Claudia Braude, a South African journalist from Capetown, told a packed audience in 3 Rockefeller yesterday that, although the era of apartheid is over in her country, many of its supporters retain positions of importance in the media and government.
Braude was one of three panelists who engaged over 100 students, professors and community members in a colloquium on South Africa and its Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Dumisa Ntsebeza, a commissioner of the TRC, and Heidi Gruenbaum-Ralph from the University of Capetown joined Braude in explaining the workings of the TRC and the problems that face South Africa as it begins to deal with its past.
The TRC was established two years ago and is charged with gathering information about past crimes committed by the apartheid regime. A major component of the process is granting amnesty to individuals who will confess to their crimes, whether or not they express remorse for actions that often included torture and murder, the panel said.
In six months, the TRC will report its findings on all trials throughout South Africa to the current democratic government.
Ntsebeza said he spent years in jail as a political dissident under apartheid and is now one of the premier activists for the TRC.
He began the colloquium by highlighting the difficulties in finding truth in South Africa's past and then outlined the complex nature of granting amnesty.
But many inconsistencies exist in the TRC process, he said. "What we are saying is that people who have committed gross crimes against the state are being exonerated," Ntsebeza said.
In addition, Ntsebeza pointed out the fact that these crimes had been committed by citizens of the state, rather than by a foreign power, made the TRC even more important.
What all three speakers noted was that the process of seeking truth was not simply about forgiving and forgetting. Former South African president F.W. de Klerk, who has been hailed in parts of the world for helping to end apartheid, was criticized by Braude as one of the primary politicians who wants to exonerate those responsible for some of the most heinous crimes in South African history.
"De Klerk stands with his back firmly to the past," Braude said. What members of the TRC want to see, instead, is a concentration on this period, to help South Africans understand what happened to their nation in the 1980s, and to never let something like this happen again, Braude said.
According to Ntsebeza, the only reason some Security Police -- who perpetrated many of the infamous raids on townships and black protesters -- apply for amnesty is because they suspect they might be prosecuted.
This is the central problem in the TRC trials. As Ntsebeza pointed out, the process is about "understanding, not vengeance."
Yet in this process, South Africa is allowing criminals back onto the streets
There have, however, been many examples of former Security Police who have apologized for their crimes, and have broken down when they recounted what they did to those around them. This was portrayed during a brief video of scenes of the TRC trials which Gruenbaum-Ralph showed during her segment.
Braude said recent research has indicated that The Star, a popular newspaper throughout South Africa, has diverted attention from the TRC and its inquiries into the National Party -- the major political party that oversaw the era of apartheid -- towards more recent reports of crime in urban eras, including Johannesburg.
Braude claims that The Star may be trying to discredit the current democratic government with reports of rampant crime, while exonerating the National Party by not reporting their role in past raids, murders and illegal actions against protesters that have surfaced during TRC hearings.
Braude asked the attentive audience, "to what extent is the contemporary media being run by the same people as before?"
