Latest news with #TruthandReconciliationCommission
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Health
- Al Jazeera
South Korea to end private adoptions after inquiry finds abuse rife
South Korea is set to end the decades-old practice of outsourcing adoptions to private agencies, after a damaging investigation concluded the country's government-endorsed foreign adoption programme violated the fundamental human rights of adoptees. On Saturday, South Korea will introduce a 'newly restructured public adoption system, under which the state and local governments take full responsibility for the entire adoption process', South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare said. South Korea sent more than 140,000 children overseas following the devastating 1950-53 Korean War, when intercountry adoption was encouraged as a solution. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigation concluded earlier this year that the international adoption process had been riddled with irregularities, including 'fraudulent orphan registrations, identity tampering, and inadequate vetting of adoptive parents'. The new change is a 'significant step towards ensuring the safety and promoting the rights of adopted children', the Health Ministry added. Under the new system, key procedures – such as assessing prospective adoptive parents and matching them with children – will be deliberated by a ministry committee, under the principle of the 'best interests of the child'. Previously, this had been done by major adoption agencies with minimal oversight from the state. The commission blamed the government for the issues, particularly a failure to regulate adoption fees, which turned the industry into a profit-driven one. 'With this restructuring of the public adoption system, the state now takes full responsibility for ensuring the safety and rights of all adopted children,' said Kim Sang-hee, director of population and child policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare. International adoption began after the Korean War as a way to remove mixed-race children, born to Korean mothers and American soldier fathers, from a country that emphasised ethnic homogeneity. It became big business in the 1970s to 1980s, bringing international adoption agencies millions of dollars as the country overcame post-war poverty and faced rapid and aggressive economic development. Activists say the new measure is only a starting point and warn it is far from sufficient. 'While I think it's high time that Korea close down all private adoption agencies, I don't believe … having the state handle new adoptions is enough,' said writer Lisa Wool-Rim Sjoblom, a Korean adoptee who grew up in Sweden. The government should prioritise implementing the findings of the truth commission, issue an official apology, and work to help the tens of thousands of Koreans who were sent abroad for adoption, Sjoblom told the AFP news agency. 'The government urgently needs to acknowledge all the human rights violations it enabled, encouraged, and systematically participated in, and, as soon as possible, begin reparations.'
IOL News
3 days ago
- Politics
- 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)
IOL News
6 days ago
- Politics
- IOL News
'Commissions Without Consequences': Experts cite TRC, Zondo, Marikana as missed opportunities
The effectiveness of commissions of inquiry in South Africa: A critical analysis Image: IOL South Africa's history is marked by numerous commissions of inquiry that have focused on investigating corruption, human rights abuses, and systemic failures. While some have made significant contributions to understanding these issues, others have struggled to deliver justice, raising concerns about their effectiveness, costs, and long-term impact. Recently, allegations involving Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, Deputy Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya, and officials linked to a criminal syndicate have once again thrust the spotlight on the role and effectiveness of these bodies following President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement that a commission of inquiry would be established to investigate the allegations. While commissions have played a crucial role in exposing wrongdoing, critics argue their impact often falls short of delivering tangible justice. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and established in 1995, was instrumental in addressing apartheid atrocities, fostering national healing through truth-telling, and encouraging dialogue among victims and perpetrators. However, many critics and some political parties argue that the commission failed in its primary goals of reconciliation and prosecution. Decades later, the Zondo Commission, set up in 2018 to investigate allegations of state capture involving former President Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family, uncovered widespread corruption at the highest levels of government. Its findings have led to numerous referrals for prosecution and prompted policy reforms. Yet, despite the hefty price tag - nearly R1 billion, many critics argue that it has yet to produce the expected results. Video Player is loading. 