South Africa's Truth And Reconciliation Commission
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2018
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Apartheid was abolished in the 1990's, South Africans had to find a way to confront their brutal past without endangering their chance for future peace. But it was a challenging process for many survivors of atrocities committed by the former racist regime. Justice Sisi Khampepe served on the Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and as she tells Rebecca Kesby, she had to put aside her own emotions and experiences at the hands of the police, to expose the truth about Apartheid.
(PHOTO: Pretoria South Africa: President Nelson Mandela (L) with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, acknowledges applause after he received a five volumes of Truth and Reconciliation Commission final report from Archbishop Tutu. Credit: Getty Images.)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
| 0:11.8 | telly we share what we've been watching |
| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:24.9 | searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds hello and thank you |
| 0:30.5 | for downloading this witness history podcast from the BBC World Service with me Rebecca |
| 0:36.0 | Kespi and today we head for South Africa in the 1990s it was emerging into a new democracy after suffering decades of the racist apartheid regime. |
| 0:47.0 | But to build a new society, the country had to confront some of the darkest moments of its past and a warning this program does |
| 0:55.1 | contain harrowing testimony and graphic descriptions of human rights abuses |
| 1:00.3 | throughout. |
| 1:04.0 | The service to mark the start of the Commission's work is in keeping with the spiritual tone set by Archbishop Tutu. |
| 1:10.0 | We are charged to unearth the truth about our dark past to lay the ghost of that past so that they will not return to haunt us. |
| 1:20.0 | Opening in April 1996 with a religious ceremony led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, |
| 1:26.4 | the Truth and Reconciliation Commission would hear thousands of hours of testimony |
| 1:31.4 | over the next two years, from victims and purpose. of I did terrible things to members of the ANC. |
| 1:43.0 | You remember saying to me that you are able to treat me like an animal? |
| 1:48.0 | They put a stick behind your knees and you were hung upside down. |
| 1:54.4 | Once this was happening you were suffocated. |
| 1:57.2 | Open to the public, hundreds of hearings were conducted in town halls, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.