{"id":24647,"date":"2016-04-16T03:53:14","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T03:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/murderers-free-20-years-after-horrors-of\/"},"modified":"2016-04-16T03:53:05","modified_gmt":"2016-04-16T03:53:05","slug":"murderers-free-20-years-after-horrors-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/murderers-free-20-years-after-horrors-of\/","title":{"rendered":"Murderers free 20 years after horrors of apartheid"},"content":{"rendered":"

{TRC was devised to steer South Africa from chaos and civil war and has been replicated elsewhere.}<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s Truth and Reconciliation Commission was meant to be the healing balm for a nation traumatised by the horrors of apartheid.<\/p>\n

But 20 years later, hundreds of political crimes including murder, kidnapping and torture remain unpunished \u2014 and many blame post-apartheid governments for the delay.<\/p>\n

The commission\u2019s first public hearing on April 15, 1996 \u2014 two years after the end of white minority rule \u2014 was a solemn affair, met with hope and apprehension.<\/p>\n

In a packed town hall in the coastal city of East London, TRC Chairman and Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu lit a candle, and the shocking testimony of atrocities began.<\/p>\n

Police hit-squads targeting government opponents, torture, gruesome executions, a student thrown from an aircraft: by the second day Archbishop Tutu wept.<\/p>\n

In exchange for full disclosure before the commission, police officers, soldiers and ministers could be granted amnesty for their crimes.<\/p>\n

It was a revolutionary concept, devised to steer a country on the brink of chaos away from civil war, and it has since been replicated in several other nations.<\/p>\n

Of the 7,000 amnesty applications received from 1996 to 1998, the TRC granted about 1,000.<\/p>\n

More than 300 cases were recommended for prosecution. But two decades later, many of those remain untouched.<\/p>\n

UNFINISHED BUSINESS<\/p>\n

\u201cLess than a handful of these cases have been pursued,\u201d said Tutu later, decrying the commission\u2019s unfinished business.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that parents go to the grave without finding out what happened to their loved ones is unforgivable,\u201d Howard Varney, a lawyer, told AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that a government that represented the force for liberation and democracy has turned its back on its people is equally unforgivable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thembi Nkadimeng, whose sister Nokuthula Simelane was abducted and tortured in 1983, calls it betrayal by the government.<\/p>\n

Simelane\u2019s body has never been found.<\/p>\n

When family members embarked on a mission to find out the truth behind her death, they hit dead-ends \u2014 including the disappearance of the case file.
\nThe prosecuting authority said it was investigating why these cases were taking long to conclude, adding that they were \u201cvery complicated\u201d as many had to start from scratch.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{TRC was devised to steer South Africa from chaos and civil war and has been replicated elsewhere.} South Africa\u2019s Truth and Reconciliation Commission was meant to be the healing balm for a nation traumatised by the horrors of apartheid. But 20 years later, hundreds of political crimes including murder, kidnapping and torture remain unpunished \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24647"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24647"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}