Quiet Crisis: South Africans Don't Know South Africa
Efforts have been made to better understand and process that history, like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. However, many feel these efforts have fallen short in helping South Africa process its past. Let's get in to it.
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eNCA
3 days ago
- eNCA
Quiet Crisis: South Africans Don't Know South Africa
South Africas history is complicated and contentious, with the recorded section of it spanning centuries. It's a journey that's often misunderstood but crucial to our understanding of modern South Africa. Efforts have been made to better understand and process that history, like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. However, many feel these efforts have fallen short in helping South Africa process its past. Let's get in to it.
The Star
3 days ago
- The Star
Mbeki's intervention in TRC damages litigation criticised as 'absurd' and 'muddying the waters'
The Foundation for Human Rights (FHR) has described former president Thabo Mbeki's application to intervene in the constitutional damages litigation by survivors and families of apartheid-era crime victims as unreasonable and 'muddying the waters'. The application by Mbeki and his former justice minister, Brigitte Mabandla, is set to be heard on Monday, July 28, in the Pretoria High Court. The families of victims who were forcibly disappeared or killed during apartheid, supported by the foundation, filed an application against President Cyril Ramaphosa and the government early this year, seeking R167-million in constitutional damages for the state's 'gross failure'. They say there was 'a gross violation of their human rights as the state failed to investigate and/or prosecute the cases referred by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to the National Prosecutions Authority'. They alleged that there was some political interference in the cases, leading to delays of about 15 years. Speaking to eNCA on Thursday, FHR executive director Zaid Kimmie said they were not gunning for any individual or 'alleging that any particular individual was responsible'. He said they were seeking justice and the R167 million damages, and wanted to know 'potentially how this interference happened'. Those seeking to clear their names or 'cast aspersions on others' would have their opportunity in the upcoming commission of inquiry set up by Ramaphosa, said Kimmie. He said they believed that the commission was 'the correct avenue' that Mbeki and Mabandla should follow. He said the two politicians' intervention in the damages case was 'absurd' and posed a danger of muddying the waters. 'It's clear to us and all families that there was some form of interference in these cases. You don't simply have a 15-year delay in investigations and prosecutions because someone forgot to do their job. It's very clear that there was some sort of interference, and what we've asked for was that, to get to the bottom of that interference we need a commission of inquiry,' said Kimmie. He explained that the R167 million the families were seeking was carefully calculated based on the money used in supporting some of the families during inquests, investigations, prosecutions, and generally providing justice to them. 'Just to make it clear, the money that we're asking for is going to be held in trust. It will be available to any family who's in the same situation (as those in the damages case),' he said. Responding to a question about the 'unfinished business of the TRC' and whether, in his view, the state dealt with the issues adequately, Kimmie said: 'It's clear that there has been a gross violation of the human rights of these families. The state didn't do its job, did not live up to its obligations. And when the state does not live up to its obligations, then it's incumbent upon the people involved to call them to account … 'It's simply not enough to say 'well, bad things happened, these things happen', and everyone walks away.' The state had 'constitutional, legal obligations' and had officials paid to do their jobs, to investigate and prosecute cases. He said it was 'absurd' for them to 'simply decide' that a certain set of cases was 'not worthy' to be prosecuted. There have been allegations in the past that interference by the government under Mbeki during former national director of public prosecutions Vusi Pikoli led to work on the case being stopped. There have not been any proper explanation as to why the TRC cases where amnesty was not granted were not pursued. These cases include the killing of the Cradock Four — Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto, and Sicelo Mhlauli — members of the United Democratic Front and other community organisations fighting apartheid whose killings shocked the nation in 1985.
