MR CURRIN
Both the applicants in this matter are members of the Baphokeng tribe.  Boy Diali was born in 1961 and Christopher Mokgatle was born in 1943.  They came into this world as rightless citizens of South Africa and who from 1977 became rightless citizens of the independent homeland of Bophuthatswana.  Following the events of December 1990, those events which give rise to this application, they were arrested, they were detained, they were tried, convicted and sentenced as Bophuthatswana citizens and they were sent to Odie district prison to serve their sentences.
	On the 1st of January 1994 through the promulgation of the Restoration of Extension of Citizenship Act, all residents of Bophuthatswana, including the then President Lucas Mangope, Boy Diali and Christopher Mokgatle, the two applicants, attained South African citizenship.  It is therefore as South African citizens that the two applicants now apply to this Commission.
	In setting the context and the background to the events, leading up to December 1990, we would start in 1977 in Bophuthatswana.
	It was on December the 6th of that year that Bophuthatswana took independence from South Africa and from its birth to its gracious demise in April 1994 it was ruled by Chief Lucas Mangope and his Bophuthatswana National Party.
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	Bophuthatswana was governed by a legislative assembly
with 99 members.  48 of these members were designated by chiefs and headmen.  In addition to this weighing, the constitution of Bophuthatswana allowed for the retention of tribal customs and more importantly, for the full and unaltered retention of tribal authorities.  These tribal authorities held extensive powers, encompassing the management of tribal affairs and the giving of advice to the Bophuthatswana Government on local affairs.  Within this they held far-ranging powers, including powers of arrest, sentencing, the levying of taxes and the prohibition of unlawful gatherings. 
	Given the extent of these powers, it is not surprising that President Mangope embarked on a systematic replacement of legitimate chiefs with those who would support and maintain his peculiar system of governance.  The 18-year history of this fragmented make-believe nation is littered with names which have become synonymous with repression and oppression in our country.  Winterveld, Leeufontein, Braklaagte, Thahung and Phokeng - which is the subject of this application. It is a history of forced removals, of non-Tswana citizens, a history of corruption, banning of organisations, political imprisonment, deportations, police brutality, torture, hangings, impoverishment and degradation.  It is a history strangely enough, of a homeland with a bill of rights, albeit a bill of rights with a difference.  It contained within the preamble of the constitution, words which differ considerably from the present South African Constitution.  The final clause of the Bophuthatswana constitution read as follows:
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"The rights and freedoms defined in sections 9 to 17 ..."
nd those were the fundamental rights -
" ... may be restricted only by a law of Parliament and such law shall have general application."
The bill of rights therefore, was superseded with relative ease by the Internal Security Act and other pieces of repressive legislation and was in fact, unenforceable in the Bophuthatswana courts.  
	It is a history presided over, and determined by the self-proclaimed leader, Lucas Mangope and his partner, the National Party government.  The National Party bolstered his rule economically, through providing directly and indirectly, 74% of the annual budget.  Militarily, most apparent during the intervention to end the coup attempt in 1988, and also politically.  By 1994 Lucas Mangope retained power quite literally through force.  His electoral support among the people of the region stood at an all-time low of 2%.