Mbeki appearance highlights SA’s unfinished TRC peace and justice process

The TRC Cases Inquiry reached a significant milestone this week with the appearance by former president Thabo Mbeki. However, the survivors and families of apartheid-era atrocities victims who have been calling for Mbeki and his successors to come forward and help bring them closer to the truth and justice they have been seeking for years, were yet again left disappointed.

The commission was set up to investigate whether there was any political interference or obstruction of further investigation and prosecution of cases referred to the National Prosecuting Authority by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission more that 20 years ago. While Mbeki was the one who received the commission’s final report back in 2003 and the "buck stopped with him", as the families seeking justice argue, his testimony did not bring anyone closer to justice or closure. 

Without seeking to pre-empt the commission, there are a couple of important observations that can be drawn from Mbeki’s testimony. Firstly, on the positive side, it was good to see the law being observed even by a former president. Mbeki presented himself and cooperated with the commission – as he had to. However, his appearance, as well as the fact that millions of rands of taxpayers’ money has had to be used to run this commission suggests that he and his successors dropped the ball somewhere somehow with respect to the TRC and the broader peace, justice and reconciliation project begun so magnanimously during former president Nelson Mandela’s term.

During those roaring transitional early 1990s, South Africa rose spectacularly as an influential global beacon of dialogue and peaceful dispute resolution over military action. And while advocating for negotiations and peacefully searching for solutions, the leadership of the “new” democratic South Africa did not neglect the need for justice. Correctly so because peace is not just the end or absence of conflict, or simply "moving on", but requires the crafting and nurturing of a better and equitable co-existence that cannot be attained without dealing with the ugly past.

Clearly, something went terribly wrong after Mandela, at least particularly with respect to the TRC process. It does not seem like the nation-building and reconciliation baton was properly received by his successor.

The TRC provided a valuable, once-in-a-life-time opportunity for South Africa to confront its violent past and deal with it through our own special restorative justice process. It was a good start to our national healing. But the process was never going to be a sprint but a marathon. It was never going to be easy. Our leaders, as well as every citizen needed to stay the course.