The TRC Report: What Kind of History? What Kind of Truth? A preliminary exploration

Transcription

1 The TRC Report: What Knd of Hstory? What Knd of Truth? A prelmnary exploraton Deborah Posel Unversty of Wtwatersrand 'Fundamental to all forms of justce s offcal acknowledgement of what happened' (Judge Rchard Goldstone, Busness Day, 7 March 1996). The TRC's 'offcal acknowledgement of what happened' n South Afrca from 1960 to 1993 has been a dramatc, wde-rangng process, spannng two and a half years of hearngs, nvestgatons and research, ssung n thefve-volumereport presented to the State Presdent on 29 October If the TRC's human rghts and amnesty hearngs represent the 'lve', actve, flud, human face of ts truth-fndng process, the report s pre-emnently the ste of the TRC's 'offcal' voce on the truth as found: formal, volumnous, weghty, consdered, authortatve. Spannng over pages of text, ths s a report whch relatvely few are lkely to read n anythng lke ts entrety. It s long, unweldy, expensve and dffcult to locate (partcularly snce t has been removed from the Internet). Yet, even the bulky fve volume's worth s a hghly edted dstllaton of the large archve assembled by the TRC whch, I'm told, would overwhelm the average suburban house. Wthn parameters very frmly set by the enablng legslaton, the TRC embarked on a 'dauntng and formdable 1 ' task, of'establshng as complete a pcture as possble of the nature, causes and extent of the gross human rghts volatons whch were commtted between I March 1960 to 5 December 1993, ncludng the antecedents, Truth and Reconclaton Commsson, Truth and Reconclaton Commsson of South Afrca Report (Cape Town, 1998),, vol I ch 6 para 2. I

2 crcumstances, factors and context of such volatons, as well as the perspectves of the vctms and the motves and perspectves of the persons responsble for the commsson of the volatons' 2. Underscorng the enormty of ths undertakng, Archbshop Tutu's Foreword to the report stresses, therefore, that the report...offers a road map to those who wsh to travel nto our past. It s not and cannot be the whole story, but t provdes a perspectve on the truth about a past that s more extensve and more complex than any one commsson could, wthn two and a half years, have hoped to capture 3. Tutu's comment gves rse to two sets of questons whch have prompted ths paper: 1) The frst set of questons s anmated by the epstemologcal and methodologcal conundrum of the TRC: how does an nherently selectve wrtng of only part of the story about the past present tself wth the authorty and objectvty of truth requred of an offcal state commsson? 4 How are the concepts of 'truth' and 'objectvty' understood n ths process? How are decsons made about what to cut out, what to leave n? What counts as suffcent evdence for producng defntve fndngs about what happened n the past? 2) What verson of South Afrca's recent past has emerged as a consequence of these choces? How has the story about the commsson of gross human rghts volatons been wrtten n the TRC Report? How 'extensve and complex' s t as an hstorcal text? In addressng these questons, the paper begns wth an exploraton of the varous facets of the TRC's mandate, and demonstrates three key tensons whch nhere n t. The paper then 2 TRC Report, vol. 1 ch 4 para 31 (a). 3 TRC Report, Vol. I chapter 1, para 5 Vor all Tutu's apparent nsght nto the TRC's havng presented a 'perspectve on the truth' about the past, he doesn't for a moment renounce the surely or veracty of the Commsson as the offcal verson of what happened.

3 examnes the dscourses of truth and method whch are produced n the Commsson's attempts to manage these tensons. And lastly, the paper traces the mprnts of these dscourses n what the TRC Report has wrtten about the country's past. In lne wth the genre of an offcal state commsson, the TRC Report presents tself as the work of a team of'observers' on the past, who collated and assembled a seres of facts about gross human rghts volatons, to produce the objectve, authorsed verson of the country's recent past. But a closer readng reveals a dfferent process of knowledge producton. The report contans a verson of the past whch has been actvely crafted accordng to partcular strateges of ncluson and excluson, borne of the complextes of the TRC's mandate. Part epstemologcal and methodologcal, part moral, the effect of these dscursve strateges s to produce a prmarly descrptve rendton of the past, uneven n ts dscernment of detal and ndfferent to the complextes of socal causaton. The TRC's 'truth' about the past s nether 'complex' nor partcularly 'extensve' (despte ts length). Wth lttle explanatory and analytcal power, the report reads less as a hstory, more as a moral narratve about the fact of moral wrongdong across the poltcal spectrum, spawned by the overrdng evl of the aparthed system. In so dong, the TRC Report acheves some notable successes that go a long way towards fulfllng some parts of the Commsson's mandate - but to the excluson of others. The Mandate: As many - ncludng the authors of the report - have stressed, the TRC's exercse n retrevng South Afrca's recent past was shaped n absolutely fundamental ways by the mandate of ts enablng legslaton and the poltcal moment wthn whch t was conceved and enacted 3. The mandate was mult-faceted. The Commsson was to be an excavaton of truth about gross human rghts volatons, both n respect of ndvdual cases presented to the Commsson and more generally, by way of establshng 'systematc' local and natonal patterns of gross human rghts volatons. The truth-fndng process was to be both descrptve (what happened) and 5 See eg. TRC Report, vol. I ch. I, paras 7 & 15.

