Truth Be Told is a six-part documentary series that puts South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) process under the microscope as we celebrate thirty years of democracy.
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Very few of the several hundred cases that the TRC recommended for prosecution or investigation more than 20 years ago have been pursued by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
The first instalment in award-winning documentary filmmaker Enver Samuel’s Truth Be Told series explores the murder of Phila Portia Ndwandwe, who was only 23 years old when she was tortured and killed by apartheid security police in KwaZulu-Natal in 1988.
The documentary looks at Ndwandwe’s murder through the eyes of her son, Thabang Mabuza, now a chartered accountant in his 30s who suffers from transgenerational trauma and is still trying to cope with the loss and anguish caused by his mother’s death. The documentary’s title, The Breastfeeding Warrior, alludes to the fact that Mabuza was just five months old and still being breastfed when his mother, an Umkhonto we Sizwe soldier, was murdered.
Using heart-rending archival footage from the exhumation of Ndwandwe’s remains and TRC archive material and intimate interviews, the documentary explores issues of trauma, reconciliation, accountability and forgiveness in South Africa.
In a sense, Ndwandwe is given a voice through the documentary as her exhumed bones start to “speak” back to us and invoke her spirit. The film unpacks questions such as whether Mabuza can reconcile himself with the trauma of his mother’s death as he goes in search of answers as to why she was killed. Was his mother’s sacrifice worth it or in vain?
The series is aimed at unpacking the impact of the apartheid era’s gross human rights violations, which extend beyond each single criminal incident and continues to affect South Africans individually and collectively.
The series explores six disturbing cases: those of Ndwandwe, Bheki Mlangeni, Ntombi Kubheka, Topsy Madaka, Richard and Irene Motasi, and Matthews Mabelane. In each case, the adult children and family members of the murdered activists take centre stage, giving searing accounts of transgenerational trauma and how it has affected their lives.
The selection of stories aims to provide a tapestry of past events that still resound in the present as the film asks why the NPA failed to rise to the task of investigating and prosecuting those to whom the TRC did not give amnesty or those who did not apply for amnesty.
“Truth Be Told offers a powerful and timely reflection on South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC), especially focusing on cases where justice has yet to be fully served. By
highlighting the lived experiences of families and the deep, intergenerational trauma caused by
apartheid-era atrocities, your work opens an important conversation on the legacy of these unresolved cases and their significance in today’s sociopolitical context. We are deeply moved by the series’ exploration of justice delayed and its impact on South African families.”
Centre for the Study of the Afterlife of Violence and the Reparative Quest (AVReQ)
University of Stellenbosch
Filmmaker Samuel’s critically acclaimed documentaries like Indians Can’t Fly, Someone To Blame have won multiple awards. Murder in Paris exploring the assassination of anti-apartheid activist Dulcie September, has won 15 awards, including the Durban International Film Festival Best Documentary Award in 2021. In the same year, Samuel was awarded the festival’s inaugural Human Rights Award for “documenting the lives of South African human rights legends and unearthing the need for a thorough investigation into the deaths of assassinated political leaders”.
The series will be broadcast every Sunday on SABC 2 from the 3rd of November at 21h30 for the next 6 weeks. There will be a series launch and Q&A at The Nelson Mandela Foundation on Thursday, 24 October 2024 at 17h30.
