With the final report on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) set to be handed over to President Thabo Mbeki on Human Rights Day on Friday, many are now hoping the way will be clear to settle the issue of reparations.
Former TRC CEO Martin Coetzee told Sapa on Wednesday the reparations were long overdue, and something should now be done.
”The government said they were waiting for the final report, now they will have it,” he said.
Government has set aside a total R800-million, which has grown with interest to R900-million, for reparations to about 18 000 victims.
A representative for the NGO Working Group on Reparations, Dot Cleminshaw, said the TRC had done a ”great job”, and played an important part in national reconciliation.
However, ”the issue of reparations for victims of gross human right must be addressed”, she said.
Justice representative Paul Setsetse said that once the report had been handed over to the president, ”we will be moving faster (with regards to reparations)”.
A pending court case against the justice ministry brought by a group representing victims would then become ”irrelevant, if not undesirable”, he said.
Cleminshaw said reparations were ”the quid pro quo offered to victims”, but in many cases the perpetrators — such as former minister Adriaan Vlok — had showed no real remorse.
”Maybe we should have had Nuremberg-style prosecutions, and put the blighters before court,” she said.
She said the best possible outcome now would be for the government to pay attention to the TRC’s 1998 recommendations and help the victims and survivors of gross human rights abuses.
A recently mooted general amnesty being touted by the government would do a great ”injustice” to the victims and survivors.
Cleminshaw said what was needed was a list of the worst perpetrators not granted amnesty to be compiled so that further criminal or civil action could be taken.
Present at Friday’s handover ceremony will be former Anglican archbishop and TRC chairman Desmond Tutu and other former TRC commissioners, including former TRC deputy chairman Alex Boraine.
Tutu’s personal assistant, Lavinia Crawford-Browne, said an inter-faith service would be held at the St Albans Cathedral church in Pretoria at 10am on Friday.
”This will be a moving occasion with many former victims expected to attend,” she said.
The handover ceremony will take place at 2pm at the Union Buildings. – Sapa