Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87829-6 - Transitional Amnesty in South Africa Antje du Bois-Pedain Frontmatter More information TRANSITIONAL AMNESTY IN SOUTH AFRICA After the transition to democracy in 1994, South Africa reached out to perpetrators of violence from all conflicting parties by giving amnesty to those who fully disclosed their politically motivated crimes. This volume provides the first comprehensive analysis of South Africa’s amnesty scheme in its practical and normative dimensions. Through empirical analysis of over 1000 amnesty decisions made by the Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the study measures the scheme against its stated goals of truth recovery, victim empowerment and perpetrator accountability. It also explores normative questions raised by the absence of punishment. Highlighting the distinctive nature of South Africa’s conditional amnesty as an exceptional ‘rite of passage’ into the new, post-conflict society, it argues that the amnesty scheme is best viewed as an attempt to construct a new ‘justice script’ for a society in transition, in which a legacy of politically motivated violence is being addressed. antje du bois-pedain is a lecturer in law at the University of Cambridge. © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87829-6 - Transitional Amnesty in South Africa Antje du Bois-Pedain Frontmatter More information TRANSITIONAL AMNESTY IN SOUTH AFRICA by ANTJE DU BOIS-PEDAIN © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87829-6 - Transitional Amnesty in South Africa Antje du Bois-Pedain Frontmatter More information cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sa˜o Paulo, Delhi Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521878296 ªAntje du Bois-Pedain 2007 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2007 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library ISBN 978-0-521-87829-6 hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87829-6 - Transitional Amnesty in South Africa Antje du Bois-Pedain Frontmatter More information CONTENTS List of cited Amnesty Committee hearing transcripts page ix Frequently cited Amnesty Committee decisions xi List of abbreviations xviii List of abbreviated cases xxi List of figures xxiii Preface xxv Introduction 1 Note on linguistic usage, especially of the terms perpetrator and victim 14 Note on citation of sources 16 1 The TRC-based Amnesty Scheme: Background and Overview 17 The amnesty provisions of the TRC Act 20 Preconditions and effect of amnesty 20 The history and interpretation of the amnesty provisions 23 The constitutional challenge to the amnesty provisions 29 The work of the Amnesty Committee 35 The examination of amnesty applications 37 The influence of previous indemnity legislation on application numbers 40 Judicial review of amnesty decisions 44 After the TRC: pardons, prosecutions and rumours of further amnesties 54 2The Practice of the Committee When Making Decisions 60 Methodology of the study 62 Information base 62 Relevant criteria 63 v © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87829-6 - Transitional Amnesty in South Africa Antje du Bois-Pedain Frontmatter More information vi contents Indicative value of an application’s outcome in respect of these factors 65 Calculation of success rates 66 Recorded information 66 Findings in relation to applicants and incidents 68 The applicants and their deeds 68 Implications of the quantitative findings for the representativity of amnesty applications 71 Hierarchical status of applicants within their organisation 73 Applicants’ mandates: orders, discretion and spontaneous (re-)action 76 Outcome of amnesty applications 80 Reasons given for the success of applications 84 Reasons given for the failure of applications 92 3 The Committee’s Interpretation of the Political Offence Requirement 97 The purposive nature of the political offence 98 Assessment from an ex-ante perspective 101 Responsibility for human rights violations 104 The applicant’s political mandate 106 The personal mandate 109 The general mandate 111 Reasonable belief in the existence of a mandate 113 The significance of orders 113 The multiple functions of orders 114 The ‘foot-soldier privilege’ 116 Orders in the amnesty process: privileging ‘crimes of obedience’? 118 The Committee’s approach to factors affecting the gravity of the offence 121 The application of the proportionality principle 122 International law concepts in the amnesty decisions 126 The Committee’s approach to the gravity of the deed: an evaluation 128 Explaining the Committee’s pragmatic approach to the political offence requirement 132 Conclusion 136 4 The Concept of Full Disclosure 139 The object and scope of full disclosure 141 © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87829-6 - Transitional Amnesty in South Africa Antje du Bois-Pedain Frontmatter More information contents vii The truth-maximising view 143 The restrictive approach 147 The Committee’s middle way 151 Relevant facts 152 The ‘relevancy threshold’ for details 155 The consequences of non-disclosure of a relevant fact 157 The legal standard for the finding that full disclosure has been made 158 Evidential burden and ‘benchmark’ for full disclosure 158 The legal test 160 The time and manner of disclosure 163 The assessment of the evidence 165 Admissible evidence and the ‘hierarchy’ of evidential sources 165 Applicant’s version unchallenged 167 Relevant conflicting evidence 169 Full disclosure: an assessment 172 5 Truth Recovery in the Amnesty Process 175 Procedural practice affecting the scope of the enquiry 178 The investigative objectives of the amnesty process 178 The organisation of the process 180 Getting witnesses to testify: legal powers and Committee practice 181 Role and rights of implicated persons 183 Privileged information 186 Discovery and documentation of truth in the amnesty process 189 The discovery function: evidence used 189 (a) Cross-examination and the dangers of accomplice evidence 191 (b) The use of hearsay evidence 194 The documentation function: findings made 200 Summary 203 Available evidence and findings: individual amnesties and criminal trials compared 204 The amnesty process and different dimensions of truth 214 6 Victim Empowerment in the Amnesty Process 217 Victim participation in the amnesty process 222 The power of dialogue: the victims of Jeffrey Theodore Benzien 225 The price of engagement: the victims of Robert McBride 232 The struggle for forgiveness: the mother of Lindi-Ann Fourie 243 © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87829-6 - Transitional Amnesty in South Africa Antje du Bois-Pedain Frontmatter More information viii contents The amnesty process and victims’ needs 247 Opportunities for victims: criminal trials and amnesty proceedings compared 250 Conclusion 254 7 Perpetrator Accountability in the Amnesty Process 257 The notion of accountability 260 The amnesty process as a call to account 264 The retributivist challenge: no accountability without sanctions? 273 Restorative justice to the rescue? 281 The place of apology and forgiveness 286 Conditional amnesty for political crime: a new justice script? 293 8 Conditional Amnesty and International Law 300 Prescriptive international standards which restrict sovereign grants of amnesty 302 Humanitarian law 303 Crimes against humanity 307 General human rights law 310 Human rights treaties addressing specific violations 317 Do duties to prosecute rule out conditional amnesties? 319 The relevance of international law duties to prosecute for the South African amnesty scheme 322 Invocations of international law in the South African transition 328 After South Africa: conditional amnesty in future transitions 333 9 Conclusion 336 Feasibility 339 Legality 341 Morality 342 Concluding remarks 345 Bibliography 349 Index 372 © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87829-6 - Transitional Amnesty in South Africa Antje du Bois-Pedain Frontmatter More information CITED AMNESTY COMMITTEE HEARING TRANSCRIPTS Benzien Hearing Amnesty Hearing, Cape Town: 3, 14–16 July 1997 (Benzien JT (5314/96) – Part 1): www.doj.gov.za/trc/amntrans/capetown/capetown_ benzien.htm Benzien Resumption Amnesty Hearing, Cape Town: 4, 20–21 October 1997 (Benzien JT (5314/96) – Part 3): www.doj.gov.za/trc/amntrans/capetown/cape town_benzien3.htm Caprivi Trainees Argument Amnesty Hearing, Caprivi Trainees Argument, Pinetown Magistrate’s Court: 8 March 1999, Day 1 (hearing transcript no longer available on the TRC homepage) CCB Argument Amnesty Hearing, Cape Town: 18–19 November 2000,