scholarly journals De Zuid-Afrikaanse Waarheids- En Verzoeningscommissie als Modelvoor Conflictverzoening

Afrika Focus ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 5-31
Author(s):  
Annelies Verdoolaege
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
South African ◽  
New South ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
South African Government ◽  
African Government ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The Past

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a model for conflict resolution After the fall of apartheid in 1994, the new South African government got confronted with the necessity to deal with the crimes committed in the past. Apartheid had been a system of institutionalized discrimination by the white minority and this apartheid past could not be ignored when trying to build a unified and peaceful society. The question was how the apartheid atrocities could be dealt with in order for the majority of South Africans to be satisfied. A couple of possibilities were put forward, but the nation eventually opted for the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). This paper will try to provide some background to this phenomenon. Possible alternatives and the coming into existence of the Commission will be highlighted. The concrete proceedings of the TRC will be described and finally the positive and the negative aspects of the Commission will be reflected upon. The final aim is to find out whether the TRC could be seen as a successful and praiseworthy institution and whether it could be regarded as a model for other countries confronted with traumatic conflicts.

scholarly journals Taking responsibility for reconciliation: a Christian response to the legacy and challenges of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)

2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Barry
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Healing Process ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Good News ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
To Come ◽  
Desmond Tutu

At the conclusion of the TRC, Desmond Tutu stated that the Commission’s task was to promote, not to achieve, reconci- liation. Reconciliation, he maintained, is the responsibility of all South Africans, and expressed the hope that the Christian churches would be in the forefront of this healing process.  This article explores how the Christian church can be in the forefront of binding up the wounds, facilitating the healing pro- cess, and living as a people and a sign of hope. The answers it seeks to offer fall under three interrelated themes, namely the church’s:  • spirituality of reconciliation; • ministry and mission of reconciliation; and • resources for its ministry and mission of reconciliation. Cultivating a spirituality of reconciliation would mean making reconciliation a lifestyle, rather than a series of strategies, pro- grammes or initiatives, yet remaining concrete, practical, mea- surable and accountable.   The church’s mission is primarily to proclaim the good news of God’s Kingdom that is already here, but not yet fully here and therefore still to come. This proclamation is the message of reconciliation between God, others and the self, and anticipates the unity of all creation in Jesus Christ.   The resources given to the church to fulfil this apostolic ministry include prophecy, evangelism, pastoral care and teaching, as well as its liturgical and sacramental life, its ministry of pre- sence, its people and its commitment to social justice.

Deification, Demonization and Dispossession

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 420-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan A. Boesak
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Collective Responsibility ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Primary Obstacle ◽  
Reconciliation Project ◽  
Reconciliation Process

Many regard South Africa’s reconciliation process as a model for a search for peace in and among nations. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission played an admirable part in this. However, problems remain in continuing and completing this reconciliation project. For many the failure to secure social justice through reconciliation remains one challenge. At issue is also how South Africans deal with their fractured and painful past. This article revisits issues of culpability and responsibility by asking whether a primary obstacle towards reconciliation might be that South Africans, instead of taking personal and collective responsibility for reconciliation, have hidden behind two major and completely opposite South African figures: Nelson Mandela and Eugene De Kock. It is argued that the ‘deification’ of Mandela and the ‘demonization’ of De Kock pose an important obstacle for the acceptance of culpability and responsibility for addressing historic wrongs with a view to true reconciliation.

South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Process and International Humanitarian Law

1999 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 254-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Dugard
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
International Community ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
The South ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The Past ◽  
African Experience

Since its establishment in 1995, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission has captured the attention of an international community preoccupied with the problem of dealing with crimes of the past in divided societies. While the creation of a permanent international criminal court to punish those guilty of atrocities constituting international crimes has been the first priority, the international community has, albeit grudgingly, accepted that there may be circumstances in which amnesty and reconciliation hold out more hope for troubled societies than punishment. This realisation has led to the search for an acceptable alternative to punishment that does not result in absolute amnesty for those guilty of gross human rights abuses. The South African model, of conditional amnesty accompanied by the uncovering of the past, appears to offer such an alternative. This factor, together with the relief over the fact that apartheid has at last been laid to rest, accounts for the interest shown in the South African experience.The present note will not attempt to describe and analyse the South African precedent in detail. Instead it will provide an overview of the history, establishment and work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC); examine the significance of the Report of the TRC for international humanitarian law; and consider the status of amnesty under contemporary international law in the context of the South African experience.

scholarly journals The study to examine the effectiveness of the BoTT approach for water schemes to rural areas

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Vasanthie Munnery
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
New South ◽  
Development Programme ◽  
The Political ◽  
South African Government ◽  
African Government ◽  
The Past ◽  
Daunting Task ◽  
The Government

