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"15 April 2016 marked 20 years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings began. The TRC was set up to give an opportunity for perpetrators of human rights transgressions to come clean about the atrocities that happened during those evil days of apartheid. Sadly, only half of the truth came to the fore. Many families still do not know what happened to their loved ones. There are few people better placed than Mary Burton to write about the TRC, having been one of its Commissioners. Burton's pocket book provides an informed account from the inside of the process and workings of the TRC and a measured and balanced assessment of its outcomes and significance. Even at the time of its existence, the TRC came in for criticism from a variety of quarters: both the African National Congress and ex-President F.W. de Klerk took legal action to challenge or prevent the publication of the Commission's report; however, the Commission also fulfilled a vital and important role in the transition from apartheid to democracy, and it has become a model for other countries wishing to undertake similar journeys to deal with past atrocities and come to some kind of national resolution, reconciliation or closure."--Publisher's website

Following a negotiated transition to democracy in South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established to deal with crimes of the past regime. Despite the detail of submissions and the length of the Final Report, this article highlights the partiality of truth recognised by the Commission. The usefulness of acknowledged truth to deal with South Africa's past is shown to have been neutralised by wider concerns of social and criminal justice. In detailing the governmental reticence to provide reparations, the judicial disregard to pursue prosecutions, and the dismissal of responsibility for apartheid at a wider social level, the author argues that opportunities for reconciliation and developmental change are limited. Against the problems of crime, violence and unresolved land issues, the potential of the TRC to build a 'reconciliatory bridge' is called into question. The truth offered by the Commission increasingly appears of limited value.

South Africa's Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has invited more philosophical debate than any previous commission of its kind. This paper argues that political philosophers' interest in the TRC stems from its inherently inconsistent nature. Though the TRC appeared to offer an appealing approach to the ending of apartheid, the nature of the TRC meant that both justice & truth would be sacrificed in the process. This fact cannot simply be ignored. The paper outlines two concepts that have emerged in an attempt to rationalize the TRC. The first is the newly recognized concept of "restorative justice"; the second justifies the TRC by claiming that the choice is moral & does not appeal to justice. The paper argues that both ideas should be rejected & offers a new concept that would both sustain & develop democracy -- that of "transformative justice.". K. A. Larsen