MR SEXWALE
We thought we should break out of our schedules.  It is correct to come and humble ourselves here, to recognise the work that is being done by this Commission. ...(tape ends) ...with the reality of the pain of the past and of course, in welcoming the Commission here to this province, having seen part of the work done in Eastern Cape and Western Cape last week, we also came therefore to humble ourselves under the tears of the mothers whom we know, the friends, the children, many of the people who felt the brunt of the pain as we were hunted and they had to answer, waar is hy?  We thought it should be their turn to speak first and not ourselves, we thought is correct for us to come and hear in silence this time the screams, the begging for mercy as electricity, sjambok, knobkierrie was tearing both the human body and soul.  All these things in exile and underground in prison we did experience, but the question is, are we prepared to come to terms with our pain with the past?  Are we prepared not just to hear the truth but to forgive, to reconcile?
 In many ways I was a victim, physically we went through heavy torture, we saw people falling, we could not pick them up and we had to go.  Some are still in unmarked graves.  Maybe everything is exemplified by the blood and the pool running from the head of a Chris Hani lying on a pavement, maybe that's the time when you are called upon to come to terms with your country.  So we have come here to humble ourselves and to hear other people coming to terms  with that horror of the past, so that when you meet it in the future you recognise it and you can say hold, hold,  as Macbeth says.  I therefore as Premier of the province would like to welcome the Commission here and to say a last word.   I was an underground fighter, a soldier for freedom.  There was a time we thought that by now we'd be sitting and cutting necks and putting people on the firing line.  There was a time when we thought we're going to solve what you are doing here with a lot of gunfire and punishment, in seeking vengeance, in avenging, but we have come here to be disciplined that it's not gunfire, it's not retribution, it's not hatred that will solve it.  It is ordinary people coming forward and saying, I am prepared to hear the truth in its full ugliness but nevertheless I am prepared to forgive.  Perhaps our country in the next century will go down as a leader because I don't remember anywhere in the world where such a Commission was commissioned.
 I therefore want to welcome the effort that has begun and to sit back quietly amongst the people and to listen to the pain. I felt it but I want to see how others felt it.  You are welcome and we congratulate you and hope you do a good job out of it and trust and understand that the courage involved here is one that brings you very close to the border sometimes of hopelessness, but we have hope.  
 Thank you. I hope that was two minutes.