Truth: The road to reconciliation?

At the public hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hangs a banner, "Truth the Road to Reconciliation". These words encapsulate one of the principal paths South Africans have taken to deal with their dark past. To this end, the TRC has the express purpose of facilitating a truth recovery process through public hearings and statement-taking. Since its inception in December 1995, the TRC has aimed to give voice to the experiences of victims, witnesses and perpetrators, intent on uncovering as complete a picture as possible of the causes, nature and extent of past abuses. Thereafter, the TRC aims to make amends to victims through the granting of reparations and rehabilitative measures.

As part of its reconciliatory function, the TRC is also responsible for the granting of amnesty, which means that perpetrators of gross violations of human rights who meet TRC criteria are free from prosecution and all liability then falls away. To receive amnesty, perpetrators must have committed politically-motivated crimes and fully disclosed all the information concerning their actions. At the end of its term of office in March 1998, the TRC will document all of its findings in a comprehensive report, making recommendations aimed at preventing such large-scale abuse from ever occurring again.

To date, the TRC has taken some 10,000 statements from survivors or families of victims of murder, attempted murder, "disappearance" and torture. A number of representative cases have been selected for public hearings based on these statements. Sixty-five such hearings, at which victims have told their stories to the nation, have been held thus far. The TRC has also received a staggering 5,400 amnesty applications. Although time is running out, only 50 findings have been made, of which roughly 70 percent have resulted in situations where perpetrators of gross violations of human rights have been granted amnesty.

In evaluating the process, it is clear that providing space for victims to tell their stories has been of much use. It is the first time that many South Africans have been able to do so to a sympathetic ear. Furthermore, their cases have been referred to the 60-odd national investigators of the TRC Investigation Unit for thorough investigation. In the past, often due to police complicity, most people were turned away from police stations, particularly when their cases were of a political nature.

Despite the success of the hearings, the actual psychological impact of giving public voice to trauma has had varying consequences for victims. For some, it has been the final leg of a personal healing journey while for others, it has only been the first step. Throughout the TRC process, there has often been a simplistic assumption that catharsis through telling one's story is sufficient for emotional healing. This is only partially true. For many, although public acknowledgement of their suffering may have restored their dignity and taken away feelings of guilt, psychological healing remains far off and of a highly personalised matter. Such healing usually requires ongoing support from professionals, community groups, relatives and other support structures like religious bodies. The individual follow-up of victims by the TRC has not been as extensive as was hoped. Undoubtedly, the emotional needs of many victims remain insufficiently addressed.

© 1997 - 2022 Zapiro (All Rights Reserved). 
Originally published in The Sowetan in 1997. 
Printed/Used with permission. 
More Zapiro cartoons at www.zapiro.com

Regarding reparations or compensation for victims, the TRC is only responsible for drawing up policy as reparations will be steered by the government following the TRC-mandated period. The hearings have revealed that the needs of survivors and families of victims are varied. Some people simply want a tombstone to commemorate the death of a loved one, others want financial assistance due to the loss of a bread winner, while some demand that the perpetrator be punished. On a psychological level, reparations can serve for survivors as a symbol representing that they have come to terms with a trauma. On a purely practical level though, the sheer number of victims needing reparation makes the idea of individualised reparation difficult to imagine. Nonetheless, the government remains obligated to offer victims some form of compensation for their suffering because the granting of amnesty to perpetrators has denied victims the possibility of a civil claim.

In addition to possibly offering individualised reparation, the TRC will also make recommendations about symbolic ways of remembering the past. A memorial dedicated to those who lost their lives fighting against apartheid, perhaps similar to the Vietnam War Memorial, is certainly a possibility.

The amnesty granting function of the TRC remains most controversial. Political analysts argue that amnesty is necessary to ensure a peaceful resolution in South Africa and that large-scale prosecutions are simply not possible given the inefficiencies of the criminal justice system. For survivors and families of victims, it remains difficult to see perpetrators walk free yet the South African model is a significant improvement to that of other countries, though, as amnesty is not automatic or blanket. Perpetrators have to qualify for amnesty, specifically needing to make a full, public confession. This means that for many people, the truth about the past will finally be known.

