MR LYSTER
Thank you, Mrs Daseko. Can you just confirmfor me when this happened? You said it happened on a Saturday, but you didn'ttell us the year in which it happened. It's important for the purposes of ourrecords that we know which year it was. Can you remember? It doesn't appearin your statement either. Can you remember what year you buried your son? ---It was in 1990. It was in July, on the 8th of July, if I still remember well.
And that happened in Zone One, Thaba Nchu, is that correct?--- Yes, in Thaba Nchu.
Mrs Daseko, thank you very much for sharing your story withus today. We've heard stories similar to yours from so many - particularly somany mothers about the deaths of their children, and previously when we heardabout these things, particularly for those of us who did not experience sufferingover the past years, we would read about it in the newspaper, or we would hearit on a radio that this person or that person had died, and it would come acrossto us as a number, as a statistic. And what is important about your story isthat we realise that for every number, for every statistic, for every personwho died, that there was a mother and a father, and perhaps a family who mournedthose people, that for every person - the person who died was precious to somebodyelse who was left behind. And if we think of how many people like your son havedied over the last 10, or 20, or 30 years, we get some idea of the amount orthe extent of emotional loss and suffering that his weighing down on this countrylike a grey cloud.
And so we hope that just by telling your story, not only tous here, but to those people in the hall, and to the many, many people, thethousands of people who are listening to it on the radio now, we hope that itmakes your burden a little bit lighter, and that it will make those who arelistening to your story even more determined that this sort of thing shouldnot happen again in our country.
The Commission will do its best to try and find out further details about how your son died, and why he died, butthat cannot be done immediately, these things take time, but details will begiven to you when we are in possession of those details.
So thank you again very much for coming, and we wish you welland we wish you strength. Thank you.