TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 6

Part CEO_Report

Subsection 5

Operational challenges

19. Operational challenges had the most profound impact on the process as they related to the urgency imposed on the Commission to finish a huge amount of work within the shortest period of time. They included:

Staff

20. In any institution staff members are one of the most valuable assets. Without the commitment and dedication of its entire staff complement, the Commission would not have been able to meet its objectives. Unfortunately, staff members were not always acknowledged for the invaluable role they played. Commissioners, Committee members and management were the public face of the Commission; staff maintained the engine room.

21. Because the Commission was initially expected to have a relatively short lifespan, all staff members were employed on temporary contracts. Ultimately, the Commission functioned for almost six years, and contracts were extended on no less than six occasions. With hindsight, this proved to beavery unsatisfactory situation. Because there was no employment security or certainty about when the process would end, staff members were understandably constantly on the lookout for permanent employment. They were paid only a basic salary; no service bonuses or other incentives were offered. As a result, the Commission lost experienced staff on a regular basis and it became increasingly difficult to fill vacancies.

22. Keeping staff motivated also proved to be very challenging. Lack of job and contractual security and incentives, constant criticism of the Commission, no employment offers from government despite six years’ dedicated work seem finally to have filtered through to staff. Indeed, the only thing that kept staff going was their commitment to the Commission’s objectives. It was therefore no surprise, when another employment opportunity became available, that staff had no hesitation in taking up that position. In many instances, the projects they were working on or their areas of responsibility had to be taken over by the already over-burdened remaining staff members. In certain cases, especially with regard to committee members, the individuals who left were the only ones able to complete or finalise a certain project or function. One then had to rely on the integrity and goodwill of those concerned. In the majority of instances the work was satisfactorily completed, but in other instances the completion of a specific task was hamstrung by the non-performance of certain individuals.

Budgetary constraints

23. Without the luxury of precedents, and faced with uncertainties as to the financial implications of the activities of the Commission, it was often very difficult to budget accurately. For example, a public hearing might last less than a day or it might take weeks or even months to complete an application. Sometimes it would take only one telephone call to reach a victim; in other cases it could involve hiring a four-by-four vehicle to reach a victim in a rural are a .

24. The requirement to ‘do more with less’ proved to be very frustrating and even counter-productive. The Commission is of the view that the process could have been finished much earlier had it been in a position to employ more personnel to attend to the professional and administrative aspects of its work. It was disappointing to know and accept that, whilst the Commission regarded itself as a project of national significance, it was regarded by government as only one amongst many national priorities to be financially resourced.

25. The government’s failure to approve a severance package for deserving staff meant that management was unable to reward its best performers or to retain some of those who found themselves obliged to move elsewhere during the last crucial months.

Co-operation with the Commission

26. The Commission was an institution of national significance and, from the outset, it was clear that its failure or success would depend, to a large extent, on the co-operation it received from those with an interest in its proper functioning. The Commission relied heavily on the assistance and co-operation of, amongst others, government departments, political parties, victims, witnesses, legal representatives and non-governmental institutions and organisations .

27. Generally speaking, the Commission enjoyed the co-operation of many of the above. Unfortunately there were also instances where some of these deliberately or through a lack of commitment delayed the processes of the Commission. In certain cases it was clear that an uninformed perception about the Commission played a role; in other cases it was resistance against or non-acceptance of transformation and the new democratic dispensation. Where the objectives of the Commission were not in line with certain party political objectives, co-operation was sometimes deliberately withheld. Finally, some individuals saw the Commission as an opportunity to further their own careers or to improve their financial status.

28. The Commission and its staff consequently had to put in a great deal of energy and effort into overcoming these obstacles, not for its own purposes, but for the benefit of victims, amnesty applicants and the country as a whole.

29. These are but some of the challenges the Commission was faced with. Fortunately they were not insurmountable, and the Commission was eventually able to complete its mandate.