60 minutes rewind selden if ever in history have winners been as generous towards losers
as the new leaders of south africa have been towards the men who inflicted apartheid on them
men like dirk kurtzia a former captain in the regime secret security police certainly one of
the most racist and repressive of our time but when nelson mandela and his colleagues overthrew
that system anyone who expected retribution or war crimes trials was disappointed instead the new
democratically elected government set up a truth and reconciliation commission and what it's about
is forgiving forgiving even dirk ritcia who's been telling the commission harrowing tales about how
he and his men dealt with blacks who opposed apartheid knockout drops was administered and
as soon as the guy fell over he was shot at point blank do you remember what went through your mind
when you watch a 23 year old kid drop over and then get shot in the head it was a job that had
to be done the enemy one of the enemy that had to be taken out and had to be dealt with and someone
had to do the job and we were there to do the job or was it just was it just another day's work
another day's work basically yes say so help me god so help me god thank you you
may be seated thank you dance that's the same story could cea told the commission
in nine months of hearings the revelations of government sanctioned mass murders and atrocities
have shocked even the people who thought they knew what apartheid was all about we tweeted
then they went about cutting his fingers off
those electric shocks tore my private parts to pieces
the mechanics of the truth and reconciliation commission are revolutionary and astonishing
here's how it works victims tell their stories stories of atrocities which
were literally unspeakable under the old regime then the perpetrators get a chance to own up to
their crimes and by doing so become eligible for amnesty all they have to do is tell the truth
they don't even have to say they're sorry no apologies no remorse and no justice
then it diverged to me that caesar was missing charity candela came before the
commission to speak of her son her late son a 23 year old law student
he just disappeared one day and for nine years she heard nothing about him then durkhutsia spoke out
because he was there when the boy was tortured and shot he was there when they did what they'd done
many times before to destroy the evidence they dragged the body to a fire and it is eventually
set a light and the remains has got to be turned over frequently during the night seven to nine
hours uh until there was no uh chunks left uh the next morning seven to nine hours what do you do
sit around and chat during that time we were sitting around having a barbecue and drinking
and every once in a while somebody would get up and turn the body around
that's correct yes was it just like an ordinary barbecue or did the presence of a dead man whose
body was being turned around so it would be turned into ashes did the presence of
this dead man on a fire next to you affect the atmosphere of the evening not at all not at all
you could have been at home with a few buddies have your bride down that's correct
in the 1980s dirk hutsey was the manager of what appeared to be a farm just outside pretoria
it's called blockplace and it was in fact the top secret headquarters of the regime's death squads
there's never been a farm anything like it anywhere in the world it's green quiet and
lovely green quiet and lovely i would never say atrocities like what went on could have happened
in this nice spot what went on here well murders were planned from here execution of activists
opponents of the government apartheid government
stealing of vehicles blowing up of buildings rides into neighbouring countries
here dear coutillo was no rogue cop he was running hit teams which were organized and
sanctioned by the highest echelons of the south african regime and that's all he has to prove to
become eligible for amnesty that the murders had a political motivation what you were growing on the
farm were atrocities was only a trust is nothing else you guys were playing god uh we we were god
do you solemnly swear but their godhood has been lifted by the truth and reconciliation commission
which is headed by nobel laureate archbishop desmond tutu he's conducting it more as a
confessor than an inquisitor and sometimes the testimony has proven to be even more than he
can bear but he insists the process is not only necessary but even-handed white people
who suffered at the hands of nelson mandela's movement the anc are also invited to testify
do you know mr chairman with it what it's like to pick up some of your eight-year-old son's brain
and to have to bury it and the black guerrillas responsible for these acts are invited to apply
for amnesty so right now you sense a national catharsis it's happening it it's not easy to
to open wounds it's very painful but if if you don't want them to fester you must open
them and cleanse them and then pour palm on them archbishop you are a man of the cloth thank you
for reminding me yes don't you think that granting a murderer amnesty which is a form of forgiveness
even if he doesn't repent don't you think this is carrying christianity a bit too far christianity
has always been a religion that takes risks we are saying people who have committed horrendous acts
demonic acts
monstrous eggs are not monsters
are not demons they remain human beings we don't say that because you are a perpetrator therefore
you remain a perpetrator forever we say that there is the possibility
of changing try that one on charity condela the mother of the boy who was killed and burned by
kutsiya looks almost certain that durkhertzia will be getting amnesty from your government
i suspect so what do you think about that imagine some people are in jail for stealing the chocolate
and now men who have committed such crimes will be given amnesty i mean that is ridiculous
unbelievable churchill mekange is so unwilling to forgive der kurtzean that he challenged the
commission's power to do so in the highest court in the land kange's brother griffiths a prominent
anti-apartheid lawyer was killed stabbed forty-five times by kutsia's men in 1981.