However, despite the value of knowing the truth as implied by the TRC slogan, truth alone does not always lead to reconciliation. Some victims may be satisfied by knowing the facts, particularly in the case of a "disappearance" but for others, truth may heighten anger and calls for justice rather than leading to feelings of reconciliation. There is also the constant threat of a perpetuated cycle of revenge once the truth is out. Thus, survivors and families of victims need to accept their anger as legitimate without feeling they are expected to forgive perpetrators. Community-based groups provide some victim support as outlets for frustrations. In contrast, the TRC has at times failed to provide adequate space for victims to vent their anger.

Even if the compromise of amnesty had to be made for pragmatic reasons, the TRC has failed to make it explicit that the Commission is of the opinion that it was an "evil" compromise. This may have devastating effects. It can leave victims feeling that the TRC favours perpetrators over themselves. This perception is further heightened by the sense that at present it appears as though perpetrators have more to gain by receiving amnesty than victims have through reparation. Reparation seems distant as it will only occur once the TRC is over and their is no guarantee of what form it will take. A further problem is that no matter what form of reparation is offered, it can never bring back a loved one. Coming to terms with the past psychologically can only in part be addressed by a reparations policy.

The road to reconciliation in South Africa remains a thorny one. Undoubtedly, the TRC has helped smooth the path. The value of publicly revisiting the sad and brutal days of apartheid has opened the eyes of many, having partially developed a collective history for South Africans and allowed victims to evolve a new meaning for their suffering. However, individual processes of forgiveness and reconciliation may not always intersect with the collective process offered by the TRC at this time.

It is a mistake to assume that storytelling equates with healing and that truth alone will lead to reconciliation. Truth does not ensure transformation. Much work remains to be done to actively engage with the offending institutions like the security forces to secure lasting change. Simply knowing the truth is no guarantee that a human rights culture will permeate their future operations. Perhaps most basically, the new government has the difficulty of delivering real economic change because all the truth in the world will never address the multiple effects and miseries created by ongoing poverty.

This article was published in Cantilevers: Building Bridges for Peace, Vol. 3, 1997. At the time, Brandon Hamber was the Manager of the Transition and Reconciliation Unit at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

A Triad of Oppression: Violence, Women and Poverty

Noreen Callaghan, Brandon Hamber & Spiwe Takura

NGO Matters: Poverty Special, South African NGO Coalition, August 1997

Violence against women and poverty literally go hand in hand. It is unfortunately true that a high proportion of all women in South Africa suffer an inordinate number of beatings, rape and emotional abuse. However, being poor increases that risk of exposure to violence enormously.

There is growing evidence that living in impoverished conditions increases a woman's risk to all types of violence. Murder rates worldwide, as an example, are found to be highest in areas where poverty is the most prevalent. This is not to say that there is always a direct relationship between poverty and violence - but poverty is an important factor that needs to be considered when trying to understand the rates and distribution of violence against women.

Women's vulnerability derives not only from the threat of direct violence. They have been the historic victims of political and economic exclusion and have suffered the ravages of patriarchy, sexism and discriminatory practices that have kept them outside of social, political and economic power structures. In addition, socio-cultural conditioning has resulted in the fact that women and girls are often prepared for marriage and child-rearing but not for the job market.

This economic vulnerability limits their chances to change their situation when confronted with violence. Poverty-stricken women, and particularly those in rural areas, are often financially dependent, have limited access to employment and are unsupported mothers who must fulfil the role of caregiver. As a result they have few alternatives and options if they wish to leave a violent situation or community. On top of this, in most impoverished areas in South Africa, women have limited access to health, education, social, psychological and legal services.

The result is that there is evidence to show that African women, who are undoubtedly the poorest sector of our society, are more than ten times likely to experience an incidence of violence compared to their white counterparts. Recent South African police statistics also show that levels of rape are often highest in provinces which are economically less developed.

