Maggie Friedman and Brandon Hamber remember Sylvia Dlomo-Jele, The Sowetan
Johannesburg — Sylvia Dlomo-Jele was a symbol of strength and courage for bereaved family of victims who suffered under apartheid. She passed away on Saturday March 13.
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| Photo by Vibhu / Unsplash |
The members of Khulumani supported one another during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and Khulumani in part owes its growth to Sylvia's commitment and her ability to network with the mothers of Soweto.
Sylvia knew how to comfort and she led people with spirituality and dedication. Her strong voice often intervened in song when meetings threatened to get over-emotional.
In our view Sylvia fundamentally changed the process of the TRC. Many people do not know that the first draft of the TRC legislation argued for the hearings to be held behind closed doors. On hearing this, Sylvia went door-to-door among people she knew in Soweto and asked them to come to a press conference at the Centre for the Study of Violence.
This non-government organisation and others issued a statement condemning the Government's proposals that amnesty applications be heard in secret.
At the meeting Sylvia spoke out strongly and emotionally. The presence of the victims Sylvia had personally helped get to the press conference gave the meeting a power it would not otherwise have had. However, Sylvia did not stop there.
Together with Maggie Friedman and the late Chris Ribiero she then flew to Cape Town in February 1995 to take up the issue directly with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Justice.
Sylvia's words at that meeting were unforgettable: "Now I hear that everything is going to be behind closed doors. I am pleading as a mother. I want to know who killed my son. I cannot forgive those people who killed my son without speaking to them." She spoke straight from her heart, as she always did. We have no doubt that her input significantly helped to get the secrecy clause dropped.
All the hearings of the TRC are now in public - something most of us take for granted. However, we should not forget that Sylvia too was a survivor of a terrible past. She was one of the first people to testify before the TRC.
She related how her son Sicelo Dlomo was found in 1988 shot dead in an open field in Soweto. His killers were unknown. Sylvia knew that the answer to the riddle of Sicelo's death was not simple but by the time of the amnesty hearing this year she had discovered that her son's murderers were his young comrades, who she had welcomed into her own home. We believe that the stress of this discovery was finally too much for her. In this regard Sylvia continues to symbolise the plight of many bereaved victims who have been left with nothing but unfinished truths about the past.
Her death reminds us that it is people like Sylvia who ultimately paid the price for the democracy we now enjoy. To us she embodied the meaning of Khulumani. She was able to make the world understand the pain of bereaved mothers and their anger against those who go unpunished.
To us she was a mother, a friend, a teacher and freedom-fighter. Her wisdom is immortalised on video saying: "When you are in the fields alone you are not heard but when you are in a group you are heard easily." The Khulumani Support Group will live on long after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Sylvia Dlomo-Jele is survived by her son Maxwell "Vicky" Dlomo and her supportive husband, Wilson Mthumzi Jele, two sisters and five grandchildren.
Her funeral will be on Saturday at 9h00 at St Matthew's Anglican Church in Emndeni South, Soweto. She will be buried at the Avalon Cemetery.
Published by Maggie Friedman and Brandon Hamber, The Sowetan, 18 March 1999.
Maggie Friedman is from the Khulumani Support Group and Brandon Hamber is from the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
