DOCSLIB.ORG

Truth in the Time of Tumult

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Truth in the Time of Tumult 2016 Truth in the Time of Tumult Tracing the Role of Official ‘Truth-seeking’ Commissions of Inquiry in South Africa, from Sharpeville to Marikana CLAIRE-ANNE LESTER University of Cape Town The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town 1 A minor dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree Master of Philosophy in Justice and Transformation Faculty of the Humanities University of Cape Town 2016 COMPULSORY DECLARATION This work has not been previously submitted in whole, or in part, for the award of any degree. It is my own work. Each significant contribution to, and quotation in, this dissertation from the work, or works, of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced. Signature: Date: 7 November 2016 Word Count: 26 928 (Excluding Cover, Acronyms, Abstract, Footnotes and Bibliography) 2 Acknowledgements: This thesis acknowledges, with great thanks, all of my teachers. A most special thanks is extended to my dedicated thesis supervisor, André du Toit; a true master academic and philosopher, whose patience and keen interest steered the thesis to the complete product it is. I truly have learnt a great deal about being a scholar through his tutelage and by his wisdom. Another special thanks to Andrew Nash, who allowed for creativity and confidence in thought. It is in his classes that I met my other greatest teachers – my then classmates and now truest friends. I also thank my parents Colleen and Terrence Lester, who by their own example taught me to always question social regimes of truth. 3 Abbreviations ANC African National Congress ANC-NEC African National Congress National Executive Council CCB Civil Co-operation Bureau IDASA Institute for a Democratic South Africa JRC Jamaica Royal Commission NEC Native Economic Commission NGO Non-Government Organisation UTP Unofficial Truth Project PAC Pan Africanist Congress PNUR Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation SADF South African Defence Force SAPS South African Police Services TRC Truth and Reconciliation Commission 4 Abstract The Marikana Massacre of 16th August 2012 was a watershed moment for post- Apartheid South African politics. News headlines and images depicting an ANC-led South African police killing 44 unarmed miners, striking for a wage increase, ruptured the TRC’s official narrative that state violence of this proportion belonged to a bygone colonial, or Apartheid past. Following the massacre, the Marikana Commission of Inquiry was launched as an official inquiry into what was referred to as the ‘tragic incidents at Marikana’. However, as the Commission conducted its work its actual role became increasingly ambivalent and ambiguous to the public, as well as to witnesses who testified. Legally, it was a judicial commission of inquiry with a strict fact-finding mandate, yet the official discourse invoked suggests it had additional distinctive aims to achieve ‘truth, restoration, and justice’, which are functions traditionally associated with Truth Commissions, in the field of Transitional Justice, and more particularly with South Africa’s TRC. This ambiguity in the Marikana Commission’s function points to the larger issue that this thesis addresses – the ambiguity in the exact role and function of, as well as the relationship between, generic commissions of inquiry and Truth Commissions. The functions are interrogated using the concept of ‘tumult commissions’, introduced by Adam Sitze-- a subtype of commission of inquiry used by colonial administrations in lieu of criminal tribunals, to investigate political violence following the State’s violent suppression of some major insurgency. Over and above ‘fact-finding’, Sitze claims that ‘tumult commissions’ were political tools deployed to ‘whitewash’ and justify State 5 killings as unfortunate necessities in order to restore peace and order, and to legitimate the authority of the state. I anchor the current ambiguity in the role of the Marikana Commission, both in legal capacity, its method and official discourse, in a longer historical trajectory that extends from the Jamaica Royal Commission (1866) to the Sharpeville Commission (1960) and the TRC (1996-1998). The notion of official truth-seeking is problematised using an analytical framework that distinguishes between objective ‘fact-finding’, ‘truth-seeking’ and the various associated narrative genres of ‘tumult commissions’ and ‘truth commissions’. Through a critical analysis of canonic academic literature, official commission reports and legislation, the thesis highlights glaring contradictions and inconsistencies in claims to official ‘truth-seeking’ when combined with quasi-judicial aims to achieve accountability and ‘justice’. It concludes that the ‘truth’ of ‘official’ truth- seeking commissions is always constrained by the overall objectives of the government of the day. Although the TRC was able to promote a more open and inclusive institution to deal with the intractable issues of ‘truth’ and ‘accountability’ following state- sanctioned violence, the cases show that when broader social and economic issues are excluded from the ‘regime of truth’ of official commissions, it only creates fertile soil in which similar tragedies may reoccur in a post-colonial, and post-TRC South Africa. 6 Table of Contents Chapter 1: Official ‘Truth finding’ after State Violence ................................................................................ 8 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 8 1.2 Research Questions .......................................................................................................................... 19 1.3 Chapter Outline ................................................................................................................................. 20 Chapter 2: Official truth-seeking after (post-)colonial state violence: institutional formats, discursive phases and narrative functions -- an analytical framework ....................................................................... 22 2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 22 2.2. Historical and Analytical Perspectives ............................................................................................. 24 2.2.1 Commissions of Inquiry in Historical Perspective ...................................................................... 