Signposts to peace: an independent survey of the violence in Natal, South Africa

Africa
Issue: Civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights
Document Type: Fact Finding Mission
Date: 1991

There is a stark contrast between the black townships and their white neighbors. It is vivid and disturbing. We are concerned by the squalor, misery and deprivation which are features of life in the black townships.

After years of the most appalling violence, when m ore than 4,000 people have been killed and about 50,000 people have been driven from their homes, people not only continue to live in poverty, but are fearful and demoralized.

We spent as much time as we could in the townships meeting ordinary people. It is difficult to convey the shattering sense of loss that characterizes great numbers of those displaced persons who have lost loved ones, houses, belongings, in fact everything except the clothing in which they escaped from the disaster areas – and who now face the prospect of having to rebuild their lives from nothing.

South Africa-violence-fact finding mission report-1990-eng (full text in English, PDF)

 

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