TRC Final Report

Volume 5

Chapter 3

Volume FIVE Chapter THREE

Interim Report of the Amnesty Committee

■ INTRODUCTION

1 The Amnesty Committee (the Committee), one of three statutory committees of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (the Commission), was established in terms of section 17 of the Act.¹ This provision was amended on three occasions in order to provide for the extension of the Committee. The principal function of the Committee is to decide applications for amnesty received from perpetrators of offences or delicts associated with a political objective within the mandate period.²

2 At the time of reporting the Committee consisted of seventeen members,³ whose principal function is to decide applications for amnesty either in chambers or at a public hearing, sitting in panels of at least three members, which is the statutory quorum.

3 At the time of reporting, a considerable part of the Committee’s workload was incomplete.⁴ The life span of the Committee has been extended to enable these outstanding matters to be finalised, while the rest of the Commission was suspended on 31 October 1998. Provision has been made for a further report to be submitted after the finalisation of the outstanding amnesty applications. The present chapter is intended to give a broad overview of the Committee’s activities in the interim and will be followed by a more detailed report which covers the rest of the period and will contain a full list of all matters decided by the Committee.

■ FORMATION AND COMPOSITION

4 The head office of the Committee was established in Cape Town, which was also the seat of the Commission.

5 The various versions of section 17 reflect the changes effected to the composition of the Committee from time to time. In its original form, section 17 provided for a single entity consisting of five members under the chairpersonship of a serving or retired judge of the High Court.5 The section provided that two members of the Committee should be commissioners appointed in consultation with the Commission. The two commissioners nominated and appointed to the Committee are both qualified lawyers and legal practitioners.

6 The others were appointed by the President and no formal process for such appointments was provided for in the section. In exercising this prerogative, the President appointed three judges together with the two Commissioners nominated by the Commission, to the Committee. It is clear from a reading of the Act that the Committee is required to perform a largely judicial function. This made it expedient to appoint three judges to the Committee, although the section only explicitly made provision for the appointment of one judge to chair the Committee.

7 There were considerable delays in appointing the members of the Committee, which resulted in the loss of valuable time in putting the work of the Committee into operation.