24 2.2.2 Institutional formats: generic aspects, institutional and thematic sub-types ........................... 26 2.2.3 Official Truth-seeking and ‘Truth Commissions’. ....................................................................... 31 2.3 Discursive functions of Commissions of Inquiry ............................................................................... 36 2.3.1 The legitimating function of Official Discourse and the Problem of Legitimation .................... 36 2.3.2 Commissions of Inquiry as Schemes of Legitimation (Ashforth) ............................................... 38 2.3.3 The Legitimating Functions of the Phases of Discourse in Official Truth-seeking ..................... 40 2.4 Truth-seeking Commissions of Inquiry and their associated Narrative Genres ............................... 44 2.4.1 ‘Tumult Commissions’ and Tragic Discourse ............................................................................. 44 2.4.2 The Case of the Jamaica Royal Commission (JRC) ..................................................................... 47 2.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 54 Chapter 3: Tumult Commissions in South Africa and the case of the Wessels Commission of Inquiry, following the Sharpeville Massacre. ........................................................................................................... 56 3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 56 3.2 The Legal fetishism of Apartheid’s repressive order. ....................................................................... 59 3.3 The Powers of Commissions of Inquiry in Apartheid South Africa ................................................... 63 3.4 The Wessels Commission of Inquiry ................................................................................................. 65 3.4.1 Fact-Finding in the Wessels Commission ................................................................................... 65 7 3.4.2‘Truth-Seeking’ and ‘Truth-Telling’ After Sharpeville. ................................................................ 70 3.4.3 Narrative Function: ’Whitewashing Machines’ finding ‘No one to Blame’ ............................... 75 3.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 78 Chapter 4: ‘Truth’ and the ‘official discourse’ of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. .................... 81 4.1. Introduction.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Human Rights and Political Transition in South Africa: the Case of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission1
    brazilianpoliticalsciencereview ARTICLE Human rights and political transition in South Africa: the case of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission1 Cristina Buarque de Hollanda Political Science Department, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil This article is dedicated to recounting the main initiative of Nelson Mande- la’s government to manage the social resentment inherited from the segregationist regime. I conducted interviews with South African intellectuals committed to the theme of transitional justice and with key personalities who played a critical role in this process. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is presented as the primary in- stitutional mechanism envisioned for the delicate exercise of redefining social re- lations inherited from the apartheid regime in South Africa. Its founders declared grandiose political intentions to the detriment of localized more palpable objec- tives. Thus, there was a marked disparity between the ambitious mandate and the political discourse about the commission, and its actual achievements. Keywords: Human rights, transitional justice, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, South Africa Prologue: ethnographic note n the same day that I arrived in Johannesburg to start my research about the OSouth African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), in August 2008, I was invited by my hosts to a dinner with friends. The first night in the city gave me a clear idea of just how alive and controversial my theme of research was, even ten years after the Commission ceased its activities. In a restaurant in a wealthy neighborhood of the city, an unexpected gathering brought together friends of friends. On the long table that 8 bpsr Human rights and political transition in South Africa: the case of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission formed, there were only whites, with the exception of a South African born and raised in Soweto, who was sitting opposite me.
    [Show full text]
  • True Confessions, End Papers and the Dakar Conference
    Hermann Giliomee True Confessions, End Papers and Hermann Giliomee was Professor of the Dakar conference: A review of Political Studies at the University of Cape Town and is presently Professor the political arguments Extraordinary at the History Department, University of Stellenbosch. E-mail: [email protected] True Confessions, End Papers and the Dakar conference: A review of the political arguments As a social critic Breyten Breytenbach published two books of political commentary and political analysis during the mid-1980s without the opportunity of engaging with commentators at home. While True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist is part autobiography and part searing comment on prison life, End Papers is a more detached dissection of the major political and cultural issues confronting South Africa. Breytenbach was now one of the respected international voices on the political crisis in South Africa. The violent break-up of apartheid had changed Breytenbach’s social criticism. In the place of the earlier rejection and denunciation had come a willingness to engage and reason with his audience. The Dakar conference of 1987, which Breytenbach co-organised, offered an ideal opportunity for this. The conference was given wide publicity and was seen by some as the catalyst that broke the ice for the negotiations between the government and the ANC two and a half years later. Key words: Afrikaans literature, Dakar conference, National Party, African National Congress, South Africa, violence, negotiations. Introduction Shortly after being released from jail in 1982 Breyten Breytenbach published two non-fiction books, The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist (1984) and End Papers (1986).