4 explanatory (why t happened), the latter understood to devolve upon establshng the 'antecedents' and 'causes' for gross human rghts volatons as well as the 'motves and perspectves' of vctms and perpetrators. Understandng why gross human rghts volatons had taken place was seen as crucal to the future of democracy n the country: 't s only by accountng for the past that we can become accountable for the future' 6. That ths was ntended as a serous and ambtous pursut was sgnalled by the consderable powers and resources placed at the dsposal of the TRC. Its powers of subpoena, search and sezure were formdable, 'much stronger than those of other truth commssons' 7. In theory, the Commsson had unlmted access to archval materals otherwse wholly unavalable to scholars of the past. The Commsson also had a budget and staff sgnfcantly larger than prevous state commssons n ths country, and well n excess of other truth commssons elsewhere n the world 8. Ths ncluded a szeable research department. The TRC 's mandate was smultaneously deeply moral: access to truth was to lay the foundaton for a more humane, just socal order, passng resolute moral judgement on the past but n ways whch reconcled a prevously dvded socety to a common future rooted n a 'respect for human rghts' 9. The 'reconclaton' dmenson was tself varegated, nspred by a cluster of meanngs of the dea 10. The TRC was to ntate processes of ndvdual, nterpersonal and collectve 'healng', through the catharss of fnally expungng the truth about gross human rghts volatons prevously hdden. Here, reconclaton was to be an affrmaton of 'ubuntu', a 'recognton of the humanty of the other'. The dea of reconclaton was also explctly ted to the project of naton-buldng, 'magnng' a new form of natonal communty based on a 'collectve memory', 6 TRC Report, vol. I, ch. 1 para TRC Report, vol I ch 4 para TRC Report, vol. 1 ch 4 para 30 ' TRC Report, Vol. 1 ch 1 para TRC Report, vol I ch 5 paras

5 a 'shared' hstory. Exposure to truth was to lay the bass for a natonal consensus about the past and how to overcome ts legacy n the future - 'some essental lessons for the future of the people of ths country'". Lastly, reconclaton was also understood as an act of compromse, borne of the country's negotated transton. As tself the product of a poltcal compromse, the TRC was seen as a crucal vehcle n attempts to stablse and reproduce the poltcs of transtonal justce. Fnally, all of ths was to be undertaken 'as expedtously as possble' 12, wthn a perod of two years. Ensung Tensons for the Encounter wth the Past The TRC's mandate was not smply vast; t straddled at least three nternal tensons, borne of the conflctng pressures whch moulded the Commsson's efforts to wrte the past' 3. /. Achevng 'Objectvty' whle acknowledgng contendng subjectvtes: The legtmacy and credblty of the TRC as an offcal, authortatve account of the recent past rests profoundly on a demonstrable objectvty and mpartalty. Wth rval poltcal partes anglng to accuse the TRC enterprse of bas and partalty, Commssoners had to elevate the TRC above the poltcal realm nto a doman uncontamnated by such dfferences and dsputes' 4. The quas-judcal character of the TRC as an offcal state commsson was crucal, offerng a range of sgnfers for a sober, thoughtful and mpartal set of proceedngs. The TRC's report was presented n smlar ven, as 'a comprehensve report...based on factual and objectve evdence collected or receved by [the Commsson] or placed at ts dsposal" 5. At the same tme however, " TRC Report, vol I ch I para TRC Report, vol. I ch 4 para Kg TRC Report, vol. I ch. 6 para 27; vol. I ch 5 paras 3 & TRC Repon, vol. I ch. I paras 34 & TRC Report, vol I ch 6 para I (e)

