c. 1996 Religion News Service

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (RNS)-Wellington Moluli wore sunglasses in the dark sanctuary of the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg. Twig-thin with a slight tremor, Moluli spoke haltingly as he described his time in solitary confinement as a political prisoner.”I was a youth organizer for the ANC (African National Congress) in Soweto,”said the 26-year-old Moluli.”I was arrested in 1986, taken straight to solitary confinement and later tortured. They shocked me and tore my teeth out,”he said, opening his mouth to reveal missing molars.”I would like the people who did this to me to be punished, but really I don’t expect that to happen. But I want to tell my story, I want people to know what happened to me.” Moluli had just come from a meeting of the Khulumani Support Group, a program organized by churches and non-governmental organizations in an attempt to bring what is called the truth and reconciliation process-South Africa’s effort to learn as much as possible about human-rights violations during the apartheid era-to all South Africans.

A more formal procedure, run by a committee known as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is set to begin hearings Monday (April 15). The commission will hear both from perpetrators-to whom amnesty will be granted under certain criteria-and from victims of human-rights abuses.

Although most victims have the right to apply to the commission to testify, the sheer number of cases will restrict the committee to hearing higher- profile instances of human-rights abuses and prevent it from hearing the countless ones that did not make headlines.”The formal commission has major limitations,”said the Rev. Demetris Palos, a Methodist minister who helps run Khulumani training sessions in Johannesburg.”Although the commission will hear a lot of cases, there are many victims who will never get the chance to tell them their stories. That’s where we come in.”The government has asked us to help run Khulumani and other programs like this to help facilitate the whole truth-and-reconciliation process. Our function then is … to work toward truth, peace, justice and reconciliation for all South Africans, and we are to educate people about the Truth and Reconciliation Committee.” As part of the negotiations between the then-ruling all-white National Party and the African National Congress that led to South Africa’s first multi-racial elections in April 1994, an agreement was made to grant amnesty to people who committed political crimes in the past. But instead of granting a blanket amnesty to perpetrators, it was agreed to establish a body to hear evidence in exchange for amnesty, getting testimony from victims as well as perpetrators.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission grew out of this agreement. The commission will run for about two years and hear cases that occurred between March 1, 1960, and December 5, 1993.”For us at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, programs like Khulumani are extremely important,”said Fazel Randera, one of the 17 members of the commission.”They are convincing people to come forward to tell their stories, showing them how the process works, and giving them support as well. There is no way we could have gathered the amount of information they have been able to compile.” Khulumani (Zulu for”let’s speak out”) is currently being run only in Gauteng, the province that includes Johannesburg. But similar programs are taking place all over the country.

The South African Council of Churches (most South African churches are members) is working on a variety of fronts, from gathering testimony to working with victims still suffering from trauma from the apartheid era, according to the Rev. Gary Thompson, an Anglican minister with the council.

So far, of the churches involved in the process, the Anglican, Catholic and Methodist churches have been most active in running Khulumani and other programs.

But the South African Council of Churches is emphasizing working with trainers from the almost exclusively black African Independent Churches. Through the Commission of African Independent Churches, the council hopes to spread the word about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to the people in the townships and in rural areas where the mainline churches are not so prevalent, said Thompson.

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The ecumenical approach to the process was apparent recently when lay people and clergy showed up at a Khulumani workshop put on by Palos and staffers from the Johannesburg-based Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, a conflict-resolution group that has been instrumental in designing many programs like Khulumani.

Participants ranged from Anglican ministers from St. Mary’s Cathedral in downtown Johannesburg to a housewife from an African Methodist church in a township outside the city. All were learning how best to carry the message of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission back to their congregations.

Khulumani, the group was told, is a sort of informal parallel process to the commission’s work. Its aim is to educate people about the commission and to encourage people to come forward with their stories. Khulumani also gives people guidance on how the whole process works, collects their stories and eventually will be able to pass the stories on to the commission.

But the organization is not just a tool for gathering data. It also is a kind of enormous support group for the victims of apartheid. Many victims are referred to counseling while others receive advice on applying for reparation, another component of the process.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)”We provide people an opportunity to talk,”says Maggie Friedman, a founder of Khulumani.”Talking doesn’t oblige them to do anything, but if they are interested in getting their story known, we’ll help them. We just want the lesser known victims to get a fair deal,”she said.

Although at the moment Khulumani and other programs are being visited entirely by victims, they could reach the perpetrator as well, according to Mdu Lembede, a spokesman for the commission in KwaZulu-Natal, an area swamped with applications for amnesty.”Perpetrators are also victims in a way,”said Lembede.”There are policemen and security-force people out there who were made to do these things,and they have had to live with it inside themselves. All they need is a chance to get it off their chest.”The Khulumani groups can bring those people to us, too. It is all part of the healing process, and the more people we hear from, the better off we’ll be.” But right now it is the victims who are doing the talking.

Nanana Mngomezulu, from Alexandra, a township near Johannesburg, came to a recent Khulumani meeting. The area around her home was the scene of a great deal of violence during the apartheid years. Mngomezulu, whose nephew disappeared in 1992, started keeping a diary in the late 1980s and managed to record hundreds of cases of police abuses.”I wrote down everything I saw,”said Mngomezulu, 57,”I wrote down all the things the police would do. After a while it was obvious that they were causing some of the worst violence that was going on.”When my nephew first disappeared I went to the police but they would tell me nothing. Now I am thinking I might be able to find the truth here,”she said.

MJP END FLEMING