The reasons for this relationship between violence against women and poverty are numerous. apartheid's economic exploitation and segregation systematically resulted in much higher levels of poverty for black South Africans and women in particular. A range of factors have contributed to high levels of violence against women in poor areas. These factors include transiency of the population, over-crowding, disrupted family life, a mentality of dependency and the socialised acceptance of violence as a way to solve problems.

Photo by Jametlene Reskp / Unsplash

It is thus imperative that programmes designed to eradicate poverty and reduce violence against women address the many social and economic complexities that contribute to the magnitude of oppression that poor women face. While there is a need for broad national policies and campaigns, local programmes targeted to the specific needs of diverse communities are essential. As the needs of rural and urban communities in each province will differ, so too will the approach needed to combat violence and poverty vary in each community. Above all what is needed is a gender focused development strategy which takes into consideration the unique needs of poor women.

A gendered approach to poverty reduction would concentrate on the economic development and empowerment of poor women. It would provide resource generating opportunities that are easily accessible and conducive to a woman's needs and, if necessary, her schedule as a caregiver. In rural areas, it is crucial that indigenous women be given access to the ownership of land. Programmes should provide financial assistance and credit at accommodating interest rates and convenient terms of repayment so as to increase a woman's opportunity to engage in small scale business activities. Programmes must provide education and employment training that builds the capacity of women to become economically independent and thus enables them to alter situations of violence. Functional literacy programmes are a crucial step in empowering women to take control of their own lives.

It is also necessary when designing poverty eradication programmes to address the social and public health depravation of poor communities. Free and accessible health services for women and children must be provided. Services such as shelters for abused women, counselling services and legal resources are essential if women suffering from violence are to be empowered to transform their situation.

As demonstrated, violence against women is a multi-dimensional issue. Despite the complexities, or perhaps because of them, it is important that there be a national learning process against such violence. The problem calls for a campaign on human rights that promotes a culture of tolerance, that cultivates respect for women's economic and social contributions and that advocates for women's safety and ultimately their lives.

There is much to be done in the fight against violence and poverty and the effect these have on women. However, we owe it to those women who suffer from the double oppression of poverty and violence to help them to transform conditions of dependence and hopelessness to those of empowerment and progress.

Callaghan, N., Hamber, B. & Takura, S. (1997). Violence, Women and Poverty: A Triad of Oppression. NGO Matters, Poverty Special, August, South African National NGO Coalition.

Noreen Callaghan is a former Research Intern at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

Brandon Hamber is the former Manager of the Transition and Reconciliation Unit at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

Spiwe Takura is a former Training Co-ordinator at the Centre for the study of Violence and Reconciliation.

What Happens when you are Exposed to Violence

Thabo, 17 years old, witnessed the death of his father during a violent robbery. Since that time he has been unable to sleep, has nightmares, feels very sad most of the time, has been fighting with his friends and cannot stop thinking about the event. He blames himself and in his head he goes over and over what he could have done to prevent his father's death. Thabo is experiencing what can be called a post (after) traumatic response.

Thabo's reactions are common in people who have been in dangerous situations in which they have been powerless. These sorts of situations generally involve seeing violence or being a victim of violence, although any dangerous situation can cause such a reaction. Examples include violent crime, assault, threats, car accidents, being in war situations, rape and political violence.

When in situations like these people often feel like they cannot cope. Others say that during the event they felt numb, like they were frozen. After the event people experience reactions that affect their behaviour and emotions.

Photo by Jon Tyson / Unsplash

Feelings of confusion, headaches, vomiting, feeling cold, being without feelings and shaking are common. In most cases people cannot sleep after the incident and have nightmares. Feelings of suddenly being back in the situation and not being able to stop thinking about it are common. Being scared all the time, worried and unable to relax is typical. Some may talk about the event all the time and others may try to keep it to themselves. Feeling depressed, sad, crying all the time and not wanting to do your normal activities can also happen. Everyone feels guilty and most people blame themselves for what happened.

