WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-10-30 Time: 07:00:06 Posted By: Jan
By Jessica Bell
Recommendations put forward by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to transform society after apartheid have not been followed.
South Africans also “did not take the lessons of the TRC seriously enough”, this was word from former minister of intelligence Ronnie Kasrils at the 10th anniversary of the TRC.
Speaking at the first ever conference to redress and review the TRC’s recommendations on Tuesday, Kasrils said the lessons of the TRC were vital for the future of South Africa, but said he had never done anything specific to implement the recommendations.
On the first day of the three-day conference the overwhelming opinion of the speakers was that the recommendations had not been followed.
Keynote speaker Antjie Krog, author of Country of My Skull, based on her reportage of the TRC said that by not following the recommendations, the government had lost a “golden opportunity”.
“If the government followed the recommendations and gathered all South African citizens under the banner of reparation, having them pool their knowledge, practical links, skills and resources, then reconciliation could have become a fantastic mobilising force,” Krog said.
Award-winning journalist Tim Modise, who covered the TRC hearings, said that many South Africans still did not understand the importance of reconciliation.
Modise also said it was “a pity” that the recommendations had not been used to rebuild the country.
Fanie du Toit, executive director of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, said the conference provided an opportunity to see if the recommendations had been followed and if they remained a national priority.
The TRC had become an international benchmark in the field of reconciliation, but Krog said there was still much work to be done in terms of the recommendations “with all their limitations”.
But Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza said the TRC could never have been expected to reconstruct South Africa.
“It was a way for us to face the brutality of our past, but it was never structured in such a way that its recommendations could fix what is wrong in our country, or to heal the history bequeathed to us by apartheid,” he said.
The conference at the V&A Waterfront ends on Wednesday.