STEVEN MANN, Cape Town | Wednesday 7.30pm.
EIGHTEEN months after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended that R3-billion be distributed to some 20000 victims of apartheid, the government appears no closer to finalising its reparations policy.
“We are committed to honoring our commitments,” President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday but shed little new light on when the government will do so.
Criticism has been mounting against the government’s slowness to pay out reparations, with Anglican Archbishop Njogunkulu Ndungane recently accusing it of betraying those who fought apartheid. Answering questions in Parliament, Mbeki said the issue of final reparations could only be dealt with once the TRC’s amnesty committee completed its work later this year.
His remarks earned the wrath of opposition political parties, who said the government needs to make a clear commitment. But Mbeki responded: “It is a problematic area. It takes time. The process does not go as fast as all of us would like it to.”
Many applicants are not eligible for relief, which they thought they were entitled to simply because they appeared before the TRC as witnesses, he said. Others who participated in the struggle had not applied for reparations, because they felt they had fought for amnesty, not money.
Mbeki said 16501 applications for urgent interim relief have been received and 9605 have already been processed.