In clear violation of both the spirit and the word of the Freedom of Information Act, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) continues to withhold from public release important records. Of the two major air accidents in which the TRC — for reasons best known to itself — decided it should become involved, details of only one of its in-camera Robert
hearings have been released. These were transcripts of the hearings into the Helderberg accident. What remains withheld from the public are transcripts of the secret TRC hearings into the Tupolev crash in October 1986 in which the Mozambican president, Samora Machel, was killed.
The transcripts of the TRC’s hearing into the Helderberg accident were eventually made public, to reveal a comic opera parody of a hearing in which a self-taught and self-appointed aviation accident investigator played dual roles as principal witness for the prosecution and TRC prosecutor. Later in the proceedings a radio reporter of no known legal background — let alone one in aviation — appeared as another of these prosecutor/ interrogators. Both these people were recognised by the TRC panel as “expert consultants”. The records show their behaviour and approach as travesties, violating just about every tenet of legal examination. They were hostile, ill mannered, bombastic, deaf to explanation and clearly enjoying the opportunity to play at being lawyers.
As a result a good deal of what was accepted by the TRC as gospel about the Helderberg accident was a mish-mash, a wretched concoction of half-truth, rumour, often gross distortion in order to force fact to align with the conspiracy theories of these two “experts”.
All this was accepted blithely by a TRC panel as pitifully ignorant of the subject as its appointees. The whole process seemed to have been tailored to bolster predetermined and clearly political ends. In the opinion of the TRC the Helderberg accident was another of apartheid’s many crimes. Bizarre hypotheses about its causes have brought and continue to bring many a coin to the pockets of those who still would profit from it.
If nothing else the Helderberg hearing transcripts proved what perils lie in secret hearings, clandestine investigations and all the other murky devices of bureaucratic misdirection and concealment. The published TRC “findings” in the Samora Machel accident reek of a similar mass of uninformed opinion, unsupported assumptions, grotesque theorising and a staggering lack of understanding of even the most basic aviation procedures.
The sloppiness of the whole TRC exercise is evident on virtually every page of the transcripts of the Helderberg hearing. The most appalling exclusion was that of Judge Cecil Margo whose original findings are literally savaged in the hearings by the amateur prosecutors. Margo was not even asked to attend, let alone defend himself, nor was any representative of the original commission invited to this hearing. The reason given was that Margo was “senile”, a blatant libel and totally untrue.
Four years on and the transcripts of the TRC “Samora Machel” accident hearings remain hidden from public view. It would seem that it is intended this exclusion will continue. Under the aegis of this newspaper I sent a faxed enquiry to Abdullah Omar, Minister of Transport, over a month ago, asking why the transcripts were being withheld. There has been no response, a not untypical reaction when dealing with the African National Congress.
The continued withholding of the transcripts of this secret TRC hearing is, in itself, puzzling. We are left to wonder whether the commission’s officers are anxious to avoid a repeat of the embarrassment of the Helderberg transcripts; or is the withholding in some way an attempt to avoid contradicting Nelson Mandela’s statement in 1996 that no stone would be left unturned in efforts to find the real cause of the accident? With greatest respect to Mandela, the real cause is painfully obvious: the accident was brought about solely by the flight crew of the Tupolev, in particular its captain, was to blame. Pilot error would be far too kind an explanation. It was gross negligence that killed 30 people, including president Machel.
The Russian component of the original Margo Commission initially agreed with the finding of pilot negligence. When this finding reached the Kremlin it obviously caused great apprehension. After all, the Tupolev was a Russian aircraft, donated to the Mozambique government. Its crew were all Russians. Clearly it would not do to be seen in effect to have negligently killed off the head of a struggling African state one is supposed to be supporting. The finding had to be changed as a matter of haste and expedience. A dissenting opinion was quickly cooked up, involving a mysterious phantom navigational beacon installed by the South African military. To the hovering conspiracy theorists this was manna from heaven.
The transcripts of the TRC hearing should, as a matter of simple honesty to the brief and purpose of the entire TRC exercise, be released to the public. The revelation of truth and with that the writing of authentic history, are at the core of the TRC’s brief.
Of the most despicable actions of the National Party governments was their outrageous rewriting of historical truth. By not releasing these transcripts, by keeping them under cover, the TRC not only violates its own assignments, but in doing so faithfully emulates the basest practices of the apartheid regime.
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