The life-style of the person can change. Often people find that they lose their tempers easily, close relationships are difficult and many people feel very angry. At work most people find it hard to concentrate and seem to forget things. In the long-term, and in extreme cases, some people get self-destructive (i.e. purposefully hurt themselves), many people start drinking a lot of alcohol or taking drugs and other people even want to kill themselves.

When all of these feelings start happening most people feel that they are going crazy and will be unable to cope anymore. However, it is important to know that to experience these feelings is normal and natural. People often have these types of responses to trauma. People who have these responses are not sick or weak. They will usually get strong and feel well again if they get support from their families, community members (e.g. priests) and people who are trained to help with these sorts of problems like trauma counsellors and psychologists.

If you have been exposed to violence do not be afraid to seek help. Speak to those you trust and share your experiences. Services are also available, phone Sophie or Mpho at the Trauma Clinic (Tel: 011 403-5102) for more information or if you would like to speak to someone about your difficulties.

Published by Brandon Hamber & Mercy Hlungwani on 14 June 1997 for Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, South Africa.

Brandon Hamber is a clinical psychologist.

Mercy Hlungwani is a psychiatric nurse.

When should society tire of the voices of the past?

The kitchen of a small house in downtown São Paulo, Brazil, is the meeting place of the Comissão de Familiares de Mortos e Desaparecidos Politicas (Commission of the Families of Political Murder Victims and the Disappeared), an organisation of family members whose loved ones were killed during the military dictatorship in Brazil.

The kitchen is lined with filing cabinets that contain information collected by the families on some 400 cases of murder and "disappearances".

Unlike in South Africa, there was no official investigation in Brazil following the military regime. Without any governmental support, it has been these families and human rights activists who have had to try to find information on the "missing" and the dead.

Some 20 years since the "disappearances" the relatives are still trying to establish the truth about what happened to their loved ones.

During the period of military rule in Brazil (1964 to 1985) thousands of citizens were persecuted, forced into exile, murdered and tortured. The official lists compiled by human rights organisations report thousands of cases of torture, 240 people murdered and 144 missing. Relative to other countries in South America, these numbers are negligible.

Rafael Rabello de Barros, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Comparisons to the 30 000 "disappeared" in Argentina are of little comfort to the relatives who feel that the atrocities committed by the Brazilian government have received little attention since the passing of a general amnesty in 1979.

Although a civilian government was instated in 1985, the families of the "disappeared" have continued to seek the truth and draw attention to the numerous atrocities carried out by the past government.

Groups of this nature are not uncommon around the world, and such organisations have emerged in at least 16 countries. Most of these organisations have developed spontaneously.

Their roots lie often with relatives who have met as a result of their common experiences. Stories of meeting one another at government offices and police stations while seeking information about their loved ones are common.

Groups exist in almost all Latin American countries and have also been established in African countries such as Chad, Ethiopia and Morocco. Similar groups also operate in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Turkey, Croatia and in China.

These groups are diverse in membership and objectives, but generally share three common aims: a demand for information about what happened to their loved ones; a need for official acknowledgment; and a quest for justice in respect of those responsible.

In Latin America truth, social and psychological rehabilitation, and acknowledgment are generally placed before the need for compensation. As most of the groups have developed in the context of blanket amnesties, there is an ongoing demand for justice.

Impunity for crimes committed under military regimes is the issue that sits hardest with relatives of the murdered and "disappeared" throughout the world.

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission is one of the boldest international efforts to try to meet some of these needs. Unlike a "blanket amnesty", the commission trades full disclosure or "truth recovery" for amnesty - thus potentially meeting victims' needs for truth and public acknowledgment.

In South Africa, amnesty is justified as being necessary to ensure peace. It is considered that prosecutions could not have been guaranteed due to inefficiencies in the criminal justice system and a lack of access to information necessary to sustain successful prosecutions.

Most victims would probably agree that an investigation like the truth commission is a necessary first step to uncovering the truth. However, the onus is not on victims to accept any amnesty agreements. Rather, the commission has the responsibility to explain amnesties and has to be prepared for the angry responses.

