Survivors of apartheid-era crimes should be involved in investigating those abuses, a non-governmental body proposed on Tuesday.
”Survivors should be treated as a resource for information, and this will play a part in their healing process,” Theresa Edlmann of the Spirals Trust said in Johannesburg.
”… They [survivors] are potentially extremely important.”
Edlmann was addressing a seminar hosted by the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
She said the 1993 Highgate Hotel massacre in the Eastern Cape provided a good example of the contribution victims could make.
Five people were killed and seven others injured when gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles and grenades attacked the hotel.
Three of the injured were permanently disabled.
Initial indications were that the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA) was behind the attack.
This assumption was questioned years later, prompting the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to re-open the case in February this year.
In the same month, a Highgate survivors’ group was formed.
”One of the remarkable aspects of the Highgate case is the role that survivors have played in gathering information,” Edlmann said.
Asked what the nature of this information was, she said the NPA investigation was continuing.
The NPA had last December requested survivors to hand in a memorandum so that an investigation into the hotel attack could be reopened.
Survivors said in the memorandum that regular detailed updates should be given as investigations progressed.
Edlmann said, however, that report backs since then had not been regular and were vague.
”Survivors need a more structured feedback; the NPA should provide survivors with written feedback or hold regular meetings with the group,” she said. — Sapa