6 the TRC began from the recognton of a deeply conflctual past whch produced competng perspectves, judgements and versons of what had happened and why - partcularly n respect of the hghly charged ssue of volence and volaton. As the report put t, 'the tellng of the truth about past gross human rghts volatons, as vewed from dfferent perspectves, facltates the process of understandng our dvded past'". The TRC then, had to contan the tensons between two dfferent notons of hstorcal knowledge. On one hand, the past was the ste of contendng constructons and perspectves, each 'truthful' to those who proposed t. On the other hand, the past was a processon of 'facts', vsble from the elevated and perspcacous vantage pont of the Commsson. By 'collectng' and 'recevng' ths data, the authors of the TRC Report were to wrte the past n a way whch transcended conflctng perspectves; the offcal truth had to be one to whch all South Afrcans would consent, as an authortatve, mpartal account. The 'healng' functon of the TRC brought ths tenson to the fore n yet another way. If the TRC was to produce the 'offcal' authorsed verdct on the past, t also had to legtmate the voces and perspectves of vctms whose stores had not prevously been told, allowng that ther ntense pan and sufferng automatcally gave a certan authentcty to ther verson of events. Ths was ther 'truth', and the Commsson had to acknowledge t. Even more than ths, the TRC pledged to allocate a specal place to these testmones n the overall structure of ts proceedngs. Central to the 'healng' msson of the Commsson was a commtment to a 'vctm-centred' process, whch would allow the vctms of gross human rghts volatons to tell ther own stores, thereby restorng ther dgnty and humanty. 2. Competng versons of 'completeness': At the outset, the TRC ssued an open nvtaton to all South Afrcans to tell ther stores of gross human rghts volatons, n the knowledge that n the three and a bt decades spanned by the 16 TRC Report, vol. I ch 4 para 3.

7 commsson, there were many thousands of prevously untold stores to tell". The enablng legslaton requred that the Commsson accept statements from all South Afrcans who wshed to make them, and commtted the TRC to documentng these narratves n a 'report provdng as comprehensve an account as possble of the actvtes and fndngs of the Commsson..." 1. In many communtes, expectatons of ths prospect ran hgh: people saw the TRC as an opportunty to pece together a comprehensve and detaled account of turbulent and dvsve epsodes n ther hstores, to clarfy exactly who had been responsble for past traumas, how and why these had been nflcted, and to dspel any lngerng doubts about who had or had not been an nformer" - for many communtes a partcularly dvsve and senstve ssue. These are expectatons whch square wth, and ndeed valdate, the Commsson's commtment to the catharss of truth-tellng, as the bass of reconclaton at an nterpersonal and communty level. Yet, the TRC's thnkng was smultaneously subject to a dfferent logc about how much of the past t was necessary to expose. If the dea of ndvdual, nterpersonal and communal catharss valdated the mpulse towards completeness, the verson of reconclaton as a natonalrupture wth a dvsve past pulled n a dfferent drecton. Ths naton-buldng exercse - creatng a 'shared' natonal hstory - dd not requre a comprehensve, detaled narraton of ndvdual and communty hstores. The goal was rather to produce enough truth to demonstrate and exemplfy tht: nequtes of the past. A sample of the truth rather than the whole would suffce to establsh the desred consensus. From ths perspectve, the global truth about the past was, n a fundamental sense, 'already known'. As Commssoner Mary Burton put t, a commsson of truth...must gather n stores to reach that truth whch s, n a way, already wdely known and accepted. But we need to make t legtmate through that process. We need to tell and record and valdate that truth. We need to acknowledge the wrongs, not 17 IRC Report, vol. I ch 4 para TRC Report, vol. I ch 4 para 31 (d). M. van der Merwe, 'Communty Reconclaton n South Afrca: Lessons from the TRC's Interventon n Two Communtes', CSVR semnar paper, March

