ON FORGIVENESS: Remember Mrs Faku: At the conclusion of his appearance before the TRC, Eugene de Kock asked if he could meet with the widows of the victims of the Motherwell bombing. The widows’ lawyer agreed. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela spoke to the widows during a weekend of debriefing. “I was profoundly touched by him”, Mrs Faku said of her encounter with de Kock. Both women felt that de Kock had communicated to them something he felt deeply and had acknowledged their pain. “I couldn’t control my tears. I could hear him, but I was overwhelmed by emotion, and I was just nodding, as a way of saying yes, I forgive you. I hope that when he sees our tears, he knows that they are not only tears for our husbands, but tears for him as well … I would like to hold him by the hand, and show him that there is a future, and that he can still change”. (A human being died that night, page 14) If the widows of men killed by Eugene de Kock can forgive him, then we, the people of South Africa, should welcome his release, whether through parole or Presidential Pardon.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 20:12:09 +0000