- Title: CHRIS HANI FUNERAL – SOWETO, 19/04/93 TAPE #08
- Date: 19th April 1993
- Summary: CHRIS HANI FUNERAL – SOWETO, 19/04/93 TAPE #08
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- City: Nasrec
- Country: South Africa
- Reuters ID: 93APR19R08
- Story Text:CHRIS HANI FUNERAL – SOWETO, 19/04/93
TAPE #08
20:06:21: VARIOUS PEOPLE ARRIVING AT THE STADIUM
20:09:47: HEARSE ARRIVING FOLLOWED BY A MOTORCADE
20:10:32: VARIOUS PEOPLE INSIDE THE STADIUM STANDING WHILE PAYING RESPECT
20:14:59: MK VETERANS CARRYING THE COFFIN
20:15:22: TOKYO SEXWALE CARRYING CHRIS HANI’S PILLOW AND CAP
20:15:38: MK VETERANS CARRYING THE COFFIN
20:18:31: BRASS BAND PERFORMING
20:28:01: JACOB ZUMA, OLIVER TAMBO AND NELSON MANDELA PAYING RESPECT
09:59:49: MK VETERANS
10:06:28: COFFIN PLACED INSIDE THE TENT
10:07:06: MK VETERANS MARCHING INSIDE THE STADIUM
10:18:35: CYRIL RAMAPHOSA ADDRESSING THE SERVICE AT THE STADIUM
10:30:13: VARIOUS PEOPLE SEATED AND LISTENING
10:32:27: COFFIN PLACED INSIDE THE TENT
10:32:53: JACOB ZUMA, OLIVER TAMBO AND NELSON MANDELA SEATED AND LISTENING
10:41:56: JAY NAIDOO ADDRESSING THE SERVICE AT THE STADIUM
10:42:31: ONE OF THE DELEGATES ADDRESSING THE SERVICE AT THE STADIUM
11:00:04: PETER MOKABA SINGING THE SLOGANS TO THE CROWD
11:01:25: PETER MOKABA SHAKING HANDS WITH NELSON MANDELA
11:02:50: JOE SLOVO ADDRESSING THE SERVICE AT THE STADIUM
11:33:06: CYRIL RAMAPHOSA INTRODUCES NELSON MANDELA TO THE CROWDS
11:34:08: NELSON MANDELA ADDRESSING THE SERVICE AT THE STADIUM
“Amandla… Now I can hear you, to the family, our daughter-in-law, Limpho, and grandchildren Neo, Nomakwezi and Lindiwe, to Gilbert and Mary Hani, parents of Hani, Dushe and Nkosana, Chris's older, commanders, commissioners. We have come here to pay our last respects to pay our last respects to the one of the greatest revolutionaries this country has ever known. I ask you all to rise for a moment's silence in tribute to his memory. Even as we do so, let us also remember those who have died in the last few days and hours here at FNB, at Sebokeng, Vanderbijlpark and elsewhere during these days of mourning… Thank you.
11:37:16: ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU AND ONE OF THE BISHOPS LISTENING
11:39:13: NELSON MANDELA CONTINUES WITH ADDRESSING THE SERVICE AT THE STADIUM
“He was taken to our hearts, as a people Chris Hani touched the very heart of millions of us because he knew our pain, and eased it by giving us hope, giving us courage, giving us a way forward, thousands of you filed past his coffin to pay your last respects. Like me, I am sure that upon leaving you had difficulty holding back the tears. Chris Hani’s medal was no operation, it was consistent with the patterns of the Scores of assassinations remain "unsolved". Richard Turner, Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkhonto, David Webster, Ruth First, and Dulcie September are but a few. They remain unnamed because the criminals investigate themselves (Crowd applause)… By killing Chris Hani the murderers made a fatal error, (Crowd applause)… Chris Hani will not become just a statistic; regime has announced the arrest of a leading member of the Conservative Party, Clive Derby Lewis, in connection with this murder. We insist he be brought before the courts without delay. We insist, we demand to know what he did, who he worked with, and above all we demand justice. We do not want to see a situation where those arrested for such heinous crimes simply go free wants the hue and cry dies down, as has happened in the past. In 1991, when we spoke of a Third Force being responsible for the violence, we were ridiculed and criticised by everyone. Now both South Africa and the world recognise not only the existence of that same Third Force, but also the extent of its activities. That is why De Klerk retired army and police generals with golden handshakes, but neither we nor the country know what activities they were dismissed for. When Chris Hani criticised the theft of weapons from the Air Force Base, and said those weapons were not stolen, but were taken to be used in covert operations, he too was ridiculed. Guns from those same stolen weapons were used to kill him.
