Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa Amnesty: The Price of Peace

INTRODUCTION In order to understand the nature and implications of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa it is important to see the commission in both the national and the international context. South Africa has experienced racism and oppression of one form or another ever since the earliest days of colonialism. There are those who argue that the period under review for the Commission in South Africa should have started as far back as the first arrival of white settlers in 1652! Others are of the view that at the very least the commission should have looked at the period that began with South Africa's first constitution in 1910. There are also many who maintain that the starting point should have been 1948, when the National Party came into power. After careful consideration the Standing Committee on Justice in South Africa's Parliament decided to recommend that the period to be covered would be March 1960 to December 1993. The first date coincides with the banning of political organizations, severe oppression of any resistance to apartheid, and the Sharpeville massacre. The end date was arbitrarily chosen as the date when the negotiation teams decided on an amnesty provision in the Interim Constitution (this date was later changed to May 10, 1994, largely to include a number of right-wing Afrikaners who engaged in violent acts immediately prior to the election in April 1994).