MR CURRIN
It would do.
	The next issue, in respect of which you need to have reference is the relationship between the offence and the political objective pursued.  And that would then obviously be the associated political objective, which is referred to in the Act.  In particular, the directness and proximity of the relationship.  I would like to pause there for a moment.  In relation to proximity between the offence and the objective. The proximity is direct.  The proximity could 
PHOKENG HEARING	AMNESTY/GAUTENG
MR CURRIN	153	ADDRESS
hardly have been closer.  The proximity, the offence associated with the political objective was aimed at the person who represented in this local community the
Government of Bophuthatswana.  It was directed against the person who almost symbolised the power which had been taken away from the tribe.  We believe that proximity could hardly been closer.  
	The section goes on and then refers to the proportionality of the act to the objective pursued.  Again, we would imagine that we need to deal with that in some detail.
	We have already dealt with the associated political objective.  Namely, regaining governance, power over their own affairs.  We ask ourselves:  what was done in order to do that, in order to achieve that?  Regretfully, a life was lost.  Regretfully, the liFe was lost in a brutal fashion and caused pain to this community, and we have heard about that pain.
	Having said that, and not in any way wanting to diminish that pain, and the seriousness of the offence, one can say that it is almost a miracle that many people were not killed in that immediate conflict.  That one person was murdered during an attempt to regain control of their own governance.  
	Furthermore, one needs to see it in the context of their own suffering as a people.  The context of the oppression, of the exploitation, of the brutality, of the torture which they suffered at the hands of the security forces under the control of the then government.  
	In that regard we have been told that the Human Rights Violations Committee will be here tomorrow, to begin to take PHOKENG HEARING	AMNESTY/GAUTENG
MR CURRIN	155	ADDRESS
statements from the people about that suffering.
	We are saying that if one looks at the killing, at the murder in that context and in the context of what the action
committee which had been elected and which represented the people, set out to achieve, that we do not believe that the offence was disproportionate to that objective.