notorious brigade appeared to apply meekly and en masse for amnesty, while families of men and women killed in some of the worst atrocities of the 1980s launched an acrid attack on the integrity of the commission.
Far from breathing fire into a charged political atmosphere, many of the perpetrators of human rights abuse have adopted a more suave approach. They have engaged smart young lawyers to extract maximum benefit from the reconciliation machinery.
Lawyers for members of the Civil Co-operation Bureau, a network of hit squads and dirty tricks brigades set up by the army in the early 1980s, confirmed this week they had lodged a collective application to the amnesty committee of the truth commission for some of its members.
They refused to provide details but did not deny media reports that some of the CCB’s best-known agents — including Staal Burger, Ferdi Barnard, Calla Botha, Chappie Maree and Slang van Zyl — were among the applicants. Nor did they say exactly what deeds their clients had admitted to committing, which is not surprising given that the angry families of their victims are lining up to seek justice and damages.
But early signs are that the perpetrators, with some exceptions, are giving away very little in the early stages. One newspaper reported that the CCB group is admitting only to acts already exposed in the media.
A former member of military intelligence, who says he is planning to make a full disclosure to the truth commission, told the Mail & Guardian there was a general perception among members of the old secret services that they should not reveal all before testing the competence of the commission.
The agent added: “Most of them have not yet decided to come forward [with full confessions]. They are waiting to see if someone [from among their ranks] is going to come forward and what this person is going to say. For the time being they are saying ‘bly op die bus’ (stay on the bus) and let’s see who gets off. I don’t know if any big secrets are going to come out just yet.”
If this is an accurate reflection of tactics adopted by a significant group of perpetrators, it demonstrates how important it is for the truth commission’s investigations unit to rigorously scrutinise all amnesty applications.
The truth and reconciliation law states that false or partial disclosure by people who apply for amnesty will lead to disqualification and open the agents to criminal and civil prosecution. It is the single punitive device in the commission’s arsenal and its efficacy depends on the skill and capability of its investigators.
So far, this is an unknown quantity, which is exactly why the perpetrators appear to be testing the waters. People involved in appointing the investigations team say some provinces, especially KwaZulu-Natal, appear to have a powerful combination of police investigators and academics, while other regions have not recruited so successfully.
Then there are the victims. This week senior members of the commission shrugged off a vociferous challenge by lawyers for the Biko, Mxenge and Ribeiro families to the legal and constitutional basis of the commission’s amnesty provisions.
The families have challenged the constitutionality of the commission’s provisions which rule out civil and criminal proceedings against perpetrators of human rights abuse whose applications to the amnesty committee are successful. They suffered an early defeat on Wednesday when the Constitutional Court rejected their application for an urgent hearing because some of the formal procedures were not properly complied with.
But the victims’ families have adopted another tack, saying they will apply for an urgent supreme court interdict over the weekend to stop the commission’s first public hearing from going ahead.
“We are on track and will be starting on Monday,” said Wynand Malan, joint deputy chairman of the commission’s human rights violations committee, which will lead the hearings. “My experience is that there is little grassroots support for this opposition and that most ordinary people will go with the truth commission.”
That claim, like the capacity of the truth commission’s investigative team, is another stretch of uncharted territory to be crossed in the weeks to come. Initial signs are, however, that popular anger at the commission’s perceived leniency towards perpetrators of human rights abuse runs much deeper than the officials care to admit.
Sapa reports about 30 victims of apartheid atrocities came out in support of the court actions aimed at challenging the validity of the truth commission at a prayer meeting organised by the African National Congress Youth League in Pretoria on Wednesday.
It appears a significant grouping within the ranks of apartheid’s victims is lining up across party political lines to oppose the truth commission. It is widely known that Morolo’s court actions are supported by the Azanian Peoples Organisation (Azapo), but Wednesday’s meeting showed he was also getting significant support from sections of the ANC.
ANC Youth League treasurer Tshediso Kutu said: “Let the truth commission do an investigation, but we wish to see justice taking its course. Wounds won’t heal if there is only reconciliation without justice.”
l Relatives of Matthew Goniwe, murdered in the Eastern Cape in 1984, have denied reports in the media last week that they are supporting the legal challenge against the truth commission.