South Africa Anti-Apartheid activists pursued for their persecution as compensation anger prepares

It was late on the night of December 10, 1987 when prison officers had aroused Mzolisi Dyasi in their cell in the province of the Eastern Cabo in South Africa.

Remember the impulse full of potholes to a morgue of the hospital where he was asked to identify the bodies of his pregnant girlfriend, his cousin and a fighter fighter against apartheid.

In response, he had fallen into a knee, raised his fist in the air and tried to shout “Amandla!” (“Power” in Zulu), in an act of challenge.

But the word trapped in his throat while he was “totally broken”, Mr. Dyasi tells the BBC, remembering the view of his loved ones under the cold and bright lights.

Four decades later, Dyasi sleeps with the lights on to avoid memories of the physical and mental torture he suffered during his four years in prison.

He says he fought to build a life for himself in the society for which he fought as an underground operation for Umkhont We Sizwe, the armed wing of the National African Congress (ANC) forbidden.

The ANC led the fight against the racist system of Apartheid, which ended in 1994 with the rise of the party to power in the first multi -racial elections in South Africa.

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established, co -presided by the international clutic archbishop of Desmond Tutu, to discover the atrocities committed by the Apartheid regime, and a state repair fund was established to help some of the victims.

But much of that money has not gone largely.

Dyasi was among the 17,000 people who received a unique payment of 30,000 Rand ($ 3,900; £ 2,400 at that time) in 2003, but says that has done very little to help him.

He had wanted to complete his university education, but he has not yet paid the courses he took in 1997.

Now in his 60 years, he suffers chronic health problems and finds it difficult to pay medications about the special pension he receives for veterans who participated in the struggle for freedom and democracy.

Professor Tshepo Madlingozi, a member of the South Africa Human Rights Commission that spoke with the BBC in his personal capacity, says that the effects of apartheid are still devastating.

“It was not just about killing people, the disappearance of people, it was about locking people in intergenerational impoverishment.”

He says that despite the progress made in the last 30 years, many of the “birth free generation”, the South Africans born after 1994, have inherited the cycle.

The repair fund has about $ 110 million intact, without clarity about why this is the case.

“What is money used for? Does money are still there?” Professor Madlingozi commented.

The Government did not respond to a request for BBC comments.

The lawyer Howard Varney has spent much of his career representing the victims of the crimes of the Apartheid era and says that the history of repairs in South Africa is one of the “deep betrayal” for the affected families.

He is currently representing a group of families and survivors of the victims who are demanding the South African government for $ 1.9 million, so they say it is their failure to properly manage the cases of political crimes that were highlighted by the TRC now sold for new investigations and prosecutions.

Brian Mphahlele was educated and soft voice; He would stop before answering a question, as if he would expect his thoughts to accumulate in his mind.

He suffered a loss of memory, only one aspect of the lasting impact of the physical and psychological torture that he had suffered in the famous Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town.

Mphahlele told the BBC that the payment of 30,000 Rand, that he had received for the violations he suffered during his 10 years in prison, was an insult.

“He went through my fingers. He went through everyone’s fingers, it was very little,” said the 68 -year -old man last year since his nephew in the municipality of Langa in Cabo Cape, where he lived.

He felt that a more substantial payment would have allowed him to buy his own home and described his frustration in his life in Langa, where he ate in a soup dining room three times a week.

Since he spoke with the BBC, Mr. Mphahlele has died, his hope of a more comfortable life not fulfilled.

Professor Madlingozi says that South Africa became the “poster child” of racial reconciliation after the end of apartheid and inspired the world in many ways.

“But we have also given an incorrect message, which is that a crime against humanity can be eaten without consequences,” he says.

Although he feels that things can still be changed.

“South Africa has an opportunity 30 years after democracy to show that you can make mistakes and correct those mistakes.”

Mr. Dyasi still remembers the feeling of freedom and optimism that he felt when he left the prison in 1990 after the last white ruler of South Africa, FW of Klerk, made fun of the ANC and other liberation movements, racing the way for the anti-apartment icon of Nelson Mandela to become the first black president four years later.

But Mr. Dyasi says he does not proud who he is today, and that his disappointment feels for many who fought with him and their families.

“We don’t want to be millionaires,” he says. “But if the government could look at the medical attention of these people, if I could take care of their livelihood, involve them in the country’s economic system.”

“There were orphaned children for the fight. Some children wanted to go to school but they still can’t. Some people have no home.

“And some people would say: ‘You were in prison, they shot you. But what can you show for it?'”