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This\u00a0story explores the TRC process from the perspective of a perpetrator\u00a0who has applied for amnesty.<\/p>\nThis\u00a0story explores the TRC process from the perspective of a perpetrator\u00a0who has applied for amnesty.<\/p>\n
As a young Afrikaner man, Eric Taylor was recruited into the South African\u00a0Security Police. Firmly believing in the need to fight the communist\u00a0threat, he excelled in his work.<\/p>\n
As he moved up through the ranks, he was ordered to carry out increasingly\u00a0violent tasks. Ultimately, he was required to kill enemies of the state.Now a deeply religious man who believes apartheid was wrong, he is tormented\u00a0by his violent involvement in upholding the apartheid system.<\/p>\n
In 1998, in testimony before the TRC, Taylor tells of a night in 1985,\u00a0when he and other members of the special forces intercepted four United\u00a0Democratic Front (UDF) activists who were driving from a meeting in\u00a0Port Elizabeth to their homes in the small town of Cradock.<\/p>\n
The activists were murdered, and their burned bodies left in the bushes\u00a0alongside the road. At the time, the police, describing the incident\u00a0to the public and the grieving families, declared that a rival anti-apartheid\u00a0political group was responsible.<\/p>\n
In order to come\u00a0to peace with his past, Taylor feels that he must be forgiven by the\u00a0families of the murdered activists. He welcomes his amnesty hearing\u00a0as an opportunity to publicly tell his story, but he needs a more complete\u00a0resolution.<\/p>\n
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In\u00a0early 1997, Taylor and his Dutch Reform Church minister initiated a\u00a0meeting with the families of the four murdered activists, seeking not\u00a0only reconciliation but redemption.<\/p>\n
The families were\u00a0not ready to forgive him, and waited to hear his full disclosure at\u00a0the amnesty hearing so they could finally learn what it was that happened\u00a0on the night of the murders.<\/p>\n
We follow Taylor\u00a0and the families through the hearing and for a year afterwards. In particular,\u00a0we focus on the connection between Taylor and Nomonde Calata, the widow\u00a0of the man Taylor was directly responsible for murdering. In\u00a0an attempt at resolution, the two hope to meet again: Taylor wants to\u00a0again ask for forgiveness. Calata, who was 8 months pregnant when her\u00a0husband was killed, wants to show Taylor a photo of her daughter, who\u00a0has grown up without a father, so that he can more fully understand\u00a0the impact of his crime. As Taylor and the families sort through their\u00a0brutal interconnected past, we witness the possibilities and limits\u00a0of forgiveness and reconciliation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This\u00a0story explores the TRC process from the perspective of a perpetrator\u00a0who has applied for amnesty. As a young Afrikaner man, Eric Taylor was recruited into the South African\u00a0Security Police. Firmly believing in the need to fight the communist\u00a0threat, he excelled … Continue reading