The Failed Reconciliation Project

The failures of a single sided reconciliation project is starting to show that a reconciliation where justice is not served will eventually lead to place whereby the perpetrators are seen to be of a higher standing than the victims. Reconciliation was negotiated for by politicians who “represented” the views of the majority of the black victims against the perpetrators who in this case where a minority white elite who had grown up in a country where they were more equal than the original inhabitants of the land that they colonized. From the time that Jan Van Riebeck landed on the Cape in 1652, the first victims of white oppression were the San and Khoi people who were the original inhabitants of Southern Africa. They had to undergo a process whereby they were being “civilized” by their colonizers in order to fit into the so called “pure race” as they were the only people who could classify what a civilised person had to look and act like. The results are there for one to see as the San people were not only deposed of their land, but alcoholism resulted in many of them loosing the essence of life that they lived. With the San and Khoi out the way after deadly battles, the move went North into places such as modern day Natal and the Eastern Cape where a mainly black population lived and they too were deposed of their land.

In 1910 with the creation of the Union of South Africa, black people’s lives were now in the hands of the English who were in control of the Cape and Natal colony as well as the Afrikaners who were in control of the Free State and Transvaal. The Land Act of 1913 ensured that a black majority had to share a mere 13% of the land while a minority white population had to share 87% of the land that was available. The beginning of Apartheid. By the time the National Party came into power under the leadership of D.F Malan in 1948, the effect of apartheid that was to come was already being felt by the majority black population who were not citizens in their own country. Over the next 42 years the human rights violations that were committed under the name of the “Bible” as a way of separate development as well as maintaining that one race is more pure than another were so severe on black people that many were arrested, left the country to go into exile and others killed for trying to be equal in the country of their birth. Then came the ever changing moment on February 2 1990 when F.W De Klerk declared that all political prisoners would be released and the unbanning of the ANC and PAC. A brave move by him then.

The negotiation period between 1990 and 1994 was a time whereby the ruling National Party ensured that with democracy being the new order of the day, they will settle for a situation where they come out and admit fully to the atrocities that they committed but in doing so they will be exempt from prosecution. Mandela and Tutu agreed. The Truth and Reconciliation Act of 1995 was drawn up and it was agreed that those who do not come out and speak the truth will be prosecuted by the National Prosecuting Authority. Some did come out and admit guilt and reveal the full extent of the atrocities they committed while others remained at home and watched as the proceedings continued. Blanket amnesty was given to criminals who knew very well that all they had to do was some how show some sort of remorse and their lives will carry on while those who suffered at their hands must live with the scars and the thought that their loved ones will never ever see the democracy they fought so hard to obtain.

Blanket amnesty creates issues because on the one hand South Africa had to get past the racial oppression that black people had to endure for many years, but in the same breathe the perpetrators whether fighting for liberation or fighting to maintain oppression, had to be jailed for the killings of innocent people. A legitimate system needs to uphold the rule of law while at the same time being able to reconcile perpetrators with the victims. Giving perpetrators blanket amnesty creates a situation where those that suffered feel like politicians negotiated their way into power at the expense of the majority black population who still suffer from racial oppression even in present day South Africa. The Reconciliation Project is a failure in that some perpetrators never came out to admit to their crimes yet the NPA is yet to even prosecute them. The lives of ordinary South Africans have not improved at all yet our politicians drive around in cars that make them look like rappers. Political freedom should not be about a small clique but about the greater good of the masses. Until such a time that people are held responsible for their actions, our justice system as well as the Tutu and Mandela Reconciliation project will remain failure’s in the eyes of ordinary black citizens. Sometimes a fight through the barrel of a gun looks more legitimate than a process of negotiations where those in power are more equal than others.

This is just a thought from a concerned son who see’s how an “Animal Farm” style negotiation process was used. It seems as if George Orwell was years ahead of his time…Equality, what Equality?