TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 4

Chapter 3

Subsection 1

Volume SIX Section FOUR Chapter THREE

Administrative Report

■ INTRODUCTION

1. The duties and functions of the Human Rights Violations Committee (HRVC) were clearly defined in section 14 of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act No. 34 of 1995 (the Act). The HRVC was mandated to enquire into systematic patterns of abuse; to attempt to identify motives and perspectives; to establish the identity of individual and institutional perpetrators; to find whether violations were the result of deliberate planning on the part of the state or liberation movements, and to designate accountability, political or otherwise, for g ross human rights violations.

2. During the operational phase, the HRVC was responsible for gathering victim statements and the holding of hearings – including victim hearings, event hearings, special hearings, institutional hearings and political party hearings. It was greatly assisted in its work by the Investigation Unit of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (the Commission). The Committee was also responsible for making findings confirming that victims had been the subject of gross human rights violation as defined in the Act. The HRVC acted as the engine of the Commission.

3. The HRVC compiled a number of reports that formed part of the Final Report of the Commission, which was handed to President Mandela on 29 October 1998.

4. The HRVC collected a total of 21 519 victim statements during the two-year operational period. More than 15 000 statements contained at least one gross human rights violation. All in all, the 21 519 statements contained more than 30 384 violations. The HRVC made more than 15 000 findings during this period and completed all of its hearings, as was required in terms of its mandate.

COMPLETING THE FINDINGS PROCESS

5. In order to fulfil the terms of its mandate, the HRVC established a findings process .^{3 1} The HRVC was required to make findings confirming that persons making statements were victims of gross human rights violations as defined in the Act. Findings were made on a ‘balance of probabilities’. Statements that were rejected as being untrue became negative findings. In those instances where an incident was considered ‘not to be politically motivated’ or ‘not having a political context’, the HRVC would classify the finding as ‘not political’. Where a statement dealt with an incident that did not fall within the mandate period, it would be classified as ‘out of mandate’. These findings were classified as negative findings and were made at regional level by the regional HRVCs.

6. At the time of the publication of the Final Report, at least one third of the required findings had not been completed and confirmed by the national HRVC. The HRVC still had to make more than 5500 victim findings and confirm more than 2000 negative findings.

7. The findings process turned out to be much more complex and time-consuming than the Commission had anticipated. The Commission was required by law to cease its statement-taking phase and hearing operations by 15 December 1997. However, in that month, victims in the province of KwaZulu-Natal decided to join the process and filed more than 5000 statements with the regional office. Offices in Cape Town, East London and Johannesburg were also flooded with last-minute statements from potential victims.

8. Commission policies and processes required that all of these statements be processed, registered, investigated or subjected to low-level corroboration, and finally to have victim findings made on them. The statements taken as the process was about to end placed a huge administrative burden on the Commission.

9. However, by this time, the Commission had already begun to scale down its staff complement in the regional offices. Moreover, all units dealing with investigation and corroboration had been reduced. As a result, the HRVC could not complete its work. Moreover, the Commission could not publish the victims’ volume (Volume Seven), a volume consisting of brief summaries of the experiences of all who were declared victims by the Commission. In addition, a number of disappearance cases and exhumations had not been completed or resolved. It became clear that the Commission needed to find a mechanism to deal with these outstanding issues.

10. This led to a decision by the Commission that, in addition to the Amnesty Committee staying on to complete its work, both the HRVC and the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee (RRC) would need to appoint a Commissioner to complete this unfinished business. The Commission requested that the Minister of Justice appoint the Deputy Chair of the Committee³² to complete the outstanding work of the HRVC. The Commissioner was accordingly appointed by the Minister.³³

TASKS OF THE HRVC AFTER OCTOBER 1998

11. The tasks outstanding at December 1998 were identified by the HRVC as the following:

a. Making victim findings on the remaining statements received and confirming the gross human rights violations suffered by victims. As at December 1998, these numbered 5500 in total.

b. Auditing and verifying the negative findings made at regional level. These negative findings totalled more than 2000 in December 1998. Many of these negative findings were made because the Commission’s policy on arson cases had not been clearly established when the findings process had begun. The HRVC was also advised by the Commission’s legal advisor that it would need to establish a mechanism to deal with appeals and reviews f rom potential victims.

c. Finalisation of the ‘popular version’ of the Commission’s report;

d. Finalisation of the victim summary project;

e. Finalisation of the report on disappearances; and

f. Finalisation of the report on exhumations.

12. The HRVC was also required to carry out an audit of the database with a view to cleaning up contaminated data. The findings process required that the data be checked and verified in order to maintain the integrity of victim findings. This would ensure that the reparation process would not be compromised by incorrect information that could lead to incorrect payments of interim reparation. In addition, the victim summary project required an accurate account of each victim’s experiences. This operation had to be carried out before the victim summary project and the exhumation and disappearances reports could be finalised.

13. This report will deal with progress on each of these tasks, the problems experienced and the mechanisms used to solve the problem areas.