The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a court-like restorative justice body assembled in South Africa in 1996 after the end of apartheid. Authorised by Nelson Mandela and chaired by Desmond Tutu, the commission invited witnesses who were identified as victims of gross human rights violations to give statements about their experiences, and selected some for public hearings. Perpetrators of violence could also give testimony and request amnesty from both civil and criminal prosecution.

The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation was established in 2000 as the successor organisation of the TRC.

Creation and mandate

The TRC was set up in terms of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, No. 34 of 1995, and was based in Cape Town. The hearings started in 1996. The mandate of the commission was to bear witness to, record, and in some cases grant amnesty to the perpetrators of crimes relating to human rights violations, as well as offering reparation and rehabilitation to the victims. A register of reconciliation was also established so that ordinary South Africans who wished to express regret for past failures could also express their remorse.

The TRC had a number of high-profile members, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu (chairman), Alex Boraine (deputy chairman), Sisi Khampepe, Wynand Malan, Klaas de Jonge and Emma Mashinini.

The TRC's mandate was enriched by Tutu with the spirit of the indigenous African concept Ubuntu, which tends to translate across cultures as a spiritual awareness of our interconnectedness as a human family; and more specifically in Xhosa, that together, we make one another human.

Committees

The work of the TRC was accomplished through three committees:

  • The Human Rights Violations Committee investigated human rights abuses that occurred between 1960 and 1994.
  • The Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee was charged with restoring victims' dignity and formulating proposals to assist with rehabilitation.
  • The Amnesty Committee considered applications from individuals who applied for amnesty in accordance with the provisions of the Act.

Process

Public hearings of the Human Rights Violations Committee and the Amnesty Committee were held at many venues around South Africa, including Cape Town (at the University of the Western Cape), Johannesburg (at the Central Methodist Mission), and Randburg (at the Rhema Bible Church).

The commission was empowered to grant amnesty to those who committed abuses during the apartheid era, as long as the crimes were politically motivated, proportionate, and there was full disclosure by the person seeking amnesty. To avoid victor's justice, no side was exempt from appearing before the commission. The commission heard reports of human rights violations and considered amnesty applications from all sides, from the apartheid state to the liberation forces, including the African National Congress.

Numbers

The Commission found that there were 7,000 political deaths under Apartheid between 1948 and 1989. 73 of these deaths were in detention while in the hands of the security police. More than 19,050 people had been victims of gross human rights violations. An additional 2,975 victims were identified through the applications for amnesty. In reporting these numbers, the Commission voiced its regret that there was very little overlap of victims between those seeking restitution and those seeking amnesty.

A total of 5,392 amnesty applications were refused, granting only 849 out of the 7,111 (which includes the number of additional categories, such as "withdrawn").

Significance and impact

The TRC's emphasis on reconciliation was in sharp contrast to the approach taken by the Nuremberg trials and other de-Nazification measures. South Africa's first coalition government chose to pursue forgiveness over prosecution, and reparation over retaliation.

Opinions differ about the efficacy of the restorative justice method (as employed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission) as compared to the retributive justice method, of which the Nuremberg trials are an example. In one survey study, According to the researchers, all of the participants perceived the TRC to be effective in bringing out the truth, but to varying degrees, depending on the group in question.

The differences in opinions about the effectiveness can be attributed to how each group viewed the proceedings. Some viewed them as not entirely accurate, as many people would lie in order to keep themselves out of trouble while receiving amnesty for their crimes. (The commission would grant amnesty to some with consideration given to the weight of the crimes committed.) Some said that the proceedings only helped to remind them of the horrors that had taken place in the past when they had been working to forget such things. Thus, the TRC's effectiveness in terms of achieving those very things within its title is still debatable. As witnesses, many women gave testimony about violations experienced by relatives. Relatives or dependents of those who suffered physical/mental injury and other violations were classified as victims under the TRC mandate. Scholars note that some women were reluctant to speak about abuses they personally experienced, especially sexual violence, due to social stigma.

In 1996, the University of Witwatersrand Center for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) made a submission, co-authored by Beth Goldblatt and Sheila Meintjies, urging the Commission to encourage women to share their own experiences. The TRC subsequently held three special hearings on women in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. The producers of the programme included Anneliese Burgess, Jann Turner, Benedict Motau, Gael Reagon, Rene Schiebe and Bronwyn Nicholson, a production assistant.

Film

Various films have been made about the commission:

Documentary films

  • Confronting the Truth (2006) by Steve York. Produced in association with the United States Institute of Peace.
  • Facing the Truth (1999) by Bill Moyers. Two-part PBS series.
  • Long Night's Journey into Day (2000) by Frances Reid. Won the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.

Feature films

  • Forgiveness (2004) by Ian Gabriel. A South African feature film, starring South African–born actor Arnold Vosloo as a disgraced ex-cop seeking forgiveness from the family of the activist he killed under the apartheid regime. With Quanita Adams and Zane Meas.
  • In My Country (2004). A feature film very loosely based on Country of My Skull, a 1998 autobiographical text by Antjie Krog that dealt with her coverage of the hearings. With Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche.
  • Red Dust (2004). A feature film based on the novel of the same title by South African writer Gillian Slovo. With Hilary Swank, Jamie Bartlett and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
  • Zulu Love Letter (2004). A film by Ramadan Suleman, starring Pamela Nomvete.
  • The Forgiven (2018). A film by Roland Joffé, starring Forest Whitaker as Desmond Tutu and Eric Bana as Piet Blomfeld.

Theatre

Several plays have been produced about the TRC:

  • Truth in Translation (2006), by Paavo Tom Tammi, in collaboration with American director, Michael Lessac and the company of Colonnades Theatre Lab, South Africa.
  • Ubu and the Truth Commission (1997), by Jane Taylor and William Kentridge.
  • Nothing but the Truth (2002), by John Kani.
  • The Story I Am About to Tell, created in collaboration with the Khulumani support group.
  • The Dead Wait, by Paul Herzberg.
  • Truth and reconciliation, debbie tucker green (2011)
  • Strange Courtesies San Jose Stagte Company (March 2021 )

Fiction

  • Taylor, Jane. Ubu and the Truth Commission. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press, 2007.
  • Wicomb, Zoë. Playing in the Light, 2006.
  • Slovo, Gillian. Red Dust. Virago , 2000.
  • Flanery, Patrick. Absolution. Atlantic Books, 2012.
  • Krog, Antjie. Country of My Skull, 1998.

Poetry

  • Some of Ingrid de Kok's poetry in Terrestrial Things (2002) deals with the TRC (e.g. "The Archbishop Chairs the First Session", "The Transcriber Speaks", "The Sound Engineer").

Criticism

Justice and reconciliation

A 1998 study by South Africa's Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation & the Khulumani Support Group, which surveyed several hundred victims of human rights abuse during the Apartheid era, found that most felt that the TRC had failed to achieve reconciliation between the black and white communities. Most believed that justice was a prerequisite for reconciliation rather than an alternative to it, and that the TRC had been weighted in favour of the perpetrators of abuse.