South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was meant to be the healing balm for a nation traumatised by the horrors of apartheid.
But 20 years later, hundreds of political crimes including murder, kidnapping and torture remain unpunished – and many blame the post-apartheid government for the delay.
The commission’s first public hearing on April 15, 1996 – two years after the end of white minority rule – was a solemn affair, met with both hope and apprehension.
In a packed town hall in the coastal city of East London, TRC chairman and Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu lit a candle, and the shocking testimony of atrocities committed during apartheid began.
Police hit-squads targeting government opponents, torture, gruesome executions, a student thrown from an aircraft: by the second day Tutu dropped his head in his hands and wept.
Less than a handful of these cases have been pursued
In exchange for full disclosure before the commission, police officers, soldiers and ministers could be granted amnesty for their political crimes.