• Contents
• O'Malley's political interviews
• Padraig O'Malley
• Pre-Transition (1902-1989)
• Transition (1990 - 1994)
  • Chronologies
    • 1990
    • 1991
    • 1992
    • 1993
    • 1994
  • Constitution Making
    • CODESA
      • ANC Debate - Strategic Perspectives
      • Reports and Agreements reached in CODESA
        • Structure of CODESA I
        • The Composition of CODESA
        • Declaration of Intent - 21 December 1991
        • Report of working group 1 to CODESA 2
        • Report of working group 3 to CODESA 2
        • Report of working group 4 to CODESA 2
        • Constitution making with reference to CODESA, Namibia and Zimbabwe
        • Report on the Bi-Lateral talks deadlock between the S.A Regime and the PAC of Azania
        • Reasons for CODESA deadlock - Provisional Framework
        • Report on CODESA Agreements
        • The South African Transition
        • Schoeman on CODESA, Rolling Mass Action, Fall of Bop
        • Goldstone Commission on Allegations of SADF funding of Violence in Townships
        • Springbok in a thunderstorm
        • Statement by Mr F W De Klerk, Leader of the National Party
      • Interim Constitution of the Republic of South Africa
        • Introduction
        • Preamble
        • Chapter 1 - Constituent and Formal Provisions
        • Chapter 2 - Citizenship and Franchise
        • Chapter 3 - Fundamental Rights
        • Chapter 4 - Parliament
        • Chapter 5 - The Adoption of the New Constitution
        • Chapter 6 - The National Executive
        • Chapter 7 - The Judicial Authority And The Administration Of Justice
        • Chapter 8 - The Public Protector, Human Rights Commission, Commission on Gender Issues and Restitution of Land Rights
        • Chapter 9 - Provincial Government
        • Chapter 10 - Local Government
        • Chapter 11 - Traditional Authorities
        • Chapter 11A - Volkstaat Council
        • Chapter 12 - Finance
        • Chapter 13 - Public Service Commission And Public Service
        • Chapter 14 - South African Police Service
        • Chapter 15 - General and Transitional Provisions
        • Index
          • Schedule 1 - Definitions of Provinces
          • Schedule 2 - System For Election Of National Assembly And Provincial Legislatures
          • Schedule 3 - Oaths Of Office And Solemn Affirmations
          • Schedule 4 - Constitutional Principles
          • Schedule 5 - Procedure For Election Of President
          • Schedule 6 - Legislative Competences Of Provinces
          • Schedule 7 - Repeal of Legislation
    • The Mandela / De Klerk Memorandum
      • Memorandum from Nelson Mandela to F. W. de Klerk 26 June 1992
      • De Klerk's reply to Nelson Mandela 2 July 1992
      • Nelson Mandela's reply to F. W. De Klerk 9 July 1992
      • Record of Understanding 26 September 1992
    • MPNP
      • MPNP Structures
      • Multi-Party Negotiation Process leading to Constitution
      • First Report of the Technical Committee on the Transitional Executive Council 13 May 1993
      • Views on a Constitution-Making Body
      • Plenary Session of the Multi-Party Negotiating Process
  • Documents and Reports
    • 1990
      • F. W. de Klerk's speech at the opening of Parliament 2 February 1990
      • The Groote Schuur Minute 4 May 1990
      • The Pretoria Minute 6 August 1990
      • Report - Working group established under paragraph 1 of the Groote Schuur Minute i.
    • 1991
      • The D. F. Malan Accord 12 February 1991
      • Joint statement by the State President, Mr F. W. de Klerk, and Mr Nelson Mandela, Deputy President of the African National Congress
      • Advance to national democracy: guidelines on strategy and tactics of the ANC
      • CODESA I - Declaration of Intent - 21 December 1991
    • 1992
      • Memorandum from Nelson Mandela to F. W. de Klerk 26 June 1992
      • Record of Understanding 26 September 1992
    • 1993
      • Statement By Mr. Thabo Mbeki, Representative ANC Of South Africa, At The General Assembly Of The UN, December 13, 19931
      • Resolution on the need for the resumption of multi-party negotiations 5 March 1993
    • 1994
      • Amnesty International Statement to UN
      • Election results
      • Accord on Afrikaner self-determination 23 April 1994
      • Memorandum of agreement for reconciliation and peace between the IFP/Kwazulu government and the ANC and the South African government/NP 19 April 1994
      • Constitutional principles
      • The Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP)
    • Chronology of Documents and Reports
  • Elections 1994
    • Amnesty International Statement to UN
    • The 1994 Elections
    • Election Ballot
    • Election Results
  • Events during Transition
    • Bisho Massacre
      • Bisho case: Ciskei troops acquitted
      • Evidence that Ciskei massacre was planned
      • Nelson Mandela's Statement on the Bisho Massacre
      • The Bisho massacre - TRC Report Extract
    • Boipatong Massacre
      • Alleged police complicity in political violence - Boipatong
      • Boipatong Massacre - TRC Report Extract
      • Memorandum on Attempts to Prevent the Boipatong Massacre
      • Boipatong: South Africa's founding myth
      • The Boipatong massacre revisited
      • Statement of the Emergency Meeting of the National Executive Committee of the ANC 23 June 1992
      • Waddington Report
      • Piers Pigou from Boipatong
      • Response - Piers Pigou from Boipatong
    • Chris Hani Assassination
      • Mandela - Address to the Nation
      • An assassination that nearly sparked civil war
      • Apartheid Foe Hani Slain in South Africa
      • Mandela - 'Nothing will stop us!'
      • SACP Statement on Re-opening of Media Interest in 1997
      • TRC findings and other related pieces
      • Hani Assassination raised in UK parliament
    • Collapse of Bophututswana
      • Bophuthatswana - TRC Report Extract
      • 12 Mar 1997: General Constand Viljoen in Cape Town
      • 30 Nov 1999: General George Meiring in Pretoria
      • 13 Dec 1999: Pik Botha in Pretoria
      • 07 Nov 2001: Pik Botha
      • 08 Nov 2001: General George Meiring in Pretoria
      • 10 Dec 2001: General Constand Viljoen
      • 26 Feb 2002: General George Meiring
      • Mac Maharaj on the fall of Bophuthatswana
• Post-Transition (1994 - 1999)
• Transformation (1999-)
• General Information
• Mac Maharaj

