Posted on December 12, 2010
Wall of Names, Freedom Park. Credit Jo-Anne Duggan
Most of the work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was completed over a decade ago but there is renewed interest in the process. A large amount of literature has been generated as a result of the commission's work. Recently, a number of books and discussions have focused on the question of whether the TRC has succeeded in reconciling South Africans, or not. Some are even of the opinion that the TRC, conceived as a project to heal South African society, seems to have largely served as a means to achieve a political goal.
The TRC was established by the South African government in 1996 to investigate cases of extra-judicial executions, disappearances, abductions and torture that occurred between 1960 and 1994. Although the TRC was widely regarded as a successful process, former Archbishop Desmond Tutu who chaired the commission acknowledged his own dissatisfaction with its results. Issues of redress and material reparations are still elusive and it has been argued elsewhere that as long as this is the status quo, reconciliation will remain unattainable. The commission received 1500 statements concerning cases of disappearances, and in its final report listed 477 unresolved cases. These are form part of what has become known as the "unfinished business" of the TRC.
In 2003, then South African President Thabo Mbeki directed the national Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate 500 cases of persons that were reported missing by the TRC. Of these, only 150 were identified for immediate investigation and actions including exhumations, the handover of remains to families, reburial and memorialisation. The Priority Crimes Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) formed a partnership with the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (Equipo Argentino de Antropologaa Forense, or "EAAF"), a non-governmental organisation that was created in 1986 as an initiative of various human rights organisations in Argentina. The EAAF was formed with the aim of developing forensic anthropology techniques to help locate and identify Argentineans who had disappeared during the period of the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. The team acquired worldwide recognition by identifying the remains of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, found in Bolivia. The EAAF was brought in to ensure that international best practices are adhered to and also to build capacity so as to address skills gaps in terms of Forensic Anthropology in South Africa.
During the 1980s the apartheid government had shifted from legal repression towards the clandestine elimination of guerrillas and activists who were killed and buried in anonymous graves. Most of the people that were killed were buried in secrecy as Jane or John Does in local cemeteries or on farms and forests across the country. So far, the remains that have been exhumed and positively identified using forensic examinations are the Mamelodi Ten (youngsters that were lured by a special forces informant, pretending to be recruiting them for military training in exile); The Nieteverdien Four, MK operatives who were shot dead by the security forces after crossing into South Africa from Botswana; Mmabatho Two, MK operatives who were killed after being detected by the Bophuthatswana Security Police. The Azanian People's Army cadres, the Zeerust Two who were also killed after crossing the border from Botswana and most recently the PEBCO Three who were killed at an old abandoned rural police station in Cradock were also positively identified by the EAAF.
The identified remains were handed over to their families for re-burial during a ceremony at the Freedom Park in Pretoria in 2008. The identification of remains provides a great source of consolation to families suffering from trauma as a result of having a loved one who "disappeared". But, there is still a long way to go before all 500 individuals reported missing by the TRC are identified. This is largely due to inconsistent evidence that was provided to the TRC by those who had applied for amnesty. In addition to this, a number of cemeteries in the country do not have proper record keeping systems that usually enable the location of those who were buried as paupers. DNA analysis is also very expensive and the required technology is not readily available in South Africa, delaying the identification process further.
The names of the dead, already handed over to relatives for reburial, have now gone through Freedom Park's verification process. But, they have yet to be inscribed on the Wall of Names which together with other elements of the park such as the gallery of leaders, the reeds, the sanctuary and the eternal flame is positioned as the symbolic resting place for those who died during the struggle for freedom in South Africa. The symbolic significance of Freedom Park reflects the ethos of the National Heritage Resources Act of 1999. The preface to this Act states that legislation is intended to facilitate healing, material and symbolic restitution. Unfortunately, to date, the trend has been towards symbolic rather than material restitution. Where material restitution has occurred there is a tendency towards the manipulation of benefits for the economic advantage of a few.
The symbolic restitution that is displayed in the memorialisation process of the TRC cases can be argued to be an improvisation that may be symptomatic of an avoidance of the difficult and often disavowed subject of material restitution. The notion of socio-economic reparations is still a sensitive issue in South Africa as it will require an honest engagement with the horrors of the past and their ripple effects. Traumatic pasts tend to bring about a silencing of difficult memories that may, however, erupt in the present. The eruptions of this "unfinished business"Â have the potential to defer the very process of reconciliation they seek to achieve.
Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya is the Deputy Director of the Archival Platform