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Next Stay Close ✕ Other notable inquiries include the Seriti Commission, which investigated the 2012 arms deal but was widely criticised for failing to hold anyone accountable; and the Marikana Commission, which examined the police killing of 34 striking miners in 2012 but resulted in few prosecutions and lingering dissatisfaction among victims' families. Experts argue that many commissions have successfully exposed systemic abuses and informed public debate. However, translating these revelations into action remains a persistent challenge. Critics argue that commissions can serve as political tools rather than genuine agents of reform, citing political interference, limited resources, and the slow pace of follow-up actions as factors diminishing their ability to effect meaningful change. Independent political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe expressed skepticism about the actual utility of some commissions. 'There is nothing wrong with commissions of inquiry in unraveling societal challenges. The challenge arises when recommendations of commissions are ignored. 'South Africans have had the misfortune of having to contend with two of the worst commissions recently, the Nugent and Zondo Commissions. These commissions were politically tainted from the outset.' Seepe argued that their chair weaponised them to target specific individuals instead of providing insights into the country's challenges. 'They became arsenals of the so-called 'New Dawn' to target individuals associated with a certain faction within the ANC. Both these commissions have done no great disservice in South Africa's body politic to the extent that many South Africans have lost faith in commissions as mechanisms to address societal challenges.' In his academic article 'Integrity & Accountability Commissions of Inquiry: A South African Perspective,' Lauren Kohn proposed a permanent commission that seeks truth and enforces solutions. 'South Africans cannot again sleep through state capture. Abuses of public power must be brought to light and dealt with swiftly and effectively. Establishing a permanent commission would greatly enhance public trust and confidence in government, and indeed that of the 'state' more broadly. It exists to advance the public interest and perhaps even, as many authors suggest, 'the well-being of its members'.' Kohn felt that the presidency's adoption of this recommendation would also help to keep the spirit of truth and reconciliation alive. 'The benefits of commissions of inquiry have been examined above. One of their costs is that the public expenditure that goes into their operation does not yield real dividends when it matters most; namely, after their terms end, when reports tend to gather dust and recommendations get shelved.' Professor Dirk Kotze from the University of South Africa echoes this view, stating the importance of timely and well-resourced investigations. 'A commission of inquiry is a fundamental and practical mechanism to investigate. If it is done within the day, then it can be beneficial and prosperous. The challenge is often that the implementation of recommendations is delayed or inadequate, which diminishes their impact. 'The reason many commissions, like those on the PIC, fail to bring about tangible change is not due to their principle but political interference and resource constraints. It's often seen as an easy or cheap option, but without proper follow-through, its effectiveness is limited.' List of Commissions since 1995 include the Nel Commission (2001), Ngoepe Commission (2001), Inquiry into human rights violations in farming communities (2001), Jali Commission (2001), Ngobeni Commission of Inquiry (2001), Myburgh Commission (2002), Donen, Commission (2002), and Hefer Commission (2003). Khampepe Commission (2005), Ginwala Enquiry (2007), Seriti Commission (Arms Procurement) (2011), Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry (2012), Marikana Commission (2012), Cassim Inquiry (2015) Fees Commission (Higher Education and Nugent Commission (Tax Administration and SARS Governance) (2018), PIC Commission (Public Investment Corporation) (2018), and Mokgoro Commission (Fitness of NPA officials) (2018). IOL Politics
New Indian Express
11-07-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission work 'unfinished' 30 years on