The new South African Government that came into power in 1994 faced a daunting task of undoing the political injustices of the past. The government immediately introduced a Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) to address these injustices

scholarly journals "We Never Did Return": Migration, Materiality and Time in Penny Siopis' Post-Apartheid Art

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 45-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison K. Young
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Return Migration ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Medium Specificity ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Related Object

This article explores “migration” as both theme and operation in two works by the South African artist Penny Siopis, each created in the year 1997: the artist’s first film, My Lovely Day, and a related object installation entitled Reconnaissance (1900-1997). In each work, Siopis traces the course of her grandmother’s emigration from Europe to Africa through a variety of found, collected, or inherited components that bore witness to the longue durée of imperialism and Apartheid. Mediating between national, cultural, and familial narratives, these works are inherently archaeological in nature, and allowed viewers at the time to reflect on the multiple entangled histories that comprised the post-Apartheid condition. The late nineties in South Africa were defined by the conclusion of Apartheid, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and two major biennale exhibitions of contemporary art. The decade thusly saw a stream of collective efforts to both unearth the past and envision the future, marking a time of great cultural, artistic, political, and discursive transition. Mapping questions of medium-specificity and affect over this larger context, I investigate Siopis’ use and manipulation of historical traces as well as notions of contemporaneity and temporality in her art.

The United States and South Africa: Human Investment

1987 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-29
Author(s):  
Aaron Segal
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
New South ◽  
The United States ◽  
South African Government ◽  
The South ◽  
African Government ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Constructive Engagement ◽  
And Training

The impassioned debate between those who support sanctions in order to bring about change in South Africa and those who favor “constructive engagement” misses the point. Each side assumes that the problem is to exercise U.S. leverage and pressure on the South African government. It is not. Instead the opportunity is for the U.S. to assist in human investment to help South Africans to acquire the education, skills and training to build their own future. Pressure may or may not contribute to the South African government changing its policies and practices. Investment in human resources has a more reliable payoff in terms of individuals capable of participating in building a new South Africa.

Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Attributions of Blame and the Struggle over Apartheid

1999 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Gibson ◽  
Amanda Gouws
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New South ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Attributions Of Blame ◽  
Democratic Transformation ◽  
Reconciliation Process

In an effort to put its past firmly behind, the New South Africa created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to document human rights abuses under apartheid and to grant amnesty to those confessing their nefarious deeds. South Africa's democratic experiment depends mightily upon whether truth does in fact bring about reconciliation. Consequently, we examine whether ordinary South Africans accept the theories of blame that underlie the truth and reconciliation process. Based on a formal experiment within a representative sample of South Africans, our results confirm some conventional hypotheses (e.g., leaders are judged more responsible for their deeds than followers), repudiate others (noble motives do little to exonerate violent actions), and modify still others (actors are judged by the severity of their action's consequences, although it matters little whether “combatants” or “civilians” were the victims). We conclude that the dark legacy of the apartheid past makes the consolidation of the democratic transformation problematical.

WHEN INDEMNITY BECOMES DISDAINFUL: REVENGE AS METAPHOR FOR ‘UNFINISHED BUSINESSES’ IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICAN DRAMA

Imbizo ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-83
Author(s):  
Busuyi Mekusi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Popular Opinion ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Government ◽  
Past Wrongs

Revenge, as an instance of oppositionality, typifies past wrongs, evils, violations and disregard for human dignity which have been imputed and for which the offender must be reprimanded. The foregoing sequence is remindful of the dastardly apartheid dispensation in South Africa, which is a strong metaphor for strife and ‘ruptured’ human interactions. While the transition of South Africa to constitutionality was substantially heralded by the negotiating preponderances of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a number of people have adjudged the TRC to be a mere attempt to draw a curtain on the past - in sharp contrast to the spirit and letter of the commission. By so doing, there is a popular opinion that there are still some ‘unfinished business’ that ironically link the present with the past. Therefore, it is considered a ‘must’ that these ‘silences’ be addressed in order for the present and future of South Africa not to be intractably burdened by the past. Bhekizizwe Peterson’s and Ramadan Suleman’s Zulu Love Letter (both film and scripted play) has joined this discourse by artistically amplifying the need for an engagement with these ‘deafening silences’. It is in the light of the aforementioned that this article investigates the process of wrong and attempts by the hegemony to expiate such wrongs, in the context of impervious agents, who disregard the processes for peaceful engagements, but rather scorn and threaten victims of their vicious actions for daring to seek justice. The article sees such a repudiation of one’s evil act and the conciliatory stance of the government as capable of breeding revenge. However, the article concludes that when medicated, using certain cultural and religious beliefs, the bleeding heart that is prone to seeking revenge or retaliation (vengeance) might also be a carrier of forgiveness and collectivism.

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