IOL News
17-07-2025
- IOL News
Why South African commissions fail to deliver justice and perpetuate violence
THE Marikana Massacre is one of many examples of how commissions of inquiry fail to deliver justice for victims and their families, just like the Marikana Commission did. Those responsible continue with their lives, argues the writer. LONDIWE GUMEDE FORMER Economic Freedom Front (EFF) politician Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi argues that a president cannot find anyone guilty. He is, instead, advocating for a "proper" judicial commission of inquiry, led by a judge, with strict timelines. He deems this "proper" for a democracy. However, the subsequent analysis of South African commissions reveals how they often fall short of this ideal, instead perpetuating systemic violence and delaying justice. The Commissions Act, 1947 (Act No. 8 of 1947), used for enquiries like the Zondo Commission on State of Capture, originated under British colonial rule. This embedded a legalistic facade for systemic violence. It enabled apartheid-era enquiries, such as the Hefer Commission (2003) and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which probed allegations of apartheid espionage against the then-National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli and the then-Justice Minister Penuel Maduna, and apartheid-era crime, respectively, to probe without any accountability. There was also the Donen Commission, which probed the UN's 'oil for food' program, which exonerates individuals linked to the scandal, like Tokyo Sexwale and former Director General Sandile Nogxina. Like colonial inquests pathologising indigenous resistance, modern commissions prioritise bureaucratic order over human dignity. Actress Tebogo Thobejane's condemnation, 'No mention of the lack of protection… left to fight alone,' echoes this centuries-old erasure. After a brush with death, she now attends a trial process that offers legal theatrics, not safety. Thobejane, a survivor of a hit allegedly engineered by her ex-boyfriend Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala and his wife, feels betrayed by the lack of protection against the suspected mastermind of the underworld. Commissions ritually harvest victim trauma while withholding redress. Matlala will likely be the subject of a commission of inquiry headed by acting deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga after his name was mentioned by KwaZulu-Natal provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi two weeks ago. The Marikana Commission, which was established after the August 2012 massacre of Lonmin mine workers, gathered 641 days of testimony from widows of massacred miners and colleagues of the departed miners yet delivered no prosecutions or timely reparations. Similarly, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) heard 21,000 victim testimonies but granted amnesty to 1,500 perpetrators, providing only negligible justice. This dynamic inherits colonial evidence-gathering: Black pain becomes archival fodder, catalogued and then discarded. As Thobejane noted, President Cyril Ramaphosa's speeches often overlook victims, reducing their experiences to procedural footnotes. Commission structures inherently protect power networks. The Mokgoro Commission (2018) and Ginwala Inquiry (2007) scrutinised prosecutors threatening political elites under the NPA Act. Enquiries into police violence, such as those in Khayelitsha (2012), operated with weaker mandates. This bifurcation mirrors colonial "divide and rule" tactics, ensuring that accountability evaporates. The Zondo Commission's R1 billion inquiry, for instance, yielded minimal prosecutions despite documenting over R1.5 trillion in state capture. Victims like Thobejane receive a whiff of justice, marked by endless postponements while perpetrators retain influence. Ramaphosa's latest commission of inquiry's mandate is investigation, not prosecution. Judicial appointments cloak commissions in false objectivity. Retired judges like Farlam (Marikana) and Seriti (Arms Deal) lent legitimacy to enquiries that ultimately shielded the interests of the state and corporations. The president's latest 'independent commission' further demonstrates how these bodies often obscure underlying political complexities and power struggles. This legal theatre pathologises victims: Marikana miners were framed as 'illegal strikers,' while Thobejane's assault became a tabloid spectacle. When commissions centre perpetrators' due process over victims' safety, they enact "terror through bureaucracy." The TRC's unresolved legacy continues to haunt recent and past commissions. Thirty years later, only 137 of its recommended prosecutions have been investigated, while apartheid-era cases like the Cradock Four murders remain in legal limbo. Nomonde Calata's tears at a 2025 inquest echo her 1996 TRC testimony, testifying to the commission's broken promises. Thobejane's demand for 'accountability and support' confronts this cycle; her ex-boyfriend faces new charges while his police and political connections remain intact. Reparations remain theoretical: TRC victims received a single payment of R30 000 each, while Marikana families await R1 billion in compensation. This reflects colonialism's core calculus: human suffering indexed against fiscal "pragmatism."Breaking this machinery requires centring victims as architects, not evidence. Unlike President Ramaphosa's commissions, a transformative approach would enforce existing recommendations: implementing the Khayelitsha Commission's 2012 police reforms, funding TRC-mandated educational reparations, and prosecuting the network of Thobejane's ex-boyfriend beyond his hitmen. Thobejane's courage, demanding protection while testifying, sets a model for this agency. Yet, without dismantling the Commissions Act and colonial-era legalisms, enquiries remain stone fortresses where violence is ritualised, not remedied. South Africa remains fractured by inequality, a landscape where commissions consecrate state power while the vulnerable fight alone in the ruins. (Gumede is a freelance journalist with interests in politics, economics, sports, travel, and community news. Her views don't necessarily reflect those of the Sunday Tribune or IOL)
