Burden of the Past: South Africa’s Truth Commission Thirty Years Later
By Patrick Whang
UCT Emeritus Professor André du Toit has been intimately involved in South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) since the preliminary discussions to consider holding a “truth commission” began in the early 1990s. Prof. du Toit continued to follow the TRC process as an analyst, writing extensively on the outcome and impact of the Commission’s work. This past Wednesday evening, Prof. du Toit, in discussion with journalist and author Max du Preez, launched the second of his two-volume set on the legacy of the TRC: The Truth Commission and Its Burdens: Perpetrator findings and their consequences (Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology, 2024).
Like the two aging speakers, the majority of the audience was made up of older people, with a handful of young people in attendance. Some audience members were involved in the TRC, such as Black Sash activist Mary Burton, who served as a TRC commissioner. This gave the event a feeling of somber, historic reflection.
In his second volume, du Toit attempts to address two key questions:
Why did the TRC give rise to such high expectations for addressing the crimes committed during apartheid?
Why has the view of the TRC’s legacy been generally negative?
The discussion between du Preez and du Toit attempted to address these huge questions, as well as similar ones raised by audience members. Prof. du Toit indicated that the failure to implement the findings and recommendations that were laid out in the final TRC report were seen by the general public as “a failure of the Commission.” Du Toit argued that it was not so much a failure of the Commission as it was a combination of complex factors, along with the lack of political will to carry out the recommendations. He suggests that this presented higher expectations for the Commission’s impact than were possible.
Prof. du Toit’s two-volume set is available for purchase both at The Book Lounge and at Clarke’s Books.