Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a special commission set up in South Africa. Its role was to conduct hearings into human rights violations that were alleged to have occurred during the period of white minority rule. Its primary aim was to promote national unity and reconciliation. The multiracial government elected in South Africa in 1994 established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) under the terms of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act of 1995, which became law in May 1995.
A number of other countries have used truth commissions to help promote national unity following injustices committed by a government (see Truth commission). The name Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been used in a few of these countries, such as Canada, Peru, and Sierra Leone. This article focuses solely on the South African TRC.
The work of the South African TRC was to listen to evidence in a large number of cases involving possible abuse of human rights and to establish exactly what had happened in each case. The commission also aimed to discover the fate and whereabouts of missing victims of crimes, including murder, torture, and imprisonment, committed during the period when a government policy of racial segregation called apartheid was in force (see Apartheid).
The TRC sought to bring accused and accusers face-to-face in the hope of beginning a process of healing and forgiveness. By this process, the TRC hoped to restore dignity to the victims and promote national unity by confronting South Africa with its past. In so doing, it sought to define the moral standards by which the new South Africa should live and to encourage the establishment of institutions to enforce those standards. The TRC had the power to grant amnesty (pardon) to any person who had committed a crime with a political objective and fully revealed the facts about it. It also had a responsibility to recommend measures for the compensation of victims and the setting up of limited protection programs for witnesses appearing before the TRC.
Background.
Before the democratic general election of 1994, South Africa had been governed by people of European origin rather than by representatives of its indigenous (native) Black African majority population. This minority government had followed the policy of apartheid from the late 1940’s until 1991. During this time, non-Europeans were made to live in specially reserved areas and could not enter other areas without passes. The period saw many acts of violence. On one side, the police, security forces, and other government agents, as well as many white civilians, oppressed or victimized many Black Africans and their sympathizers. Many Black people were murdered or badly injured, and many others were kidnapped, unjustly imprisoned or tortured, or made homeless. On the other side, members of the banned African National Congress (ANC), a largely Black organization that opposed apartheid, and of other organizations fought the white minority government with terrorist acts that killed or injured many white people. There were also instances of ethnic conflicts in which Black people killed other Black people for a variety of reasons.
In 1990 and 1991, the government repealed most of the remaining laws that had formed the legal basis of apartheid, lifted the government ban on the ANC and the South African Communist Party, and released a number of political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela (see De Klerk, Frederik Willem; Mandela, Nelson). By 1993, the transition to rule by a democratically elected, multiracial government was almost complete. An interim constitution called for the setting up of a truth and reconciliation commission to “lay the ghosts” of the apartheid era. Mandela, who became president of South Africa in 1994, appointed the members of the TRC in 1995.
The work of the TRC.
The TRC was limited to examining cases of violation of human rights taking place between March 1, 1960, and May 10, 1994. It consisted of a 17-member body under the chairmanship of Desmond Tutu, a former Anglican archbishop and winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize (see Tutu, Desmond). Its headquarters were in Cape Town, but it also had branch offices in Johannesburg, Durban, and East London.
Three committees assisted the TRC. The Committee on Human Rights had the task of determining the identity of victims of violations of human rights, recording all cases of abuse of human rights that were supposed to have occurred, and reporting its findings to the TRC. The Committee on Amnesty was responsible for considering applications for pardon from those claiming that their offense had a political objective. The Committee on Reparation and Rehabilitation had the task of making recommendations concerning applications for compensation from victims.
Most of the TRC’s hearings were held in public between April 15, 1996, and July 31, 1998. Over the 27 months of its hearings, the TRC listened to evidence relating to many crimes of the apartheid era. The TRC sessions proved a painful experience for many South Africans. Some TRC staff as well as witnesses were so psychologically disturbed that they needed counseling. In a few cases, victims forgave those who had injured them, while the people who had been convicted of the crimes against them apologized and showed remorse.
The TRC’s Amnesty Committee rejected many applications for amnesty without a public hearing. Many white South Africans attacked the work of the TRC as biased in favor of Black people and antiapartheid supporters. P. W. Botha, the former president of South Africa, defied the commission by refusing to appear before it (see Botha, P. W.). A South African court found him guilty of contempt in August 1998 and ordered him to pay a fine, but an appeals court overturned the verdict in 1999.
The TRC submitted a preliminary report of its findings to President Mandela in October 1998. In its report, the commission said the apartheid-era government had committed “gross violations of human rights,” including kidnapping and murders. The report also criticized opposition groups, including the ANC, holding them responsible for killings and torture. Although the ANC attacked the report, it also received praise from the South African Council of Churches and the European Union. In 2003, the TRC submitted its final report, to President Thabo Mbeki. In this report, the TRC urged the government to quickly pay compensation to more than 20,000 victims of apartheid-era crimes.
See also South Africa, History of.