It is critical that it is not demanded, either implicity or explicity, that victims are expected to forgive the perpetrators. Families' anger or other emotional responses to the granting of amnesty to perpetrators has to be legitimised and space provided for people to express their feelings.

The lessons from other countries are that amnesties are always unpopular. Ironically, if the truth is uncovered, this may stimulate rather than eliminate families' demands for justice.

Even with the efforts of the truth commission, the varied nature of the cases and the impossible search for the truth means that the issues of the past can be expected to remain on the agenda for many years.

Despite the Chilean Commission of 1991 being reported as the most successful truth commission to date, today people still seek to report past cases and many are unaware that the commission even took place.

In South Africa we need to guard against the attitude that once the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is over, the chapter on the past is closed. For the victims of past abuses, the chapter only closes when they are personally ready.

This can be more challenging than it sounds. Take one faction of the victims' group the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, for example, who refuse any form of reparation and compensation. They will not even participate in any official investigations or bodies, and insist: "You took them away alive, we want them back alive".

Perhaps they only want others to experience the frustration thay have felt and are determined to offer constant reminders that, in reality, there is nothing that can ever be done to replace their "missing" loved ones. As bizarre as this extreme position sounds, if we are to truly sympathise with victims we are required to understand it. 

In Brazil, the government has recently agreed to compensate the families for the murdered and "disappeared", but the relatives say compensation was never their goal. They see this as the government's final attempt to buy their silence and close the book on the past, but without disclosing the facts of what happened. 

As a result, the families of the "disappeared" in Brazil are referred to by both those from the left and the right as "dinosaurs". They are seen as harping on the past. The society is tired of these mothers who will not be appeased or who cannot forget.

The real question is: at what point does a society become tired of hearing the voices of the past? In South Africa, despite even the most valiant efforts of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, we can expect to hear the voices of victims long into the future.

The challenge to all South Africans is to learn to cope with, and accept as legitimate, the ongoing anger and even impossible demands of victims who will continue their struggle for an ever-elusive truth.

Originally published by Brandon Hamber in Mail and Guardian, 24 March 1997

Brandon Hamber is a clinical psychologist and at the time was the co-ordinator of the Transition and Reconciliation Unit at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation

 

Rape a symptom of transitional turmoil

Media coverage of cases has mystified and distorted the problem by not showing that this violent crime knows no boundaries of race, class or politics

Since the recent high-profile rapes in the Johannesburg suburbs of Malvern and Observatory, the phones at the Trauma Clinic of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) have been ringing off the hook. In itself, this is not unusual. Nor has the already high proportion of callers seeking counselling because they have been raped, gang-raped or victimized through domestic sexual violence, changed significantly. However, in the past two weeks an unusually large number of the callers have been journalists whose primary questions have been: "Can you give statistics on the upsurge in the number of rapes in the last two months? What is causing this rape epidemic?". To us, it appeared as if South Africa had suddenly discovered rape.

It is not disputed that South Africa has a very high incidence of rape. Nor is there any doubt that for the survivors, rape is one of the most devastating personal traumas - not least because of the stigma and "shame" often endured by victims as a result of the popular misconceptions and mythology associated with this kind of crime. For all these reasons, media attention and civic education with respect to rape is clearly to be welcomed.

But sensationalist and emotional media responses have arguably done more to mystify and distort the problem of rape, than they have done to elucidate it. Any observer of the media coverage given to the Observatory and Malvern rape cases could be forgiven for making at least two assumptions which are intrinsic to the mythology associated with rape in South Africa. Firstly, they may well assume that the majority of rape cases are across racial lines - that most rapists are young black men and that their preferred victims are young white women. Secondly, readers may also assume that rape is mostly committed by sexually motivated strangers.

It is ironic that these are the very myths about rape that so many women's organisations, NGOs and rape counsellors have for years being trying to redress. Rape as a crime - and the trauma which it causes - knows no boundaries of race, class or political persuasion. Although available information is sketchy, it is nonetheless apparent that rape occurs considerably more frequently within racial groups than it does across the "colour line". In South Africa, the majority of rape victims are impoverished black women who can least afford or access the medical and psychological attention which they so badly require.

