J. M. Coetzee

"The two of you ended up quarrelling. And you spent the rest of the night trying to read yourself back to sleep with John Maxwell Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians; seeing Confessions and Aplogies filling every page you turned" (53).

"You would also remember the grisly details, draped in tears, from the testimonies of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, of South African policemen enjoying their beer and braai while black dissenters roasted alongside their meat in the heat of a summer day- stuff that would be called surrealism or magic realism or some other strange realism were it simply told or written as a piece of fiction"

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/10/98/truth_and_reconciliation/204015.stm

Truth Report: Key Points

On PW Botha
The report names gross violations of human rights committed by agents of the South African state during the period that Mr Botha was president. These include:
"The deliberate and unlawful killing and attempted killing of persons opposed to the policies of the government within and outside South Africa"
"The widespread use of torture and other forms of severe ill treatment against such persons"
"The forcible abduction of such persons who were resident in neighbouring countries"