Was South Africa's Truth Commission a Lie?

In 1995, the Nelson Mandela-led African National Congress (ANC) government set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a court-like body tasked with investigating crimes committed by the apartheid regime between 1960 and 1994. Proponents of the Commission marketed it as a silver bullet that would deliver justice for the victims of the regime and help the country move forward. However, not everyone was convinced. Many argued that the TRC was simply a get-out-of-jail-free card for apartheid criminals, as it allowed them to avoid prosecution. Among those who were not in support of the TRC was Letlapa Mphahlele, a long-time member of the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania. He argued that the Commission was biased towards the oppressors and threw victims under the bus. He lays down his argument in this video from 1997.

Considering that, some thirty years after the end of the oppressive system, very few apartheid-era politicians and security operatives ever went to jail for their crimes against Black South Africans, it seems that Mphahlele's prediction that the TRC would be an exercise in futility was spot on.

Credit: SABC/TRC

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/11/chris-hani-apartheid-killers-cant-force-victims-to-forgive

https://www.collegesoflaw.edu/blog/2019/01/08/trc-south-africa-study-abroad/#:~:text=Some%20South%20Africans%20felt%20a,apartheid%2C%20testified%20of%20his%20ignorance.

https://humanities.uct.ac.za/apc/trc-and-codesa-failed-south-africa-its-time-we-reflected