By RIAAN DE VILLIERS
Some 30 years after starting it work — and 25 years after concluding it — the South African Truth and Reconciliation continues to cast a long shadow over our national life.
As its name suggests, its purpose was to promote ‘national unity and reconciliation’, among others by investigating the human rights violations committed under apartheid; allowing victims to tell their stories; granting amnesty to perpetrators under certain conditions; recommending reparations to victims; and recommending ways of preventing future violations of human rights.
However, it legacy remains contested, among others because of the ANC government’s sustained failure to implement some of its most important recommendations – notably to prosecute perpetrators who were refused amnesty or did not apply for amnesty, and to pay reparations to victims. (Reparations were paid, but fell far short of the TRC’s recommendations.)
In the latest development, President Cyril Ramaphosa has agreed to appoint a judicial commission of inquiry into long-standing allegations of political interference by successive ANC administrations– notably that of Thabo Mbeki — in the workings of the National Prosecuting Authority, aimed at preventing the prosecution of virtually all cases referred to it by the TRC.
This follows an application for constitutional damages against the president and government brought in January this year by 25 families of victims of apartheid-era crimes, as well as survivors. They include Lukhanyo Calata, the son of Fort Calata, a member of the group of Eastern Cape activists known as the ‘Cradock Four’ who were abducted and murdered by security policemen in 1985.
At the same time, a major civil society organisation, the Khulumani Support Group, is continuing its long-standing campaign for additional reparations to be paid to victims of gross human rights violations under apartheid as well as their families, and to far more people than those recognised by the TRC. (Dismayingly, Khulumani is experiencing severe internal conflict, which seems to have undermined its operations in some areas.) While we may write about this in the future, it’s beyond the scope of this article.)
In this setting, contradictory and largely negative views of the TRC abound. Workshops and seminars about the TRC and its legacy held in Cape Town in recent months have confirmed that many people – victims, family members, often younger people, and other members of their communities — feel dissatisfied and disillusioned about the TRC and its outcomes.
The workshops were prompted by a major new study of the TRC by the prominent academic Prof André du Toit, which I have helped to publish. In the course of added research around this subject, I came across a notable statement about the TRC by Prof Tshepo Madlingozi, then chairman of the Khulumani Support Group, at an international colloquium in Brazil.
A human rights activist and former academic at Pretoria and Wits universities, Prof Madlingozi is currently a full-time Human Rights Commissioner. For a longer curriculum vitae, click here.
While delivered in 2015, his eloquent address remains relevant for several reasons, among others that it appraises the TRC in a broader ‘anticolonial’ or ‘decolonial’ perspective, which – while highly controversial – continues to play an important role in the South African political discourse.
FEATURED IMAGE: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, chair of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, lights a candle at the start of the TRC’s first public hearing in the East London Town Hall, April 1996. (Benny Gool/Oryx Media)
Were there only 25 families who need retribution in monetary forms, or were there many others not mentioned ???? In that case, how much money are they expecting and from whom
Were not most white settlers in South African not refugees themselves???? but now have to suffer the humifaction that they were white.???
Were not many of the the black tribes who came into Africa , refugees themselves , or did migration not enter the story????
As with almost everything to do with the TRC, the issue of reparations is complicated, and not widely known or understood. The TRC recommended that reparations be paid to victims of apartheid-era atrocities. Parliament eventually approved an amount of R30,000.00 as a once-off individual grant. A total of 16 837 beneficiaries applied and were approved for individual reparations. By 2014, almost all of them had been paid. However, according to the Khulumani Support Group, many thousands more people who would be eligible did not register. The 25 families involved in the dispute with the government are a small number of prominent victims and relatives who have taken the unusual step of suing the government for additional reparations or damages, in terms of what they believe to be their constitutional rights. It is worth noting that the reparations system was open to people of all races, and also to all victims, whether of acts committed by the government security forces or members of the ‘liberation’ movements (such as bomb blasts, etc). For more information, see a government statement at https://www.gov.za/news/media-statements/justice-truth-and-reconciliation-commission-recommendations-identified/
To add to the above, registered beneficiaries are also eligible for additional benefits, including medical care. Whether this has ever been paid, or is being paid, is unclear. As the statement confirms, reparations have also included the building of monuments, such as the Hector Pieterson Memorial in Soweto. The funds for all of this have been drawn from a President’s Fund (see the abovementioned statement on this as well). Among other things, the Khulumani Support Group claims that a lot of money in the fund earmarked for reparations has not been spent.