Dis-placing race: the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and interpretations of violence

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of South Africa was one of the first initiatives developed to begin the process of cultural and societal healing following the end of the Apartheid era. Yet apartheid, and specifically questions of race and racism, are strikingly absent from the interrogational framework of the TRC, in both its processes and products. This article assesses the TRC's engagements with race and racism and argues that the form they took was the result, although by no means a predetermined result, of the particular combination of contexts, influences and choices made both within and without the TRC.

This article outlines the mandate implemented by the TRC and considers briefly how this led to the particular and different orientations to race in specific sites of inquiry in its work: namely the human rights violations statements; the amnesty hearings; the perspectives of political parties; the sector hearings; and its Final Report. This article also traces the location of the TRC in the period of political transition in South Africa, and illustrates how certain ideological, historical and political momentums, both local and international, steered the TRC in particular interpretive directions.

The paper finds that:

• the TRC was clearly the product of a particular historical moment, and bears the limitations and markings of that moment in some damaging ways
• the 'lies' that it challenged and destroyed (the denial of the prevalence of torture for example) seemingly left other lies intact (whites were not the beneficiaries of apartheid)
• the discrediting of apartheid was also achieved through the public testimony of one victim and the confession of one perpetrator
• the TRC played a significant part in rupturing the highly segregated historical knowledge amongst South Africans.

The author argues that at present, it appears that the more potent site of transition, the real language of change, is around race and the economy and the cultural legacy of racism. This has implications for the proposed pursuit of trials against perpetrators and the ongoing saga of reparations. The author notes that as South Africa grapples with social 'disorders' exacerbated by dire racialised poverty such as AIDS and crime, cases against antiquated killers and torturers hardly appear to merit the title 'Priority Crimes' given to the unit pursuing post-TRC cases.

The paper concludes by noting that while of particular import in the South African context, race and other categories of structural inequality are also present as critical features of a number of other conflicts that have attracted the attention of those concerned with transitional justice. Engaging the debate around structural violence is a pressing concern, both in South Africa and abroad.