8 only n terms of justce and hurt but also the terrble loss 20. Here, the hstorcal exercse was prmarly to narrate a moral truth about wrongdong, conflct and njustce, and t was one whch could be represented effectvely by a relatvely small number of carefully selected ndvdual cases whch exemplfed collectve 'truths'. Indeed, the danger to be avoded was exactly that of 'overly ndvdualsng] the horrors of aparthed and provdng] merely a pecemeal pcture of the past, at the expense of necessary attenton to ts systemc and collectve evls' 21. The poltcs of the TRC created addtonal reasons for a delberately attenuated, rather than a 'complete' verson of the past. The Commsson acknowledged from the start that t was posed on a knfe-edge, mandated to expose truths n the nterests of 'reconclaton' but n the knowledge that the exposure could provoke pan, anger and further volence just as readly as mpulses to forgve and 'reconcle'. The new state was tself walkng a poltcal tghtrope n respect of the conflct between the ANC and IFP, whch created a further dffculty for the TRC. Wrtng a chapter about a volent past whch contnued to engulf the present could have worsened the conflct stll further. From the start, the IFP had regstered ts contempt for the TRC process and refused to partcpate, n the mdst of renewed eruptons of volent conflct n KwaZulu Natal. The TRC had to assert ts moral authorty through ts powers of truth-tellng, yet not overexpose the past n ways that mght have exacerbated the problems of the present. " M. Burton n A. Borane and J. Levy (eds), Healng the Naton?, (Cape Town, 1995), pp K.Asmal, L. Asmal & R. Roberts, Reconclaton Through Truth: A Reckonng of Aparthed's Crmnal Governance (Cape Town, 1996) p. 19. R. Wlson makes a smlar pont: 'the symbolc mpact of truth commssons les n how they codfy the hstory of a perod. Popular memory of an authortaran past s often flud, unfxed and fragmentary and t s mpossble to nvestgate all the cases brought to a commsson, so truth commssons fx upon partcular cases and events n order to create 'the global truth* of an abusve perod' (R. Wlson.'The Szwe Wll Not Go Away: The TRC, Human Rghts and Naton-Buldng', Afrcan Studes S5/ p.ll.).

9 The tenson between wrtng the hstory of gross human rghts volatons as a seres of essental exemplars, rather than as a comprehensve record, n turn mpled competng versons of the very purpose of hstory and ts relevance to the future. From the perspectve of naton-buldng, the TRC has the status of an event, rather than on ongong process of dsclosure over many years. As Asmal et al put t, 'the TRC's best chance to change the naton's paradgm of tself [s] through a short, sharp hammer blow of a new begnnng...the TRC...must not become ensnared n the banaltes of subpoena and cross-examnaton, nor n the narrow busness of determnng ndvdual gult or nnocence. We already have the courts to do that. Nor must the TRC convert tself or some form of tself, nto a permanent bureaucracy...[ths] would let boredom n upon magc'. By contrast, the commtment to producng an ncreasngly comprehensve record of the past mples an acceptance that the TRC s a begnnng rather than the end of an encounter wth hstory, one whch has no necessary deadlne or schedule. 3. Ambgutes n the object of hstorcal nqury: The tenson between wrtng 'as complete' an account of the past 'as possble' and merely dstllng some 'essental' exemplars was magnfed by the ambgutes n the TRC's object of hstorcal nqury. The TRC's truth-tellng mandate was part descrptve (what had happened, when, who had done t), part explanatory (why, n respect of structural, nsttutonal causes as well as motves and perspectves of relevant hstorcal actors). In respect of the frst part, the TRC 's object of nqury was strctly lmted to gross human rghts volatons, rather than human rghts volaton n ther entrety. And a precse defnton of gross human rghts volatons was provded, n ways whch excluded many of the routnes of aparthed degradaton and humlaton from the TRC's ambt (a feature of the TRC whch has attracted ntense crtcsm from varous commentators, notably Mahmood Mamdan). From ths vantage pont, the aparthed system tself was not the subject of the TRC's nvestgatons; rather, t was the 'background' 22, the 'poltcal landscape' on whch the pcture of gross human rghts volatons was to be panted. On the other hand, the TRC was also expected to account for why gross human rghts volatons had been 22 TRC Report, vol. I ch 4 para 51.

10 perpetrated, placng ndvdual actons n ther broader structural and nsttutonal context. Ths dd requre an engagement wth the aparthed system, not merely as the 'backdrop' but as the source of gross human rghts volatons. The nature of aparthed was smultaneously merely the background to the commsson's nvestgatons, yet absolutely central to ts fndngs. How dd the TRC manage these tensons? The nub of each of these tensons was epstemologcal and methodologcal, n some respects not unlke the routne challenges confrontng practsng hstorans: how to reconcle conflctng versons of the past; how to pant a natonal pcture whch takes suffcent account of regonal/local specftes; how to adjudcate between dfferent types and genres of hstorcal evdence (partcularly the tensons between oral and wrtten modes of recordng the past). But they confronted the TRC n a partcular form: how to construct knowledge about the past n a form whch satsfed a range of competng crtera of adequacy and valdty borne of the dfferent facets of ts mandate? One of the strkng and unusual features of the TRC report s the extent to whch ts authors reflect explctly on ther (perceved) epstemologcal and methodologcal optons. There can't be many offcal state commssons whch ponder the queston of the possblty of objectve knowledge", explore the meanng of 'truth'", nvoke hstorcal socologst Max Weber as a methodologcal role-model 25, and render ther research process as a 'dalectcal encounter' wth dsparate sets of data 26. Yet, for all ths, the overrdng epstemologcal and methodologcal underpnnngs of the report are conventonal fare for the genre of the offcal state commsson. 23 TRC Report, vol. 1 ch 6 para TRC Report, vol. I ch 5, paras TRC Report, vol. 1 ch. 6 paras TRC Report, vol. I ch 11, para 9. 10

