The Effects of Reparations on Reconciliation and the Ends of Justice: the South African case

Abstract

South Africa’s first multiracial and democratic elections in 1994 succeeded nearly half a century of institutionalised racial discrimination and oppression under apartheid which left hundreds of thousands disadvantaged. As a consequence of a political settlement between the negotiating parties, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established through an Act of Parliament to uncover the causes, nature and extent of gross violations of human rights in and outside the country. In an effort to balance the moral predicament of affording amnesty to perpetrators, the TRC also recommended reparations for victims of gross violations of human rights. This report argues that the overreliance on judicial means, to resolve political questions of marginalisation and repression was inadequate. Consequently, the TRC’s recommendation for reparations determined by a legal imagination therefore aimed at only direct victims of the consequences of the crime of apartheid to the exclusion of many. Using first-hand experience of participants as well as secondary material, the report concludes that the TRC reparations recommendations’ failure to deal with the interconnectedness of apartheid violations, manifests in South Africa’s increasing racial hostilities, racialised poverty and inequality 25 years into democracy. Because poverty and inequality disproportionately affects previously marginalised groups, as well as government’s failure to provide adequate reparations that meaningfully restore victims sense of dignity and moral worth, perceptions of reconciliation and justice are significantly undermined.