What the TRC Was
Reasons for the TRC
• The new South Africa did not start with a blank state as the human rights violations committed by apartheid perpetrators had to be
addressed.
○ Detentions and torture in the 1960s/70s and abduction, torture and murder in the 1980s.
• The TRC was the ANC's idea.
• The ANC also faced accusations of human rights violations having occurred in ANC camps (e.g. Quatro Camp, Angola).
○ The internal inquiry set up revealed these atrocities did in fact occur.
○ The ANC's National Executive Committee (NEC) accepted these findings, but decided that they should be considered in the
context of decades of systemic apartheid abuses.
○ The NEC called for an independent truth commission to hold all accountable for the past.
• The TRC was a compromise between retributive justice and blanket amnesty.
Forms of Justice
Blanket amnesty
• General pardon to perpetrators of apartheid crimes.
• Those in favour argued: Focusing on the past would interfere with achieving a reconciled nation.
• Those against argued: Criminal prosecution and retributive justice was necessary for those guilty of human rights violations during
apartheid.
Retributive justice
• Conviction, sentences and punishment should be enforced on apartheid perpetrators because their actions were criminal.
• Those in favour argued: Justice could only be achieved through criminal prosecution.
• Those against argued:
• Apartheid security forces would be particularly affected by criminal prosecutions and they would therefore opposed a peaceful
transition.
• Would deepen the already existing divide between black and white people.
• Restorative action would be a more effective way to uncover the truth.
→ Much evidence had been destroyed during apartheid. By offering amnesty for coming forward, families of victims would get
closure.
• The lack of evidence would make criminal prosecutions in a court of law challenging.
Restorative Justice
• Definition: An approach to justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the
community at large.
• Restorative justice is a compromise between blanket amnesty and retributive justice.
• It does not exclusively focus on punishment.
Aims of the TRC
• Investigate the causes and extent of politically motivated gross human rights violations from 1960-1994.
• Uncover the truth and make everyone aware of the past - knowledge of the past necessary to start process of national
reconciliation.
• Recommend reparations for victims.
• Grant conditional amnesty to perpetrators under specific preconditions.
• Put the country on the road to reconciliation.
• Promote a culture of human rights in the new SA.
• Enable a peaceful transition.
TRC Begins
• Full Name: The Promotion of National Reconciliation and Unity Act (TRC Act) passed in 1995.
• Chairperson: Archbishop Desmond Tutu
• Vice Chair: Alex Boraine
• Four main objectives:
1. Finding the truth
2. Granting amnesty
3. Recommending reparations
4. Compiling a report.
• The TRC was not a court of law - it could not prosecute people or hand out retributive punishment (only the NPA could).
• Limited time period of 2 years
• Significance: Investigated abuses committed by each side to reflect that all human beings have certain human rights. Acknowledged that
anti-apartheid activists had a just cause, but still had to be held accountable for gross violations of human rights
• Focused on time period 1960-1994.
Three Committees
1. Human Rights Violations Committee - Intended to uncover the truth
2. Amnesty Committee - Intended to grant amnesty.
3. Rehabilitation Committee - Intended to recommend reparations.
- Compiling a report did not have a specific committee. The goal of this objective was to prevent future violations of human rights
Amnesty Preconditions
• Applicants had to make a public, full and truthful disclosure of the events and actions around the violence.
• Applicant had to prove they had a political motive, and the act was in proportion to this political objective.
, TRC Hearings and Reconciliation
Hearings of the Human Rights Violations Committee
• Hearings began in East London city hall - 16 April 1996.
• Hearings were broadcast on radio and television- open to the public
• Hearings were conducted by commissioners who travelled nationally to gather information about the atrocities that had been
committed and collect testimonies from those who had suffered human rights abuses.
• Over 20 000 people made statements - 2000 provided oral hearings.
• Victims were given the opportunity to tell their stories of suffering in a supportive environment.
• Bearing each hearing, witnesses would make a written statement.
• Once victims of gross human rights violations were identified, they were referred to the Reparation and Rehabilitation
Committee
• Special hearings: Held on specific topics - e.g. the armed forces / women / children / the legal system and so on.
Significance
• Confronted white South Africans with apartheid-era crime.
• The opportunity to share stories triggered a process of healing and closure for many victims (some forgave perpetrators).
Challenges
• As only a portion of victims could appear in public hearings, their participation was somewhat symbolic.
• The TRC intended to produce an objective account of the apartheid past. This was hard to balance with validating subjective
truths of painful memories.
