Truth

PUMLA NDLOVU
Johannesburg, 23 October 1999
The Truth Commission employed professional ‘comforters’ at the
hearings whose job it was to look after those who came to testify,
both victims and perpetrators. They were to support them before
and after their testimonies. When victims were overcome with
emotion because of the stories they were telling, the comforters
would use human contact to support them – stroking them, holding
them, providing them with tissues to dry their tears and glasses of
water to help them recover. Pumla Ndulula had worked for three
years as a Truth Commission comforter in Johannesburg and in
Pretoria. When asked what her ‘big cases’ had been, she said that
she had ‘looked after’ Colonel Eugene de Kock, the security
commander at Vlakplaas who became known as ‘Prime Evil.’
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