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Truth or Reconciliation Mechanism – 1993

There was no reported progress on establishing a truth or reconciliation commission between 1991 and 1992.

In his interview with the The Guardian in 1993, Nelson Mandela stated that the ANC still wanted to set up a truth commission to investigate civil rights abuses during the anti-apartheid struggle. He said that the commission would “collect evidence to deal with those people who wanted to be indemnified – not for the purpose of having a Nuremberg trial, but for the purpose of granting an indemnity on an individual basis.”¹

National debate on establishing truth commission started in August 1993. The ANC reportedly called for the establishment of a national commission to probe past human rights abuses by all parties to the conflict in South Africa. In a news conference held on August 30, 1993, ANC Secretary-General, Cyril Ramaphosa, stated that the ANC “É call[ed] on the government to agree, following discussions with the ANC and other political and non-governmental organizations, to set up, without delay, a Commission of Enquiry or Truth Commission into all violations of human rights since 1948.” He further said that the purpose of such a commission would be to investigate all the violations of human rights – killings, disappearances, torture as ill treatment – from all quarters.”²

1. “PRESIDENT IN WAITING SPELLS OUT VISION FOR SOUTH AFRICA,” The Guardian (London), April 29, 1994.
2. “ANC wants national body to probe human rights abuses in South Africa,” United Press International, August 30, 1993.