TRC as a Instrument for Reconciliation
- This forms part of the section : debates around the TRC.
Reconciliation: TRC Successes
• The TRC confronted the evils of apartheid:
○ The systematic torturing of prisoners,
○ State-sponsored death squads, the lying and cover-ups
○ Systematic corruption of the justice system
• Truth was seen as a pre-requisite for reconciliation. The TRC's exposure of the truth put SA on the road to reconciliation.
• The media broadcast victim and perpetrator testimonies daily, making white people aware of violent past.
• The opportunity for victims to share stories, many doing so for the first time, was a cathartic experience.
• Further catharsis in the greater knowledge uncovered - like knowing how a family member had died and then being able to hold a
ceremony for them.
Examples of individual reconciliation:
1. Ginn Fourie - set up the Lyndi Fourie Foundation to honour daughter killed by APLA in the Heidelberg Tavern attack.
Reconciliation: TRC Limitations
• South Africa has a past of pain and conflict, making reconciliation challenging.
• No single authority (especially the TRC with a limited mandate for a limited time period) could secure reconciliation overnight.
• Many were not ready to forgive.
• Individual reconciliation did not amount to national unity and reconciliation.
• Many whites accused the TRC as many a witch hunt that stirred up hatred.
• Death threats to Tutu and other TRC Commissioners.
• Major political leaders did not publicly acknowledge atrocities committed by their supporters.
Reconciliation: Middle Ground
• The TRC exposed much truth which provided the possibility of reconciliation.
Focus on Human Rights of the 1980s
• The TRC's mandate was to uncover gross human rights violations from March 1960 onwards - it ignored acts preceding this.
• The TRC focused on individual cases of violence, rather than looking at apartheid as a whole as a crime against humanity.
○ Did not consider structural injustices imposed by apartheid, like through forced removals or pass laws.
○ Looked at apartheid through the experience of political activists and state security forces.
• Many key institutions, like mining companies that had supported the regime, were not examined for human rights abuses.
• Did not examine the long-lasting economic inequality imposed by apartheid.
• Did not examine psychological legacy of apartheid (for example on those made to feel inferior).
• Overall: The TRC did not consider the full extent of the damage by the apartheid regime deeper than individual acts of violence.
Reasons for the TRC
• The new South Africa did not start with a blank state as the human rights violations committed by apartheid perpetrators had to be
addressed.
○ Detentions and torture in the 1960s/70s and abduction, torture and murder in the 1980s.
• The TRC was the ANC's idea.
• The ANC also faced accusations of human rights violations having occurred in ANC camps (e.g. Quatro Camp, Angola).
○ The internal inquiry set up revealed these atrocities did in fact occur.
○ The ANC's National Executive Committee (NEC) accepted these findings, but decided that they should be considered in the
context of decades of systemic apartheid abuses.
○ The NEC called for an independent truth commission to hold all accountable for the past.
• The TRC was a compromise between retributive justice and blanket amnesty.
Forms of Justice
Blanket amnesty
• General pardon to perpetrators of apartheid crimes.
• Those in favour argued: Focusing on the past would interfere with achieving a reconciled nation.
• Those against argued: Criminal prosecution and retributive justice was necessary for those guilty of human rights violations during
apartheid.
Retributive justice
• Conviction, sentences and punishment should be enforced on apartheid perpetrators because their actions were criminal.
• Those in favour argued: Justice could only be achieved through criminal prosecution.
• Those against argued:
• Apartheid security forces would be particularly affected by criminal prosecutions and they would therefore opposed a peaceful
transition.
• Would deepen the already existing divide between black and white people.
• Restorative action would be a more effective way to uncover the truth.
→ Much evidence had been destroyed during apartheid. By offering amnesty for coming forward, families of victims would get
closure.
• The lack of evidence would make criminal prosecutions in a court of law challenging.
Restorative Justice
• Definition: An approach to justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the
community at large.
• Restorative justice is a compromise between blanket amnesty and retributive justice.
• It does not exclusively focus on punishment.
Aims of the TRC
• Investigate the causes and extent of politically motivated gross human rights violations from 1960-1994.
• Uncover the truth and make everyone aware of the past - knowledge of the past necessary to start process of national
reconciliation.
• Recommend reparations for victims.
• Grant conditional amnesty to perpetrators under specific preconditions.
• Put the country on the road to reconciliation.
• Promote a culture of human rights in the new SA.
• Enable a peaceful transition.
