Former presidents Mbeki and Zuma are forcing retired judge Sisi Khampepe to be removed as chair of TRC review process.
Former Presidents Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki. Picture: Canva generated.
You don’t, so the saying goes, make an omelette without cracking some eggs. In the process to concoct the omelette of South African democracy, undoubtedly some eggs had to be cracked… and perhaps the most important of those was, sadly, justice.
The idea behind the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was that those guilty of crimes in support of apartheid, or in the name of the liberation struggle, would be given amnesty from prosecution – provided they provided a full and truthful account of what they did.
That was, obviously, not what many families who had lost loved ones wanted to hear, but the trade-off was information in return for freedom.
It was calculated that the country’s need for truth, coupled with reconciliation, was the priority, rather than revenge.
Yet, there have always been suspicions that plenty of behind-the-scenes deals were done between oppressor and liberator – by those in charge of those different strands of our history – that would have to remain forever buried.
The strenuous efforts by former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma to force retired judge Sisi Khampepe to be removed as chair of the TRC review process leaves more questions than answers.
What exactly do these two men want to keep buried?
