The Presidential Years

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He did not immediately dismantle, for example, the police. That was deliberate - he knew that there was a lot of information about atrocities’, about all the violations of human rights, which had not been revealed, and that if he shook the police and the security strongly and immediately, then they would make some of the proof disappear. So he was very careful to have comrade Joe Nhlanhla and others take the intelligence structures. But with the police, where there was van der Merwe, he tried to find people who would be relatively progressive, if we can put it that way, but who were part of the old system so that the ANC and the new government, the new dispensation, would have adequate information which could be crucial for understanding the past.

He built those bridges, bringing people from all those different backgrounds to lay the foundation, and the message for me, was exactly that, that ‘South Africa belongs to all’, that ‘Regardless of what you believe, regardless of our profound disagreement, if you’re South African you have a place, you have a role and you need to participate’.

Graca Machel
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