JOHANNESBURG: Nomonde Calata's tears as she testified in court last month about her husband's assassination 40 years ago echoed the raw anguish heard during South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings after apartheid ended in 1994. From 1996 to 1998, the TRC heard harrowing accounts of murders, torture and other apartheid-era abuses from hundreds of victims and some perpetrators, aiming to expose the horrors and begin healing. Internationally hailed as a model in reconciliation, 30 years later its reputation is tarnished at home, where critics say the exercise allowed some to get away with their crimes. Calata was one of the first to appear at a hearing. In her mid-thirties, she told of the 1985 assassinations by police of her husband and other anti-apartheid activists known as the Cradock Four, one of the era's most notorious cases. She recounted the story again this year in June at a new inquest, still seeking justice and closure, this time supported by lawyers from the "Unfinished Business of the TRC" programme of the Foundation for Human Rights (FHR), a non-profit organisation. Set up by the July 26, 1995 "Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act", the TRC heard about 7,000 applications for amnesty from perpetrators of gross human rights violations from 1960 to 1994, the year white-minority rule ended. It rejected most, including for six apartheid policemen who confessed to involvement in the Cradock killings, and recommended criminal prosecutions for 300 cases where there was no full disclosure or when the acts did not have a clear political purpose. But only a handful of these were pursued. Claims that follow-up was deliberately squashed, including by politicians in the post-apartheid leadership, led President Cyril Ramaphosa to appoint an enquiry in May. With many perpetrators now deceased, the FHR hopes the investigation will uncover who blocked prosecutions and make them accountable instead, the group's executive director Zaid Kimmie, said. "So it would not be the original perpetrators," he told AFP. "But where people in the democratically elected post-1994 government interfered with criminal prosecutions, we hope that those people in turn will be pursued for the role that they have played in the miscarriage of justice." The TRC was a compromise for the "move forward without further bloodshed, without a civil war," Kimmie said. "Did it wipe away the antagonisms and the hurt that accumulated over the previous centuries? No, it couldn't do that," he said. Failure Of around 20,000 written witness accounts submitted to the TRC, more than 2,000 were heard in televised hearings open to the public. The process exposed the "full brutality" of apartheid as well as "some very hard truths" about anti-apartheid groups, said Verne Harris, who was a member of the TRC team. "Its most important achievement was to make any form of denial impossible -- denying the state terror, denying the special formations that were put in place by the apartheid state to assassinate activists and so on," he said.
The Sun
06-07-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Liberia president offers state apology over civil wars
MONROVIA: President Joseph Boakai offered a state apology to Liberians Saturday over the brutal violence and lingering trauma caused by the country's two civil wars, as the nation grapples with how to remember its troubled past. The president made the formal gesture during a reconciliation ceremony in the capital, Monrovia. He spoke just days after attending official funeral memorials for former presidents Samuel Doe -- tortured and murdered in 1990 at the beginning of the civil wars -- and William Tolbert, assassinated in 1980 when Doe staged a government coup. The ceremonies were also part of the ongoing national reconciliation effort. Liberia's two back-to-back wars devastated the small West African country from 1989 until 2003, claiming around 250,000 lives and resulting in massacres, mutilation, rape and the widespread use of child soldiers. 'On this historic occasion, I offer a formal apology on behalf of the state,' Bokai told those gathered for the event Saturday. 'To every victim of our civil conflict, to every family broken, to every dream shattered, we say: We are sorry.' The speech marked the first time since a 2009 reconciliation report recommended an apology that a president had so formally issued one, Aaron Weah, director of the Ducor Institute for Social and Economic Research, told AFP. The 2009 Truth and Reconciliation Commission report also recommended the establishment of a war crimes tribunal, but Liberia has yet to try anyone for crimes committed during the bloody conflicts. The tribunal recommendation went mostly unheeded particularly in the name of peacekeeping, since a number of accused warlords remained influential in the country's politics. In May 2024 Boakai took one step towards initiating the tribunal by signing an order setting up the Office of War and Economic Crimes Court. It is tasked with creating the eventual war crimes court. On Saturday Boakai called for 'implementing key recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.' 'There is hardly a Liberian family that has not been touched by the pain, the violence, and the injustice that have haunted our nation', Boakai said. For Weah, the funeral services and apology marked several weeks of 'transitional justice in Liberia' and 'actual deliberate actions of trying to implement the TRC'. 'The state could have done better but was used as agency', Boakai said during his speech, adding: 'We must do everything we can to make sure that it never fails you again.