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

The Boipatong massacre revisited

SAIRR Website Comment 30 November 2000

The credibility of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has been dealt another blow - this time by its own amnesty committee.

In a recent ruling, the amnesty committee contradicted the TRC's October 1998 report on a vital issue -police culpability for the massacre of 45 people at Boipatong in the Vaal Triangle in June 1992.

The committee found that Inkatha Freedom Party IFP) supporters from the KwaMadala Hostel perpetrated the killings on their own, without police help, and in revenge for repeated attacks by African National Congress (ANC) supporters. The TRC report, however, found that 'KwaMadala residents, with the police, planned and carried out' the killings. The TRC's finding that the police were guilty of multiple murder at Boipatong has thus been overturned by the amnesty committee.

The massacre was widely portrayed as proving the ANC's claim that the then government was using the police and army to wage a covert war against it. The National Party government lost all remaining legitimacy, and the ANC was increasingly able to dictate the terms of the transition.

What proof was there of police involvement? Investigations by the Goldstone commission found none. In 1993 a criminal court, on the tested evidence of 120 Boipatong residents, convicted IFP supporters and ruled that the police had played no part. The TRC ignored these rulings. It based its finding of police guilt primarily on untested accounts put forward by a monitoring organisation with ANC links.

Now the amnesty committee, like the Goldstone commission and the trial court, has found 'eyewitness' testimony of police involvement appallingly 'untruthful', or mistaken.

In 1992, alleged police involvement made headlines around the world. In 1998, the TRC's Boipatong finding was widely broadcast. Now the press has fallen strangely silent. * For more information, click on 'Truth Commission repudiated by its own Amnesty Committee' in News Releases on this website.

- Anthea Jeffery