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November 30, 1995 STATEMENT by ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU

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November 30, 1995 STATEMENT BY ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU ON HIS APPOINTMENT TO THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION It is a very great privilege and honour to have been appointed as the head of the Commission, and I am deeply humbled. The membership of the Commission appears to represent a fair spectrum of South African society, and comprises people who have special gifts to bring to the sensitive task of contributing to the healing process in our country. I appeal to South Africans and people around the world to uphold members of the Commission in their prayers, because the healing and reconciliation of a deeply traumatised and wounded people is a deeply spiritual exercise. I hope that the work of the Commission, by opening wounds to cleanse them, will thereby stop them from festering. We cannot be facile and say bygones will be bygones, because they will not be bygones and will return to haunt us. True reconciliation is never cheap, for it is based on forgiveness which is costly. Forgiveness in turn depends on repentance, which has to be based on an acknowledgement of what was done wrong, and therefore on disclosure of the truth. You cannot forgive what you do not know. The purpose of the Commission in terms of the act which establishes it is to assist in the process of healing and reconciliation. The Commission needs to be geared towards the victims of human rights abuses rather than the perpetrators. I would like us to concentrate on the rehabilitation of victims and restoration of their dignity, emphasising restitution rather than retribution and reprisal. I hope very much that people, especially those who have not previously had the opportunity of doing so, will come to the Commission to tell their stories. I would appeal to churches and NGOs to make available their resources to provide counselling to such people before, during and after they appear before the Commission. A great deal is going to depend on the spirituality of the commissioners. We will be needing counselling, times for refreshment, and opportunities to rebuild our own spiritual resources, because hearing the harrowing stories that are likely to come before the Commission will be testing. The Commission must to do its work as quickly as possible so that we can close a horrendous chapter in the life of our nation. We need to turn over a new page and seek to live out our rich diversity of culture, religion, political views and ethnic backgrounds. I will be in touch with the Minister of Justice and Dr Alex Boraine about arranging the first meeting of the Commission so that we can plan our work as expeditiously as possible. December 12, 1995 STATEMENT BY ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU, CHAIRMAN OF THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION “The vice-chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Dr Alex Boraine, and I met this afternoon to prepare for a meeting tomorrow with the Minister of Justice, Mr Dullah Omar, and officials of his department. “Matters which we discussed included: “– The possibility of convening a preliminary meeting of the full Commission. We hope to convene such a meeting at Bishopscourt, Cape Town, before the end of the year. “– The seat of the Commission. While the legislation provides that the President will determine where the Commission will sit, we envisage that the full Commission will make recommendations to the President. “– Appointments to the various committees of the Commission, as well as staffing. We held a very preliminary discussion on the spread of membership of the committees, but I am anxious that the Commission should operate by consensus, so we would like the full Commission to convene as quickly as possible to discuss these and other matters.” December 16, 1995 ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU'S ADDRESS TO THE FIRST GATHERING OF THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION The following is the full text:- PREAMBLE It is a very great privilege to have been asked to chair such a distinguished group of eminent persons with a proven track record and outstanding professional ability. I thank God that I have been asked to captain such a brilliant team. I want to express deep appreciation to Dr Alex Boraine for all the very hard work he has put in to get us going. He has been involved from the onset, assisting the Department of Justice in drafting the legislation which has brought the Commission into being. He has worked like a Trojan, as all of you will know, in making arrangements for this first meeting. He is a gifted organiser. A perceptive journalist has remarked that perhaps the Archbishop will be like a President whilst Dr Boraine will be something like a Prime Minister. That would not be too far off the mark. Thanks too, to the Minister of Justice and his Department for their unstinting help. May I say in a kind of parenthesis that my style of operation as a leader is through consensus and delegation. I like to play to the strengths of my team, letting each person blossom by doing the sorts of things at which they are good and feel confident in doing. That way one ends up almost invariably with a winning side and you are always perceived to be a good captain when you captain a winning side. And I know I have been given precisely such a team. By and large, remarkably so, the composition of this Commission has found general and favourable acceptance. It means we have credibility and we must do all we can to enhance that credibility. We hope through some of the appointments to the Committee on Human Rights Violations and the Committee on Reparation and Rehabilitation to make the Commission even more representative and inclusive. DELICATE AND CRITICAL TASK Everyone is aware that we have been assigned a delicate task whose execution, successful or otherwise, will have critical and far- reaching consequences for our land and nation. It is an awesome responsibility. It is important to bear constantly in mind the title of the act that has brought us into being – the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation. What a happy coincidence, how providentially significant, that our very first meeting takes place on the day designated in our calendar as the Day of Reconciliation. Absolutely central to our concern in the work of our Commission is helping our land and people to achieve genuine, real and not cheap and spurious reconciliation. Some view the Commission with considerable misgiving and indeed suspicion and even hostility because they have convinced themselves that the Commission is going to degenerate into an Inquisition, a witch-hunt hellbent on bringing miscreants to book and the assumption is that it would be miscreants from one side only. We must scotch that rumour or suspicion from the outset. We are meant to be a part of the process of the healing of our nation, of our people, all of us, since every South African has to some extent or other been traumatised. We are a wounded people because of the conflict of the past, no matter on which side we stood. We all stand in need of healing. We on the Commission are no superhuman exceptions. We too need forgiving and to forgive. I hope that our churches, mosques, synagogues and temples will be able to provide liturgies for corporate confession and absolution. We are privileged to be on this Commission to assist our land, our people to come to terms with our dark past once and for all. They say that those who suffer from amnesia, those who forget the past, are doomed to repeat it. It is not dealing with the past to say facilely, let bygones be bygones, for then they won't be bygones. Our country, our society would be doomed to the instability of uncertainty – the uncertainty engendered by not knowing when yet another scandal of the past would hit the headlines, when another skeleton would be dragged out of the cupboard. We will be engaging in what should be a corporate nationwide process of healing through contrition, confession and forgiveness. To be able to forgive one needs to know whom one is forgiving and why. That is why the truth is so central to this whole exercise. But we will be engaging in something that is ultimately deeply spiritual, deeply personal. That is why I have been appealing to all our people – this is not something just for the Commission alone. We are in it, all of us together, black and white, coloured and Indian, we this rainbow people of God. That is why I have appealed to our different communities of faith (Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu etc) to uphold the Commission in fervent prayer and intercession that we may be showered with the divine blessings of wisdom, courage and discernment. That is why I have asked religious communities of monks and nuns around the world to soak our Commission and its deliberations in fervent volumes of prayer. That is why I want to suggest that all our activities should be started if not by prayer then by a substantial silence, and that we should start our work with a retreat together for the replenishment of our spiritual resources. Our work is going to be harrowing and demanding. We will need counselling periodically to recoup. INDEPENDENCE AND LACK OF BIAS To be able to do our work well and to achieve the goals that we have been set it is of paramount importance that we are totally independent and seen to be independent and autonomous, not subject to any undue influence from any quarter whatsoever.
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