Furthermore, despite receiving considerable media attention, the majority of rapes do not occur between strangers. More often than not the perpetrators are not unknown intruders, but rather are known to the victims. "Date-rape", rape by neighbours, husbands, fathers and relatives are the most common types of rape. Rather than being a product of rampant sexual desire, rape is an assertion of power and a violent crime of aggression.

Finally, far from being "new", the magnitude of the problems of rape and gang-rape have been enduring manifestations of the turmoil and social conflict of violent transition in apartheid South Africa. For at least the last decade, the political and criminal violence rooted in apartheid - and which has so dominated the front pages of the commercial press - has been matched by incremental increases in the more "private" phenomena of rape, marital battery and child abuse. This has been an ongoing symptomatic manifestation of the growing powerlessness and perceived emasculation of men in this violence-ridden and traditionally male-dominated society.

Source https://www.csvr.org.za/in-the-shadow-of-femicide-the-unseen-trauma-of-families-in-search-of-healing-and-justice/

There are some clear illustrations of this. It is no coincidence that the phenomenon of "jack-rolling" - a colloquial term given to gang-rape - emerged in Soweto during the tumultuous township conflicts of the mid and late 1980s. The term has its origins in the name of a youth gang called the "Jack-Rollers" who's modus operandi was primarily the gang-rape of young girls, rather than any other more "traditional" forms of acquisitive crime.

Rape and violence against women or children, represents a "displacement of aggression" which is rooted in violent social conflict. In this manner, men of all races symbolically reassert their power and masculinity within the last social arenas in which they still traditionally hold sway - over women and children in the family and the home.

Child rape too has continued unabated. On any one day, clinical psychologists at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation's Trauma Clinic, may see as many as fifteen cases of child rape. Yet even with a welcome recent upsurge in public awareness of child abuse, such crimes have routinely gone under-reported or under-analyzed in the commercial press.

The actions of gang-rapists cannot be divorced from the decayed social fabric bequeathed by apartheid, including the "bastardization" of the family and the destruction of benevolent parental authority. Nor can it be detached from the deficits in our criminal justice system, the failures of our education system, entrenched sexism, or the history of institutionalised violence in South African society. However, the media have often failed by not reporting on these issues and the complexities of the social phenomenon of rape. Instead they have tended to focus on the "drama" of serial rape or have chosen to report on - and have frequently sensationalized - the human dramas of the victims. This has often involved painting doomsday scenarios of victims who are irreparably damaged and for whom there appears to be no solution and no future. These are precisely the wrong messages to convey to the 20 or so other women whose rapes go unreported for every reported rape case. These scenarios deny the experiences of the women and children who have survived the ordeal of rape and who have embarked on a process of healing.

Perhaps most striking is the lack of public and media attention given to the ordeal which survivors of rape must endure in the form of "secondary victimisation" which they go through at the hands of the criminal justice system in South Africa once they have reported their cases. It is positive that the Observatory and Malvern cases have cast the public spotlight on such issues as the application of bail regulations. However, much of this has been shaped by a punitive obsession with alleged perpetrators, rather than being viewed through the perspectives of the victims themselves.

It is not a tightening of bail regulations that secures successful prosecutions or that will re-build the popular credibility of our criminal justice system. Until we deal with the investigative incompetencies and the grave difficulties of transforming police investigations into successful prosecutions, our criminal justice system will continue to re-victimise rape survivors by failing to apprehend the rapists.

In his stated intention to amend the Constitution so as to limit the right to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty, the Minister of Justice substitutes our collective human rights for the failures of the criminal justice system, as the major source of impunity for rapists. Yet it is arguable that it is in fact the "politics of impunity" which is more responsible.

Originally published by  Graeme Simpson, Mary Robertson and Brandon Hamber in The Star, 23 January 1997. 

Graeme Simpson is a founder and former Executive Director of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR), Mary Robertson is a former Manager of the Trauma Clinic and Brandon Hamber is Director of INCORE, University of Ulster.