The truth commission was confronted this year with bouts of amnesia, half-truths and outright lies — and scenes of humanity
* “I am not in possession of any information that might be of use to you.” — Former president FW de Klerk, giving the National Party’s response to questions posed by the truth commission about his government’s support for the Inkatha Freedom Party
* “I am here for the purposes of the truth; therefore I have nothing to say.” — Clive Derby-Lewis, who was found guilty of assassinating communist party leader Chris Hani, at the start of the truth commission hearing in Benoni
* “I do not expect the Hani family to forgive me but to understand there was nothing personal in the attack. If anything, it is an indication of the importance of the man =8A If he’d been an ordinary member of the South African Communist Party he would still be alive today.” — Clive Derby-Lewis at his amnesty hearing into the death of Chris Hani
* “If we were the Inquisition we would have had electric prods.” — Truth commission chair Desmond Tutu on why the truth commission had to persuade people to confess
* “When the commission treats me like a leper and its chair hugs our former oppressors, then I worry about what type of reconciliation we are fostering.” — Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
* “Yours not to reason why. You have to take orders and do and die. That was our culture, to protect our leaders.” — Xoliswa Falati on why she lied to protect Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
* “For the sake of your own inner tranquillity and relationship with the community, it will be helpful if you could find it in your heart to take the commission into your confidence.” — Azar Cachalia addressing Winnie Madikizela-Mandela at the truth commission
* “Thank you. This is the father I have known in you for years. You are right. Things went horribly wrong.” — Madikizela-Mandela’s final words to Tutu and the truth commission after nine days of hearings
* “I believe that we all have the capacity to become saints.” Truth commission chair Desmond Tutu explaining why he went to such lengths to give Madikizela-Mandela an opening to say sorry
* “We are concerned that the commissioners are critical of efforts to bring to book those who perpetrated crimes against humanity. They think justice is of less value than their reconciliation showbiz and avalanche of tears.” — Azapo Gauteng chair Lybon Mabaso, telling a Johannesburg news conference that the commission’s attempt to stop attorneys-general from prosecuting perpetrators of apartheid-era atrocities was tantamount to defeating the ends of justice
* “A killer must be killed.” — Joni Tsili, widower of a woman allegedly killed by Grahamstown police 17 years ago, speaking before the commission
* “I have an understanding of their pain and needs. I understand the pain they have in losing their loved ones because I am in a similar situation, although not quite as drastic.” — Former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock announcing that his biography is being written and the proceeds will go into a trust fund for families of his victims
* “Something in me died with my brother. I had to avenge his death.” — Askari Joe Mamasela, speaking of his half-brother’s “necklace” death at the hands of African National Congress supporters
* “The Afrikaans newspapers were closely aligned to the National Party, which effectively paralysed their critical function =8A We’ve been close to the beast and we should tell [the truth commission] what it was like. Let’s acknowledge it. We often didn’t report as well as we should have.” — One of a group of journalists at Beeld newspaper on why they wanted to make a submission to the commission on the newspaper’s activities during the apartheid years
* “I want to charge all the mainstream newspapers — English and Afrikaans — with collusion with apartheid and having a hand, directly or indirectly, in the subsequent murder of thousands and thousands of black people by the apartheid army and police. I’m not off my rocker.” — Jon Qwelane at the September truth commission hearings into the media
* “If you stared at a white woman or used a whites-only toilet, you had=7Fan option of being sjambokked or dismissed.” — Media Workers’ Association leader Zakes Nene recounting the experiences of black workers at the SABC from 1975 to 1985
* “God … she was brave.” — An informant pointing out graves during the truth commission’s hunt for bodies, commenting on one of the deceased cadres who resisted cracking under torture for nine days
* “They are virtual outcasts.” — Francois van der Merwe, a lawyer for five men seeking amnesty for a range of apartheid-era crimes, including the death of Steve Biko
* “No one today admits to supporting apartheid.” — Truth commission chair Desmond Tutu despairingly at the commission’s hearings into the role of business during apartheid
* “I told him this fuck-up would once and for all establish South Africa as a haven for terrorists and pirates.” — Pik Botha’s response to former law and order minister Louis le Grange’s report on the 1981 Seychelles coup
* “Anyone who believed Margaret Thatcher’s 1980s theory that apartheid would wither away if there was sufficient foreign investment in South Africa was naive enough to think that feeding meat to a lion would turn it into a vegetarian.” — Anti-apartheid archive committee chair Lord Hughes at the commission
* “If your story is true, you and your colleagues did nothing wrong. Mr Biko caused his own death and you and your colleagues are blameless?” — Advocate George Bizos cross-examining retired security police Major Harold Snyman, one of five amnesty applicants in the death of Steve Biko in 1977
* “I knew what was going on. I was very much aware that members’ success could be ascribed to the use of unconventional interrogation methods.” — Retired police general Johannes Griebenauw admitting to the commission that he turned a blind eye to police torture of detainees
* “It gave the politicians a false sense of security. They did not realise the need for political change.” — Former South African Defence Force chief Constand Viljoen, explaining to the commission that the only complaint they could investigate against the former South African Defence Force was that it was too effective in maintaining internal law and order
* “If you personalise it: a very proud person who is publicly exposed for being a scoundrel will almost never respond with humility and contrition; they will almost always respond with anger and outrage. The community feels exposed because they have been caught out, shown up as evil, and this is very hard to deal with.” — Valkenberg psychiatrist Dr Sean Kaliske on why the Afrikaner community has been resistant to the commission
* “They don’t want to deal with the truth.” — Jacques Pauw, author of Prime Evil, the documentary on Eugene de Kock, on why few whites make up the one million viewers who watch the weekly TRC Special Report on television
* “Four versions … four … exist of the life of Christ. Which one would you have liked to chuck out?” — Truth commission chair Desmond Tutu after the first round of submissions by political parties produced four different versions of history
* “The terms ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ targets didn’t exist in our vocabulary.” — Former Azanian People’s Liberation Army commander Dan Mofokeng justifying the St James Church massacre to the commission