Commissioning the Past Understanding South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission

by Posel, Deborah; Simpson, Graeme

• ISBN13: 9781868143580
• ISBN10: 1868143589
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-01-01
• Publisher: Wits University Press

Summary

South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission was the twenty first of its kind. It was more ambitious in the scope of its enquiry, more transparent in the nature of its proceedings, and more highly charged, symbolically, than any that preceded it. Its public hearings of testimony from victims and perpetrators, drenched with emotion and drama, are what most people remember when they recall the TRC. Yet at the same time, there were parallel processes of documentation, data analysis, quasi-judicial shifting of evidence and writing up the results.

Author Biography

Deborah Posel is a professor and director of HUMA, University of Cape Town.

Table of Contents

Introduction The Power of Truth: South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Context
Deborah Posel and Graeme Simpson	1	(16)
Part One Insider Accounts
1 Researching the 'Truth': A View from Inside the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Janet Cherry, John Daniel and Madeleine Fullard	17	(20)
2 False Promises and Wasted Opportunities?: Inside South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Piers Pigou	37	(29)
3 Monumental Historical Memory: Managing Truth in the Everyday Work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Lars Buur	66	(31)
Part Two Victims' Stories
4 The Murder of Sicelo Dlomo
Piers Pigou	97	(20)
5 The Story of Thandi Shezi
Pamela Sethunya Dube	117	(14)
6 Nothing But the Truth: The Ordeal of Duma Khumalo
Mtutuzeli Matshoba	131	(16)
Part Three Outsider Assessments
7 The TRC Report: What Kind of History? What Kind of Truth?
Deborah Posel	147	(26)
8 The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Pursuit of 'Social Truth': The Case of Kathorus
Philip Bonner and Noor Nieftagodien	173	(31)
9 National Narrative versus Local Truths: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Engagement with Duduza
Hugo van der Merve	204	(16)
10 'Tell No Lies, Claim No Easy Victories': A Brief Evaluation of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Graeme Simpson	220