TRC Begins
• Full Name: The Promotion of National Reconciliation and Unity Act (TRC Act) passed in 1995.
• Chairperson: Archbishop Desmond Tutu
• Vice Chair: Alex Boraine
• Four main objectives:
1. Finding the truth
2. Granting amnesty
3. Recommending reparations
4. Compiling a report.
• The TRC was not a court of law - it could not prosecute people or hand out retributive punishment (only the NPA could).
• Limited time period of 2 years
• Significance: Investigated abuses committed by each side to reflect that all human beings have certain human rights. Acknowledged that
anti-apartheid activists had a just cause, but still had to be held accountable for gross violations of human rights
• Focused on time period 1960-1994.
Three Committees
1. Human Rights Violations Committee - Intended to uncover the truth
2. Amnesty Committee - Intended to grant amnesty.
3. Rehabilitation Committee - Intended to recommend reparations.
- Compiling a report did not have a specific committee. The goal of this objective was to prevent future violations of human rights
Amnesty Preconditions
• Applicants had to make a public, full and truthful disclosure of the events and actions around the violence.
• Applicant had to prove they had a political motive, and the act was in proportion to this political objective.
, TRC Hearings and Reconciliation
Hearings of the Human Rights Violations Committee
• Hearings began in East London city hall - 16 April 1996.
• Hearings were broadcast on radio and television- open to the public
• Hearings were conducted by commissioners who travelled nationally to gather information about the atrocities that had been
committed and collect testimonies from those who had suffered human rights abuses.
• Over 20 000 people made statements - 2000 provided oral hearings.
• Victims were given the opportunity to tell their stories of suffering in a supportive environment.
• Bearing each hearing, witnesses would make a written statement.
• Once victims of gross human rights violations were identified, they were referred to the Reparation and Rehabilitation
Committee
• Special hearings: Held on specific topics - e.g. the armed forces / women / children / the legal system and so on.
Significance
• Confronted white South Africans with apartheid-era crime.
• The opportunity to share stories triggered a process of healing and closure for many victims (some forgave perpetrators).
Challenges
• As only a portion of victims could appear in public hearings, their participation was somewhat symbolic.
• The TRC intended to produce an objective account of the apartheid past. This was hard to balance with validating subjective
truths of painful memories.
TRC as a Instrument for Reconciliation
- This forms part of the section : debates around the TRC.
Reconciliation: TRC Successes
• The TRC confronted the evils of apartheid:
○ The systematic torturing of prisoners,
○ State-sponsored death squads, the lying and cover-ups
○ Systematic corruption of the justice system
• Truth was seen as a pre-requisite for reconciliation. The TRC's exposure of the truth put SA on the road to reconciliation.
• The media broadcast victim and perpetrator testimonies daily, making white people aware of violent past.
• The opportunity for victims to share stories, many doing so for the first time, was a cathartic experience.
• Further catharsis in the greater knowledge uncovered - like knowing how a family member had died and then being able to hold a
ceremony for them.
Examples of individual reconciliation:
1. Ginn Fourie - set up the Lyndi Fourie Foundation to honour daughter killed by APLA in the Heidelberg Tavern attack.
Reconciliation: TRC Limitations
• South Africa has a past of pain and conflict, making reconciliation challenging.
• No single authority (especially the TRC with a limited mandate for a limited time period) could secure reconciliation overnight.
• Many were not ready to forgive.
• Individual reconciliation did not amount to national unity and reconciliation.
• Many whites accused the TRC as many a witch hunt that stirred up hatred.
• Death threats to Tutu and other TRC Commissioners.
• Major political leaders did not publicly acknowledge atrocities committed by their supporters.
Reconciliation: Middle Ground
• The TRC exposed much truth which provided the possibility of reconciliation.
Focus on Human Rights of the 1980s
• The TRC's mandate was to uncover gross human rights violations from March 1960 onwards - it ignored acts preceding this.
• The TRC focused on individual cases of violence, rather than looking at apartheid as a whole as a crime against humanity.
○ Did not consider structural injustices imposed by apartheid, like through forced removals or pass laws.
○ Looked at apartheid through the experience of political activists and state security forces.
• Many key institutions, like mining companies that had supported the regime, were not examined for human rights abuses.
• Did not examine the long-lasting economic inequality imposed by apartheid.
• Did not examine psychological legacy of apartheid (for example on those made to feel inferior).
• Overall: The TRC did not consider the full extent of the damage by the apartheid regime deeper than individual acts of violence.
