South Africa experienced 34 years of apartheid so the TRC had a broad area to cover to help establish peace in the country. Basically, the TRC was established to find the truth of gross violations of human rights, including the whereabouts of victims and identifying those responsible for human rights abuses, either directly or indirectly. Similarly, it was established to recommend steps to reform the institutions, provide reparation to the victims for the harm they had suffered and punish perpetrators. In these regards, the TRC of South Africa was successful.
The South African TRC also succeeded in educating the South African population about its functions and procedures. The South African Broadcast Corporation aired special reports on the TRC every Sunday from April 1996 until March 1998, and the program often scored amongst the most popular on South African television (Gibson, 2006). Hence, the TRC was successful in getting the attention of the people, persuading them of its views of the struggle over apartheid and collecting the truth on the conflict. Due largely to this, the TRC process was persuasive and succeeded, in part due, to the nature of the truth it promulgated (Gibson, 2006). Although there were limited available means, the TRC was also successful in uncovering past atrocities (Theissen, 1999) and establishing that gross human rights violations were committed (Dyzenhaus, 2000, p. 483). The TRC had a clear vision to address the economic causes of the civil war so another area of success was to provide the ways to reduce the economic differences between the poor and rich such as the creation of job opportunities, prioritization of economic justice against poverty, and taking all possible
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measures to overcome racism through a business reconciliation fund (TRC, 1998, vol. 5, p. 308).
Further, the commission was successful in identifying historical causes that intensified the conflict in the country. As the commission acknowledged, the system of rule established during the apartheid era was one of the main causes of civil war in the country. For example, whites were granted access to the rule of law but black citizens were not; ‘Giving victims an opportunity to tell their stories is [also] a form of recognition that acknowledges the historical fact of their exclusion from legal recognition ... [and] is related to justice ... because it acknowledges the injustice of the exclusions that made [it possible for] abuses [to occur]’ (Dyzenhaus, 2000, p. 484).
The most important success of the South African TRC was, as Beer and Fouche (2000) analyzed, publishing a report criticized by all sides of the political divide. Former President F W de Klerk managed to remove some of the most damaging findings about him. Similarly, the ANC tried to stop the release of the report because it was strongly criticized for human rights abuses and for violations committed by Winnie Mandela, the ANC women’s league leader, and her football club.
However, there were some limitations in the functions of the TRC. These included insufficient time to collect the information through hearings and insufficient finances. The TRC therefore failed to deal with significant geopolitical areas, and the violations that occurred in those areas, in sufficient detail. For example, the violations primarily perpetrated by security force members in areas such as Venda, Lebowa were not reported in sufficient detail. Hence, thousands of victims could not share their experiences with the commission. As a result, the TRC did not record a full account of South African life under apartheid (Stanley, 2001).
Further, despite offering amnesty in exchange for perpetrators' detailed stories and threatening prosecution for those who remained silent, the majority of perpetrators did not come forward (Stanley, 2001). Although the TRC promised reparation assistance, not many victims come forward to record their truth. Thus, the social and criminal justice that underpinned the TRC philosophy, such as prosecuting and punishing perpetrators, was not realised. For example, the perpetrators of violence, and beneficiaries of apartheid, have had
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no obligation to make any substantive changes, and neither the TRC nor the government have sufficiently challenged the structural inequalities which contextualised apartheid policies (Zehr, 1997).
The TRC also failed in its objective of balancing other problems such as crime, violence, and unresolved land issues. The reticence to settle reparations has led some to comment that the Commission was flawed in its focus, particularly as 'perpetrators' were granted immediate freedom with amnesty, while victims continued to wait to be financially acknowledged (Ash 1997; Sooka, 2003). The commission did not make clear which victims deserved reparations and what they would consist of (Verdoolaege & Kerstens, 2004). As the TRC was not successful in all areas of its recommendations, many areas and 'communities' in South Africa remain dislocated and characterised by poverty, lack of good housing, poor education, limited health services and unemployment (Stanley, 2001). Whilst the Commission successfully provided a forum for diverse expression, acknowledging personal suffering and the promoting a more truthful future it has also left South Africa ultimately unsatisfied (Rosenburg, 1999, p. xi).
Table 7.5: Strengths and Limitations of South African TRC Strengths
S.N. Causes of war which was