This secret web of hit men and covert operations is funded by our taxes. While we remain without homes, without food, without education, almost nine billion rand was spent in the last two years on these secret operations. But we, the taxpayer, do not know what it was spent on. We only know that our people continue to die in violence on the trains, in massacres, and by assassination. The killing must stop! A major initiative that Chris Hani proposed shortly before his death was that peace brigades be established under the National Peace Accord. Let us pay tribute to his memory by forming such Peace Brigades throughout the country. Let them be part of the reconstruction of our country, ravaged by the war waged against us over 45 years of apartheid rule. There has been a deliberate and massive propaganda offensive against Umkhonto we Sizwe, its cadres and leadership. No effort has been spared to criminalise both MK and Chris Hani. This has deliberately created a climate of acceptance when an MK cadre is assassinated, as dozens have been over the past months. To criminalise is to outlaw, and the hunting down of an outlaw is regarded as legitimate. That is why, although millions of people have been outraged at the murder of Chris Hani, few were really surprised. Those who have deliberately created this climate that legitimates political assassinations are as much responsible for the death of Chris Hani as the man who pulled the trigger, and the conspiracy that plotted his murder. In this regard, the Minister of Law and Order and the Chief of the Army both have a great deal to answer for. But culpability does not stop there. The indecent haste with which Minister Kobie Coetsee pushed the Indemnity Bill through the President's Council granted a licence to kill to the men who wish to plunge this country into a racial war. Through this legislation, they were told that they could murder without fear of punishment. We say to them, loud and clear, that we do not recognise such indemnity. We will not accept that a murder can be committed and the assassin pleads political indemnity. Justice must be carried out to the full extent of the law.
We want a police force that is there to serve our communities, to protect our lives and property, to respect us as citizens. That is our right. We want an army that is professional, that does not regard us as the enemy. The only way to get this is by bringing all security forces and armed formations under multiparty control with immediate effect. This should include the SADF, the South African Police, Umkhonto we Sizwe, the Transkei Defence Force, the KwaZulu Police, the Bophuthatswana police force and any other such formations. Only then will we be able to begin the task of training, upgrading and developing a South African Army and Police Force that serves all South Africans. Only then can we being to change the culture so prevalent in the police force and army that the people are the enemy. And nowhere has this attitude of seeing us as the enemy been more clearly demonstrated than in President De Klerk's actions since the assassination of Chris Hani. His first response was to call a meeting of the State Security Council. His second response was to deploy 23,000 more troops, telling white South Africans that they had enough troops for them to feel secure. But why deploy troops against mourners? They say we cannot control our forces. We are not cattle to be controlled. And we say to De Klerk: it is your forces that lost control and, completely unprovoked, shot innocent marchers in Protea. It is you who have allowed the bully boy tactics of the AWB to go unchallenged. (Crowd applause)We, the victims of violence, have been blamed for the very acts that take our lives. Yet you treat the far right with kit gloves, allowing them to publish hit lists when it is a crime to do so. Your police do not protect marchers from gunmen who mow them down, as in Vanderbijlpark. Black lives are cheap, and will remain so as long as apartheid continues to exist. And let there be no mistake: there have been many changes, and negotiations have started, but for the ordinary black person of this country apartheid is alive and well. Thousands of us die from TB every year; our children still play in open sewers, and die from preventable diseases. Education is still a privilege. Our homes remain the tin shacks and overcrowded townships. And no black South African has the vote. They talk of peace as if wanting peace is pacifism. They paint a picture of us as militant youth, or mindless radicals. They want to present the ANC as the other half of the National Party. We want peace, but we are not pacifists… - Copyright Holder: REUTERS