    [Show full text]
  • Desmond Tutu and the Ethos of the South African
    Making More of the Middle Ground Desmond Tutu and the Ethos of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission Author James Beitler Assistant Professor of Writing Studies, Rhetoric, & Composition Roger Williams University [email protected] Whatever role others might play, it is Tutu who is the compass. He guides us in several ways, the most important of which is language. It is he who finds language for what is happening.1 - South African journalist Antjie Krog Introduction In 1948 the National Party (NP) won a majority of seats in the South African Parliament and made racial segregation legal in the country through the institutionalization of apartheid. In the following decades, the government maintained this system through additional legislation and, when necessary, physical violence. As liberation groups such as the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP), and the more militant Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) gained momentum in the 1960s, the NP-led government banned these groups and imprisoned their leaders, including ANC member Nelson Mandela. The next thirty years were violent: the clash between liberation groups and the government resulted in a series of human rights violations, including “massacres, killings, torture, lengthy imprisonment of activists, and severe economic and social discrimination against [South Africa’s] majority nonwhite population.”2 Then, in the early 1990s, with growing international support, the liberation movement was able to force a political and military stalemate, which led to the democratic election of Nelson Mandela in 1994. After Mandela’s election, many people in the country saw a need to address injustices committed during the apartheid era.
    [Show full text]
  • The Religious Foundations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission August 2013
    BERKLEY CENTER for Religion, Peace & World Affairs GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY Religion and Conflict Case Study Series South Africa: The Religious Foundations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission August 2013 © Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/resources/classroom 4 Abstract 5 This case study explores the religious underpinnings of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a governmental body established to facili- 7 tate the peaceful transition from the apartheid government to a truly demo- cratic society by exposing human rights violations and administering both 8 justice and forgiveness. The case study looks at the commission and its cul- tural bases through three questions: What are the historical origins of apart- heid in South Africa? How did religious themes inform the truth and recon- ciliation process? How important were international religious and political forces? Additionally, the case study also includes a timeline of key events, a summary of relevant religious, political, and nongovernmental organizations, and a list of recommended further readings. About this Case Study This case study was crafted under the editorial direction of Eric Patterson, visiting assistant professor in the Department of Government and associate di- rector of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at George- town University. 14 This case study was made possible through the support of the Henry Luce 16 Foundation and the Luce/SFS Program on Religion and International
    [Show full text]
  • Armed Response: an Unfortunate Legacy of Apartheid
    Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy Volume 1 Issue 1 Study Space IX Cape Town, South Africa Article 12 2017 Armed Response: An Unfortunate Legacy of Apartheid Leila Lawlor Georgia State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/jculp Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Environmental Law Commons, Land Use Law Commons, and the Urban Studies Commons Recommended Citation Lawlor, Leila (2017) "Armed Response: An Unfortunate Legacy of Apartheid," Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy: Vol. 1 : Iss. 1 , Article 12. Available at: https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/jculp/vol1/iss1/12 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Reading Room. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy by an authorized editor of Reading Room. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Lawlor: Armed Response ARMED RESPONSE: AN UNFORTUNATE LEGACY OF APARTHEID Leila Lawlor1 ABSTRACT After apartheid was repealed in South Africa, the country’s system of forced segregation officially ended. Vestiges of racial discrimination remain, however, including spatial segregation in housing, income inequality, and huge disparities in the government’s provisioning of basic services. The poorest of South Africa’s citizens live in peripheral communities, far from city centers and employment hubs. The poorest communities often lack safe streets and safe toilets. Whereas wealthier South Africans are able to pay private policing companies to provide armed security, those in the poorest of communities must live with regular fear of violent crime. The problem is compounded by a flawed method of allocating police resources, which has resulted in unequal distribution of government-provided security.
