page 4 - Violence in 1990 [f_3iV4ssICY]

MANDELA: It was this camp; squatter camp was a stronghold of the ANC. One day members of Inkatha and the police attacked this area. Broad daylight, this was in October 1990, attacked the area and drove out its occupants, confiscated what-you-call their properties and members of Inkatha were now deployed in this area, occupied the houses. I phoned De Klerk and asked him to have Vlok with him. I then said to De Klerk, ‘why has there been no, no action taken? It can easily be established who occupied those shacks until the day of the attack. Secondly, it can easily be established who now occupies those places. Why is it that no action has been taken?’ Well Mr. De Klerk appeared to have been shaken, and he asked Mr. Vlok for an explanation. And Vlok was very rude. And in a loud, in a high tone, rude tone asked me, ‘Whose property is that on which this shack is?’ I said, ‘what is the relevance of that? It doesn’t matter whose land it is. The point is that some people went there, built their structures, brought in their properties. Nobody had a right to drive them out like that without due process of law. Nobody had the right to confiscate their property’. And De Klerk said, ‘you must investigate the matter.’ And the point is this; Mr. De Klerk never came back to me about it.