11 A Ranbow of Truths The Commsson was mandated to acknowledge the contestedness of hstory and yet delver the authortatve, offcal verdct on the recent past. Unusually for a state commsson, the TRC report names the problem of truth up-front n the frst volume: But what about truth - and whose truth? The complexty of ths concept.,.emerged n the debates that took place before and durng the lfe of the Commsson". The soluton presented n the report s to dfferentate between 'four notons of truth: factual or forensc truth, personal or narratve truth, socal or 'dalogue' truth, and healng or restoratve truth'. As spelt out n the report, 'factual or forensc truth' refers to 'the famlar legal or scentfc noton of brngng to lght factual, corroborated, evdence, of obtanng accurate nformaton through relable (mpartal, objectve) procedures' 28. Ths sort of truth, argues the report, pertans to both 'fndngs on an ndvdual level' as well as the more general fndngs on the 'contexts, causes and patterns of volatons'. Ths, we are told, s the 'socal scentst's approach, [of] analysng], nterpretng] and draw[ng] nferences from the nformaton...receved' 2 '. Accordng to the report, ths s the noton of truth drectly mplcated n the TRC's mandate to produce a 'comprehensve report...based on factual and objectve nformaton' 30. Yet, for the sorts of reasons dentfed earler, there were other aspects of the Commsson's mandate whch requred an acknowledgement that the stuff of hstory s subjectvely and ntersubjectvely constructed. To take account of ths, three addtonal types of truth are then suggested. Frst, the process of personal story-tellng s deemed to generate ts own type of truth: 'personal and narratve truth'. The concept s not explctly defned, but nvokes such deas as 'the valdaton of the ndvdual subjectve experences of people who had prevously been slenced or voceless'; 27 TRC Report, vol. 1 ch 5 para TRC Report, vol. 1 ch 5 para ' TRC Report, vol I ch 5 paras 32 and

12 'capturng the wdest possble record of peoples' perceptons, stores, myths and experences', and 'recoverng parts of the natonal memory that had been htherto been offcally gnored' 31. Another type of truth posted s 'socal truth', defned by Judge Albe Sachs as 'the truth of experence that s establshed through nteracton, dscusson and debate', whch the report here deems the type of truth whch embodes 'the closest connecton between the Commsson's process and ts goal'. Socal truth s to be found n 'tryng to transcend the dvsons of the past by lstenng carefully to the complex motves and perspectves of all those nvolved'. Establshng ths type of truth, t was stressed, 'could not be dvorced from the affrmaton of the dgnty of human beng. Thus, not only the actual outcome or fndngs of an nvestgaton counted. The process whereby the truth was reached was tself mportant because t was through ths process that the essental norms of socal relatons between people were reflected' 32. Each of these three types of truth s n turn dstngushed from a fourth, orgnatng n a rejecton of'the popular assumpton that there are only two optons to be consdered when talkng about truth - namely factual, objectve nformaton or subjectve opnons. There s also 'healng' truth, the knd of truth that places facts and what they mean wthn the context of human relatonshps - both amongst ctzens and between the state and ts ctzens. Ths knd of truth was central to the Commsson'. 'Healng' truth s necessary because 't was not enough smply to determne what had happened. Truth as factual, objectve nformaton cannot be dvorced from the way n whch ths nformaton s acqured; nor can such nformaton be separated from the purposes t s requred to serve' 33. Ths s a very wobbly, poorly constructed conceptual grd. The grounds for dfferentatng the four types of truth are poorly specfed and reman rather opaque. For example, the marker of 'healng truth'(puttng truth n the context of human relatonshps) seems largely to reterate the crteron for socal truth (reflectng the essental norms of socal relatons). And the noton of 'healng 31 TRC Report, vol. 1 ch 5 paras 36 & TRC Report, vol 1 ch 5, paras TRC Report, vol. I ch 5 paras 43 &

