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Mail & Guardian

Truth And Reconciliation Commission

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Mirroring the past: At times, the actors in Under the Shade of a Tree I Sat and Wept step out of their roles entirely, debating the material they are performing, questioning its meaning or even its validity. It’s here that the play’s meta-theatrical dimension comes into focus. Photo: Thandile Zwebanzi
APARTHEID

What does it mean to forgive? A play asks, 30 years after the TRC

Drawing from archives and lived experience, the international production probes the emotional and political complexities of reconciliation in a fractured world

  • Kibo Ngowi
6 min read
Value for money: The Zondo Commission led by former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has recovered more than R16 billion from irregular contracts. Photo: GCIS
ASSET FORFEITURE UNIT

Rethinking the value of commissions

Any objective analysis must proceed from the premise that commissions of inquiry are not criminal courts. They neither prosecute nor sentence. Their constitutional purpose is to…

  • Cornelius Monama
7 min read
Embracing it: Instead of trying to camouflage loss by seeking distractions, the writer advises that we find a way to let the process of mourning unfold fully. Photo: Khris Kunta
DJ FRESH

Grief allowed,  grants us room to heal

There is a way we find refuge from mourning. We distract ourselves. We move cities. We change jobs. We scroll endlessly. We convince ourselves that strength means silence. But…

  • Sello Hatang
7 min read
Artist Kim Berman stands in front of her image entitled “Atonement”.
ADRIAAN VLOK

Kim Berman’s fire sermon

The artist’s latest exhibition, spanning 40 years, celebrates ‘the victory of memory over forgetting’

  • Drew Forrest
6 min read
Political: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a decision aimed at unity rather than imprisoning thousands of white people. Photo: File
ANZIO JACOBS

National Dialogue: South Africa’s elusive search for a social compact

Critics wondered whether the convention would follow through with local ward talks and implement recommendations

  • Nkateko Joseph Mabasa
6 min read
ANTI CORRUPTION DAY

International anti-corruption court can restore human dignity in Africa

The notion of human dignity is a fundamental rule of law principle and has broader implications related to ubuntu and restorative justice

  • Karam Singh
  • Ruth Kolevsohn
7 min read
Members of the Black Sash and Movement for Colonial Freedom and the Black march to South Africa House in London to deliver a memorandum to South African prime minister JG Strijdom. Photo: ulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis/Getty Images
APARTHEID

Apartheid, crimes against humanity: How the law remembers the past

The 80th anniversary of WWII is an opportune moment to reflect on the future of justice in South Africa

  • Tebelelo Lentsoane & Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane
4 min read
Township residents lining up, en masse, waiting to vote in 1st natl. elections incl. black majority, w. expected win for ANC cand. Mandela. (Photo by William F. Campbell/Getty Images)
BILL OF RIGHTS

South Africa has an undignified democracy

Thirty years on, the patience of the poor is wearing thin as they are subjected to tardy, disrespectful service

  • Ali Ridha Khan
6 min read
Justice: President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered a commission of inquiry into ANC governments’ role in possibly delaying investigations.
CRADOCK FOUR

New inquiry into whether prosecutions of apartheid-era crimes were blocked

Successive ANC-led governments have been criticised by some for prioritising national reconciliation ahead of justice for victims

  • Gerald Imray
3 min read
Lukhanyo Calata accused the post-apartheid state of betraying the constitutional rights of victims and survivors of the atrocities by suppressing cases referred to the NPA by the TRC. (File photo)
CRADOCK FOUR

Ramaphosa will no longer oppose application on TRC cases

The president has withdrawn his notice to oppose a landmark case led by the son of Fort Calata

  • Emsie Ferreira
3 min read
Members of the ANC give testimony in Cape Town about human rights abuses committed during apartheid. (File photograph by Gallo Images/ Oryx Media Archive).
ARTICLE

Three developments in January place unequal democracy back on the road to justice

The Expropriation Bill was signed into law; the families of victims of apartheid-era human rights violations want to know why the TRC recommendations haven’t been implemented,…

  • Brett Herron
3 min read
Members of the ANC give testimony in Cape Town about human rights abuses committed during apartheid. (File photograph by Gallo Images/ Oryx Media Archive).
CYRIL RAMAPHOSA

Families of apartheid victims demand inquiry into suppression of TRC cases

The relatives want to know if the failure to prosecute was orchestrated to protect past and present political elites

  • Paddy Harper
14 min read
Forensic pathologists exhume the remains of political prisoners from a grave at Rebecca Street Cemetery on December 14, 2016 in Pretoria. The twelve members of the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army (APLA) were buried after they were hanged at the Pretoria Prison (Kgosi Mampuru II Prison) in 1964. The remains of 50 exiled victims of apartheid prosecution will be returned to South Africa from Zimbabwe and Zambia in the next 10 days. (Photo by Veli Nhlapo/Sowetan/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
DEATHS IN EXILE

Remains of 50 apartheid freedom fighters to be returned to SA from Zimbabwe and Zambia

The National Prosecuting Authority told MPs it was trying to expedite Truth and Reconciliation cases because it understood victims’ families were losing hope of finding justice…

  • Emsie Ferreira
1 min read
Women of the struggle: Artist Sue Williamson with works from her series of photo portraits from the ongoing series All Our Mothers. Photo: Courtesy the artist and Goodman Gallery
ACTIVISM

The long and short of a 50-year artistic career

Sue Williamson’s new show opens in Joburg and a retrospective is coming soon

  • Charles Leonard
11 min read
Remarkable: Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela’s work in reparation and forgiveness as part of the process of healing following violence and trauma has been internationally recognised. Photo: Stefan Els/Stellenbosch University
APARTHEID S PSYCHOLOGICAL TOLL

Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela scoops Templeton Prize

The Templeton Prize is in recognition of her work in healing in the aftermath of apartheid This content is restricted to registered users and subscribers. Get Your Free Account…

  • Lyse Comins
1 min read