TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 6

Part Managerial_Reports

Subsection 3

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) DEPARTMENT

General introduction

Network (hardware, software)

8. The Commission initially operated on a wide area network (WAN), which connected all the regional offices. When these offices were closed in September 1998, the WAN was discontinued and the Cape Town office continued to run on a local area network (LAN). Communication between the head office in Cape Town and the satellite offices occurred mainly by Internet. Each office had a stand-alone Internet computer. For security reasons, the LAN was not linked to the Internet.

9. The LAN consisted of workstations and heavy-duty printers connected together by an Ethernet network with a Windows NT server at the centre. The communication protocol was TCP/IP.

10. The workstations ran Windows 95 and the application software was Microsoft Office. The bulk of the office administration work was done using MS Word and the e-mail facility. In addition to Word, the researchers used the Excel spread-sheet to analyse trends in the data and to graph the results of their analysis. The Finance Department used AccPac for the financial and payroll transactions and the Standard Bank BEST system to pay accounts using the Internet.

11. In 2001, a software audit was launched to establish which software was being operated and whether all the software was licensed. This was necessary as there had been a complete staff turnover in the IT Department and there were few records indicating what software had been purchased at the outset of the Commission. After discovering that some software was being used unlicensed, the Commission applied for ‘amnesty’ during the Business Software Alliance (BSA) Truth or Dare campaign to legalise software. This ensured freedom from prosecution provided that the organisation legalised all its software within a given time frame.

Y 2 K

12. In 1999, the Commission took precautions against the Y2K computer bug. Y2K cards were installed in all the computers, and patches were downloaded fro m M i c rosoft to fix the software. The Commission experienced no Y2K-related problems .

CD-ROM project

13. A CD-ROM project was initiated to preserve the Commission’s electronic files. These files were initially backed up onto magnetic tapes, which were deteriorating. All backed-up documents were copied onto searchable CD-ROMs to enable faster and more efficient access. Due to the high staff turn over, it was constantly necessary to refer to files created and research performed by former staff members.

Database development

14. The database was a client–server relational database implemented using Oracle soft ware, which is the industry-standard database technology for this type of p roject. Users had a suite of programmes on their workstations. This connected them to the database engines so that they could, for example, register statements and amnesty applications, capture the contents of the violations, carry out complex searches on the data and extract data into spreadsheets. They could also print a variety of computer-generated reports, such as the content of statements or amnesty applications, corroboration carried out, letters of acknowledgement, perpetrator details, incident reports, as well as statistics for monitoring the performance of the information flow.

15. The database linked the findings of the Human Rights Violations Committee ( H RVC) with the decisions from the Amnesty Committee to provide lists of victims to the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee (RRC). The names and addresses of eligible victims were printed from the database for sending application forms for reparation.

Website

16. The website (http://www. t ruth . o rg.za) was launched in 1996 as part of the C o m mission ’s media strategy. It contained all the transcripts of both HRVC and amnesty hearings, amnesty decision transcripts, press releases and news reports from the South African Press Agency (SAPA). It also contained an interactive Register of Reconciliation that users could sign.