The Ones That Got Away

Failed reconciliation in post-apartheid South Africa

The Ones That Got Away The process of reconciliation began with great hope in South Africa's black and white communities. Now, however, it seems that the nation is struggling to move past the spectre of its deeply divided past.
On a Sunday afternoon, Cynthia Ngewu visits her son’s simple grave. For her, like many other victims of apartheid the Truth Commission has delivered knowledge, but not comfort. Her son was one of the Guguletu Seven who tried to raid a police van in 1986. Even though the authorities discovered their plans, the men were not arrested, they were slaughtered. It was a massacre that has come to represent apartheid’s worst excesses. Unfortunately Claudia doesn’t feel she got anywhere near the truth at the TRC. For the people at the highest levels of politics stayed away. Craig Matthews was one of the few police officers who did tell of his part in the South Africa’s bloody history. He doesn’t expect to be forgiven, he knows people will hate him forever. But he at least did tell. He calls those who didn’t show-up LMFs – ‘Lacking in Moral Fibre’ and says their actions undermine the future. Cynthia knows how she feels about it: "In the white community they are not willing to accept that horrible past and humble themselves before the nation and bring about a healing."

Produced by SABC Special Assignment
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