Goldstone Commission
The Goldstone Commission ( official English name: Commission of Inquiry Regarding the Prevention of Public Violence and Intimidation, German as: " commission of inquiry to prevent public violence and intimidation" ) was founded in 1991 with a study committee of the South African government. It was under the direction of Judge Richard Goldstone.
Objectives and structure
Under the system of apartheid in the late 1980s had increased the violence in South Africa. 1990 banned organizations have been approved so far. Then there were other sources of conflict that led to violence. The also set up by the Government Harms Commission should investigate acts of violence by the security authorities in 1990, but failed. In January 1991, the National Congress (ANC ) met the escalating situation delegations of the Inkatha Freedom Party ( IFP) and the African in Durban, calling for an end to the violent clashes. This effort was ineffective. As a result of the deepening situation occurred in September 1991 to form the National Peace Accord ( German about: National Peace Agreement ) under the leadership of John Hall, former chairman of Barlow Rand and Vice President of the South African Institute of Race Relations, and Stanley Mogoba of the Methodist Church in South Africa, and former President of the Institute.
The Commission was established in July 1991 by President Frederik Willem de Klerk to investigate causes of violence and to propose solutions. This was based on the Prevention of Public Violence and Intimidation Act No. 139/1991. You existed until October 27, 1994, until after the 1994 elections, in which all adult South Africans had the right to vote for the first time.
The then Minister of Justice Kobie Coetsee submitted six proposals for the management staff of the Commission, was appointed from the county Richard Goldstone.
In addition to the Goldstone commission included as permanent members of Danie Rossouw, Solly Sithole (both lawyers ), Lillian Baqwa and Gert Steyn. After the Commission had little impact in the first year of its existence, there were from 1 October 1992 units of investigation in Johannesburg, Durban, East London, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, where officiated among other things, each one international observers.
Progress and Results
The Goldstone Commission allowed with their work, the continuation of the multi-party talks on one end of apartheid. The Goldstone Commission found, among others, to the conclusion that a "third force" that was secretly funded by the apartheid government, exists. The Commission drafted a total of 47 reports about about the secret support of the South African Defence Force and the South African Police for the activities of the IFP against supporters of the ANC, the massacre of Bisho, the unrest in the Cape Town districts Crossroads and Nyanga, the storming of the Kempton Park World Trade Center by Afrikaner extremists and violence against police officers.
In the course of interviews of police officers by the Commission regarding the cooperation with the IFP, there was intimidation and cover-up by superior police officers. It was also announced that the head of the police unit C ( for counterinsurgency, counterinsurgency ) did destroy all the documents proving the collaboration with the IFP and the KwaZulu Police.
Others
Richard Goldstone was appointed a judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of South Africa by the newly elected President Nelson Mandela after the 1994 elections. 2009 Gold Stone was author of the Goldstone report, in which it came to the Israeli military operation "Cast Lead" in Gaza.