TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 6

Part Managerial_Reports

Subsection 1

Volume SIX SectionS I X

Managerial Reports

■ LEGAL DEPARTMENT

General introduction

1. The Legal Department’s general responsibilities included the following:

a overall responsibility on a national level for all legal matters involving the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (the Commission) and its Committees, including advising the Commission and CEO on all matters legal;

b drafting legal opinions for the Commission in respect of the legal aspects of the work of its various Committees;

c reviewing all existing contracts and drafting new contracts on behalf of the Commission;

d preparing the Commission’s responses and defence to legal challenges such as reviews of amnesty decisions;

e liaising with attorneys and counsel on behalf of the Commission and persons appearing before the Amnesty Committee;

f dealing with all industrial relations/disciplinary matters on behalf of Commission;

g interacting and liaising with the Ministries of Justice and Constitutional Development; Arts, Culture, Science and Technology; Transport; Defence, and Police Services in respect of a wide range of matters concerning their activities, arising from the investigations and hearings of the Commission, and

h overall responsibility for the legal assistance programme in terms of section 34 of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act No. 34 of 1995 (the Act).

Documentation Centre

2. The national legal officer was assigned the additional responsibility of managing, supervising and supporting the Commission’s Documentation Centre. The Documentation Centre was responsible for the entire body of documentation and information within the Commission. The process included recording all information generated by the Commission on CD-ROM, audio and audio-visual tape, magnetic (audio) tape as well as hard copy. Documents archived by the Documentation Centre included the following:

a all the Commission’s intellectual assets;

b original human rights violations (HRV) statements and Investigative Unit working files;

c amnesty applications;

d amnesty decisions;

e amnesty hearing material (bundles];

f applications for reparation and rehabilitation;

g submissions made to the Commission by a wide range of persons, agencies and institutions in accordance with the investigative hearings of the Commission in terms of section 29 of the Act;

h news clips of all local, national international news and press releases;

i the audio and video recordings of hearings, and

j collections of posters, artefacts (paintings, statues, etc.), photographs, books, journals and police records.