    [Show full text]
  • Armed Response: an Unfortunate Legacy of Apartheid
    Georgia State University College of Law Reading Room Faculty Publications By Year Faculty Publications 2017 Armed Response: An Unfortunate Legacy of Apartheid Leila Lawlor Follow this and additional works at: https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/faculty_pub Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons, and the Property Law and Real Estate Commons Lawlor: Armed Response ARMED RESPONSE: AN UNFORTUNATE LEGACY OF APARTHEID Leila Lawlor1 ABSTRACT After apartheid was repealed in South Africa, the country’s system of forced segregation officially ended. Vestiges of racial discrimination remain, however, including spatial segregation in housing, income inequality, and huge disparities in the government’s provisioning of basic services. The poorest of South Africa’s citizens live in peripheral communities, far from city centers and employment hubs. The poorest communities often lack safe streets and safe toilets. Whereas wealthier South Africans are able to pay private policing companies to provide armed security, those in the poorest of communities must live with regular fear of violent crime. The problem is compounded by a flawed method of allocating police resources, which has resulted in unequal distribution of government-provided security. The situation is now dismal for many township residents, but hope has emerged through the efforts of concerned activists, clever urban designers, and many of the residents themselves. With focus on safety, land justice, and education,
    [Show full text]
  • (And Democracy) in South Africa
    Twenty years of punishment (and democracy) in South Africa The pitfalls of governing crime through the community Gail Super* [email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/sacq.v48i1.1 This article examines how the ideology of ‘community’ is deployed to govern crime in South Africa, both by marginalised black communities and by the government. Although the turn to ‘community’ started under the National Party government in the late 1970s, there is no doubt that as a site, technology, discourse, ideology and form of governance, ‘community’ has become entrenched in the post-1994 era. Utilising empirical data drawn from ethnographic research on vigilantism in Khayelitsha, as well as archival materials in respect of ANC policies and practices before it became the governing party, I argue that rallying ‘communities’ around crime combatting has the potential to unleash violent technologies in the quest for ‘ethics’ and ‘morality’. When community members unite against an outsider they are bonded for an intense moment in a way that masks the very real problems that tear the community apart. Because violent punishment is one of the consequences of the state’s turn towards democratic localism, we should question the way in which the ‘community’ is deployed as a tool of crime prevention, and subject it to rigorous scrutiny. With the advent of formal democracy in South in 2004, South Africa has the highest incarceration Africa in April 1994 one might have been justified rate in Africa and one of the highest in the world.2 In in expecting that the criminal justice system would 2013, the number of people serving life imprisonment become less punitive and that this would entail stood at 11 000, as opposed to 400 in 1994.3 less reliance on imprisonment as a punishment Democratisation has thus brought with it a dramatic par excellence.1 However, although the numbers in increase in long-term prison sentences, ranging custody have been reduced since an all-time high from seven years to life.
    [Show full text]
  • Citizen's Co-Production of Public Safety As a Symptom of State Failure: the Case of South African Vigilantism
    Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy Volume 1 Issue 1 Study Space IX Cape Town, South Africa Article 11 2017 Citizen's Co-Production of Public Safety as a Symptom of State Failure: The Case of South African Vigilantism Dawid Szescilo University of Warsaw, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/jculp Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Environmental Law Commons, Land Use Law Commons, and the Urban Studies Commons Recommended Citation Szescilo, Dawid (2017) "Citizen's Co-Production of Public Safety as a Symptom of State Failure: The Case of South African Vigilantism," Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy: Vol. 1 : Iss. 1 , Article 11. Available at: https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/jculp/vol1/iss1/11 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Reading Room. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy by an authorized editor of Reading Room. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Szescilo: Citizen's Co-Production of Public Safety CITIZEN’S CO-PRODUCTION OF PUBLIC SAFETY AS A SYMPTOM OF STATE FAILURE: THE CASE OF SOUTH AFRICAN VIGILANTISM Dawid Sześciło1 ABSTRACT The growing interest in co-production of public services reflects the need to liberate from the dichotomy between state and market provision. Whereas the concept of co-production is not new, it gained broader recognition among public administration scholars in recent years. What is characteristic for the academic discourse on this idea, is a strong focus on the benefits of co- production such as effectiveness, efficiency, responsiveness and quality of public services.
