Breaking silence after war

UNSPOKEN: DIVE INTO SA'S COMPLICATED PERIOD

- Hein Kaiser

When the final bullets fired, the silence that follows may be deafening.

In the '80 South Africa was facing two wars. One, within its borders as apartheid was being suffocated by the pincers of political resistance.

The other, a covert conflict on the Namibian/Angolan border that created turbulence, death and decimation all of its own.

Every school-leaving boy was conscripted, objectors jailed.

Many young men didn't even know what they were fighting for.

Now, three decades with tax after peace, Showmax is releasing a docuseries that rips through the silence. Many of those who went through the ordeal never spoke about it since laying down arms.

Idea Candy's Wim Steyn, executive producer of Unspoken War, said for many soldiers it was a devastating time both emotionally and spiritually, others had the time of their lives with buddies on the border.

Some never made it home. The show premiers on 12 November.

The series takes on one of the most complicated periods in South Africa's history.