griffith's wife victoria another activist was shot dead four years later
a few weeks ago after a memorial service they were laid to rest properly
serenaded by the voices of the struggle it was kathia's confession which finally
revealed to the mccangay family how griffiths died and godzilla came to the commission
to offer what he called a pathetic apology for his murders saying he feels genuinely repentant
but that doesn't satisfy church from a kangame he doesn't want truth and reconciliation
he wants truth and consequences and because of the truth commission which
archbishop tutu heads um justice is not being done it's not being done so that's why i feel jacuzzi
deserves to hang you know he deserves to hang to hang
if there's one mistake that was ever made by this government was abolishing hanging
he deserves to hang churchill mcangi thinks he should hang can you understand where he's coming
from i don't blame him for that probably i would have had exactly the same uh outlook
why should derek see you get amnesty does he deserve it uh it depends on from what side you
argue about it because uh it's not only myself it's thousands of us thousands yes thousands
and still in the police force up till this day occupying senior positions in in in the police
so if you don't give dirk amnesty in hanging hang them all the story will continue after this
driven by a fear of prosecution those thousands are pouring forth now
rushing into law offices to file amnesty applications not only captains like kritsya
but young foot soldiers with that age-old defense they were just obeying orders i
didn't lie in my bed one night and decide oh tomorrow i'm going to start killing activists
the political leaders sanction
this stuff and and i was just a man on the ground a man on the ground like paul van furen who
agreed to be interviewed in the presence of his lawyer villain brits how many people did you kill
um i can't remember the exact amount but it's quite a lot 10 20 100 200
roundabouts
runners are between 20 and 40. between 20 and 40 people but there was more next came one of the
darkest secrets of the dirty war van furin told us the police killed blacks in ways to make it look
like the murders were committed not by the hit squads but by black revolutionaries of the anc
that meant bombs electrocutions and necklacing that's putting a burning tire around a victim's
neck sometimes we use the landmine to blow people up and sometimes we use a necklace he never used
the necklace no we did once no yeah but that's that's sorry that was just for a body did you
get to get rid of the guy was already dead when they when they put a tyre around him that was a
normal way of the anc and he's saying he did a necklacing and you're saying that the guy
was dead before he wasn't there i know the guy before he was dead oh and then he was throwing
him to death and then he put it so it then it looked like the anc killed their own people
paul van furen is not appearing before the commission to express a remorse he doesn't feel
but simply to save his skin still he feels victimized by the commission so do most
members of the security establishment from the privates all the way to general constant phil
hewn former chief of the south african defense forces he insists he was serving god and country
and calls the commission a witch hunt it is clear to me
that this is a way of applying the legislation of the truth and reconciliation commission
towards vilifying a group of people such as my people the war was won by the anc
and instead of putting you on trial and shooting everyone who was in uniform
or everyone who was anywhere close to a military action or to an atrocity
they're offering you amnesty and yet you're calling it a witch hunt no it is a witch hunt
a witch hunt that's how they see it and that's why you see very few white faces in any of the
hearings that's why many whites dismiss the whole business contemptuously as the kleenex commission
i truly feel the truth commission should be awarded the granny award for the greatest comedy
of the year and a total waste of money that's also why archbishop tudo spends much of his time on the
air trying to convince these whites simply to listen i don't think we want to make any apology
if white people in this country are are alienated by it tough luck i think we we are hoping that
white people will when they hear the stories say isn't it incredible aren't we lucky that
black people are not wanting to treat us as we treated them i'm saying white people please
can you hear the generosity that is being offered you can you hear
our people saying despite the the agony that you have caused us we want to be friends with you
in recent weeks the truth commission has dug up deeply buried secrets of how some of south
africa's most illustrious anti-apartheid activists were assassinated by agents of the regime and in
coming months the commission's expected to reveal that covert campaigns which led to murders and
massacres were known and in some cases authorized by former presidents pw boater and f.w de klerk