TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 4

Chapter 3

Subsection 3

Absence of political context

26. Many victims came forward to make statements about incidents that were clearly not political and fell into the realm of criminality. In those cases, the Commission made findings to the effect that the case did not fulfil the political requirement .

Review of findings

27. The Commission wanted to ensure that every possible opportunity was given to potential victims in order to ensure that no one was left out of the process. Deponents and victim support groups were notified that there were cases for which it had not been possible to make positive findings because of the paucity of evidence available to the Commission. They were invited to assist the Commission with gathering the evidence relevant to their particular cases. Victims were thus given the opportunity to supply the Commission with further evidence in order to secure a positive finding. The review/appeal process was kept open until January 2002 to allow victims the opportunity of having their findings changed.

28. The HRVC dealt with more than 3000 appeals/reviews during the period 1999 to January 2002. During this period, with the assistance of deponents and victim groups, the Commission was able to make a number of positive findings. The total number of positive victim findings made by the HRVC is 21 074.

The ‘closed list’

29. The HRVC was approached by large numbers of individuals and victim groups who claimed that there were many potential victims who had not been able to make statements to the Commission within the time period allowed by law for the statement-gathering process. The reasons for this ranged from not knowing that there was a cut-off date, to poor communication by the Commission, to unreliable statement-takers who had promised to go back and had failed to do so. Many people also complained that they had made statements to their liberation movement and that these statements had not been forwarded to the Commission. Many complained that their political party had prevented them from coming forward . IFP supporters complained that they had been afraid to participate in the p rocess. More than 8000 statements were collected throughout the country after the Commission had stopped collecting statements.

30. This issue presents a challenge to government. It is clear that many people, through no fault of their own, were unable to make statements to the Commission. While some do, therefore, qualify for reparation, others who may have suffered similar violations do not. This may have a divisive effect in many townships.

31. In many countries that have gone through a similar process, victims have been identified long after the commission has completed its work. There is a recognition that many victims may not have been able to speak out about their pain and suffering at the requisite time. It should be remembered that it took the world more than fifty years to deal with the Holocaust victims. Victims cannot be wished away. Anxious not to burden government with this problem in the future, the Commission adopted a ‘closed list’ policy which may no longer be appropriate.

32. At the same time, the Commission notes that government has indicated its intention to discuss issue of reparation and future amnesty with the nation. Another item that should be placed on the agenda is the issue of the ‘closed list’ policy.

THE ‘POPULAR VERSION’

33. The Commission had intended to publish a popular version of its report in 1998. Unfortunately, it was unable to complete this task because the Amnesty Committee had not finished its work. Completion of this task was delegated to Commissioners Sooka, Mkhize and Potgieter.

34. A number of extremely talented and creative individuals worked on the ‘popular version’. The final document was compiled with the assistance of Professor Njabulo Ndebele and assigned to Professor Bill Naisson of the University of Cape Town and his team.

35. The ‘popular version’ is now complete. However, decisions still need to be made about the printing and publishing of the book, as well as its distribution strategy. The Commission intends to hand this volume over to the Minister of Justice with the intention that he arrange for it to be published and distributed widely.