Aftermath & Mother's Testimony
Piet and the Gugulethu Seven's deaths led to an inquest in 1986, and a trial in 1987, which later reopened in 1989. The findings by Wynberg magistrate, Mr. Hoffman, were that the seven men had died in a legitimate anti-terrorist operation. In her 27 November 1996 Truth and Reconciliation Commission Gross Human Rights Violations testimony, Piet's mother Cynthia Nomveyu Ngewu said the trials in court were dissatisfying and she couldn't understand the language being spoken; the proceedings were in Afrikaans.
Ngewu said she had to see her dead son being dragged with a rope around his waist, broadcast on television. The police told her that her son had shot at the police and they later came by her home to look for weapons. Ngewu later expressed her forgiveness and reconciliatory beliefs in regards to her son's killing:
"We do not want to return the evil that perpetrators committed to the nation. We want to demonstrate humanness towards them, so that they in turn may restore their own humanity".
The South African Police that applied for amnesty for the killings were Rian Bellingan, Thapelo Mbelo, and Xola Frank 'Jimmy' Mbane.
Read more about this topic: The Gugulethu Seven
Famous quotes containing the words aftermath, mother and/or testimony:
“The aftermath of joy is not usually more joy.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother drudge for his living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Reason is natural revelation, whereby the eternal father of light, and fountain of all knowledge, communicates to mankind that portion of truth which he has laid within the reach of their natural facilities: Revelation is natural reason enlarged by a new set of discoveries communicated by God immediately, which reason vouches the truth of, by the testimony and proofs it gives, that they come from God.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)