    [Show full text]
  • Truth Is Bitter a Report of the Visit of Doctor Alex Boraine, Deputy Chairman of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to Northern Ireland
    All Truth is Bitter A Report of the Visit of Doctor Alex Boraine, Deputy Chairman of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to Northern Ireland Report of the Visit of Dr Alex Boraine to Northern Ireland in February 1999 to explore lessons for Northern Ireland in the work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission Contents Contents ..................................................................................................................................... 2 Preface ....................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction................................................................................................................................ 4 The Truth and Reconciliation Commission In South Africa ..................................................... 6 Introduction............................................................................................................................ 6 Special Features of the South African Model........................................................................ 6 Amnesty Provisions............................................................................................................... 8 The Nature of Truth............................................................................................................... 9 Reconciliation...................................................................................................................... 10 What
    [Show full text]
  • Twenty Years of Punishment (And Democracy) in South Africa
    Twenty years of punishment (and democracy) in South Africa The pitfalls of governing crime through the community Gail Super* [email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/sacq.v48i1.1 This article examines how the ideology of ‘community’ is deployed to govern crime in South Africa, both by marginalised black communities and by the government. Although the turn to ‘community’ started under the National Party government in the late 1970s, there is no doubt that as a site, technology, discourse, ideology and form of governance, ‘community’ has become entrenched in the post-1994 era. Utilising empirical data drawn from ethnographic research on vigilantism in Khayelitsha, as well as archival materials in respect of ANC policies and practices before it became the governing party, I argue that rallying ‘communities’ around crime combatting has the potential to unleash violent technologies in the quest for ‘ethics’ and ‘morality’. When community members unite against an outsider they are bonded for an intense moment in a way that masks the very real problems that tear the community apart. Because violent punishment is one of the consequences of the state’s turn towards democratic localism, we should question the way in which the ‘community’ is deployed as a tool of crime prevention, and subject it to rigorous scrutiny. With the advent of formal democracy in South in 2004, South Africa has the highest incarceration Africa in April 1994 one might have been justified rate in Africa and one of the highest in the world.2 In in expecting that the criminal justice system would 2013, the number of people serving life imprisonment become less punitive and that this would entail stood at 11 000, as opposed to 400 in 1994.3 less reliance on imprisonment as a punishment Democratisation has thus brought with it a dramatic par excellence.1 However, although the numbers in increase in long-term prison sentences, ranging custody have been reduced since an all-time high from seven years to life.
    [Show full text]
  • 12. Conclusion: Empirical Insights on the Politics of Knowledge Production and Its Transfer Into Policy and Practice Briony Jones and Ulrike Lühe
    12. Conclusion: empirical insights on the politics of knowledge production and its transfer into policy and practice Briony Jones and Ulrike Lühe INTRODUCTION It’s right to turn the page but first you have to read it. You have to understand it. You first have to acknowledge it and then you turn the page.1 This oft-cited quote from Alex Boraine, former Vice-Chairperson of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, captures the idea that we cannot address the past if we do not know what happened, connecting knowl- edge to a capacity to act (Grundmann and Stehr, 2012: 16–17). In this sense it also raises a series of assumptions and concerns which are central to this book. First, the capacity to read requires a literacy. This ability to read may be held by some and not others. Second, reading is not only a technical skill, it is also an ability to interpret, to find meaning, and to reflect on what has been read. Third, reading words on a page cannot capture the volume or tone with which they would be spoken by others, as they are brought to life in real experiences. Fourth, there is always a writer and a reader, and we need to know who wrote the words, under what conditions, and for whom they were intended. This politics of knowledge, of who can speak and write, of who is heard and read, and of how knowledge is interpreted for action, is fundamental to a field such as transitional justice which operates on the assumption that the more we know the better we will be able to seek justice or the more able we are to achieve peace (Kritz, 2009; Forsythe, 2011).
    [Show full text]
  • Developing a New Policing Reform Agenda
    APCOF Policy Paper 15 Februay 2017 Substantive areas of police reform: Developing a new policing reform agenda Melanie Lue Dugmore Introduction Against a framework for democratic policing, this paper provides the reader with an accessible overview of the extensive policing reform agenda in South Africa over the democratic period. Mindful of the still-pending review of the South African Police Act, it provides a summary of some of the key issues that should be considered. The paper addresses substantive reform in the following thematic areas: • The protection of human rights and demilitarisation, with particular emphasis on public order policing; • Independence and operational autonomy of policing institutions and oversight bodies; and • Police responsiveness, efficiency and professionalism. This forms the basis for revisiting outstanding police reform imperatives that should be addressed in an agenda for change. The recommendations proposed in this paper are not new. They have been consistently addressed by judicial commissions of inquiry, task teams, parliament, the Ministry of Police and by the police themselves. Given the vast range of reform initiatives, including those pertinent to areas such as systems and logistics management, democratic policing principles were used as a lens to focus the study on those areas of reforms relevant to the interaction between police and civilians. David Bayley identifies two essential features of policing in a democracy: responsiveness and accountability.1 A democratic police service ‘responds to
    [Show full text]