13 truth' s defned n a way whch undermnes the very possblty of factual/ forensc truth, rather than as consttutng an addtonal 'type' of truth alongsde factual truth. If'truth as factual, objectve nformaton cannot be dvorced from the way n whch ths nformaton s acqured...[or] the purposes t s requred to serve', then the earler defnton of factual/ forensc truth does not make sense. More generally. There s an elson between dfferentatng types and stes of evdence wth the case for qualtatvely dfferent types of truth 34. Moreover, defntonal problems asde, the typology of truths restates the orgnal challenge, of how to manage the tensons between competng versons and perspectves on the past. If the 'forensc' verson of events s at odds wth the "socal' truth n any partcular communty, on what bass s the conflct to be adjudcated? The report's foray nto epstemology stops short of consderng these questons of how one type of truth relates to, or mpacts upon, another. Ths s no surprse, because the tact logc of the exercse s to separate the four 'types' of truth nto apparently dstnct, unrelated sorts of undertakngs. For, heren les an apparently neat resoluton to the dlemma of truth-tellng confrontng the TRC. Dfferent facets of the Commsson's mandate seem each to be taken care of by means of a dstnct type and standard of truth, each of whch servces a partcular type of 'reconclaton'. Gvng ndvdual vctms a voce n the hearngs llustrates the TRC's commtment to personal truth; gettng vctms and perpetrators to speak to each other and hear each others' perspectves s an nstance of socal truth; creatng a forum for natonal reconclaton enacts healng truth; and the report becomes an exercse n factual or forensc truth. Seemngly then each type of truth would have ts place n a proceedngs whch thereby manages to reconcle subjectve, ntersubjectve, contextual and objectve truths as though they were unrelated, separate sorts of pursuts. Reconstructng the typology n these terms would read as follows: the evdence for personal truth s the ntensty of personal belefs and feelngs; the evdence for socal truth s the emergence of a consensus whch may or may nor have to do wth 'facts' about the case; the evdence for 'healng' truth s ts effects n promotng reconclaton; whereas the evdence for factual or forensc truth would be the objectve 'facts' of the case. Thanks to Mark Leon for hs nsghts on ths pont. 13

14 On ths bass, the report then proceeds to take a conventonally postvst stance on the source of ts own authorty as the offcal, objectve verson of the past. Presentng four dstnct types of truth allows the Commsson's wrtten report to preserve ts status as the offcal, mpartal, dsengaged verdct on the past: Factual or forensc truth s dstngushed as that type of truth whch s not embedded n socal relatons or socal norms, and whch s not establshed through dalogue and nteracton. So the judgements on the past wrtten n the report are delvered as the delberatons of 'the onlooker, the outsder, the observer, the recorder, the evaluator, the scentst' 35. If the mpact of varyng and competng subjectvtes s felt n oral testmony (the realm of the hearngs), the wrtten text gves expresson to an objectvty whch s seemngly dvested of subjectve ntrusons or contamnatons. Fndngs on gross human rghts volatons are presented n quas-judcal form, as mpartal verdcts on the past. The aparthed 'context' wthn gross human rghts volatons took place s wrtten n a 'factual' mode, effacng any sense of hstorographcal debate or contestaton (more on ths later). So seemngly the contestedness of South Afrca's recent past detracts lttle from the authorty of the offcal commsson. There are a few moments n the report whch reveal flashes of a more sophstcated poston on truth. A bref footnote bured n a methodologcal appendx suggests that at least one of the authors of the report saw objectvty as 'knowledge that s nter-subjectvely relable, knowledge on whch the nvolved actors can agree s held n common between them' 36 - n other words, that truth s a judgement taken by partcular communtes of truth-tellers (the TRC beng one) accordng to shared norms and standards of evdence. And at another pont, the reader s alerted to the Commsson's heterogenous and contested engagement wth the past: Whle ts overall am s to be even-handed and as objectve as possble, to vew the Commsson as homogenous, as all of one pece, s a rather oversmplfed approach. The Commsson s made up of many people wth dfferent perspectves...ths s not to decry 35 TRC Report, vol. 5 ch 7 para TRC Report, vol. I ch. 6, footnote 14 on page

15 the efforts of the Commsson to be objectve. It s an honest admsson that the perspectve of the Commsson and ts members s a complex one 37. Ths verson of the report treats t as a more contested, contextual and nterpretatve exercse than smply the detached fndngs of 'the onlooker, the outsder, the observer'. It begns to blur the earler typology of dstnct, unrelated truths, whch treats subjectvty and objectvty as unrelated modes of knowng. But ths poston s margnal n the report as a whole, whch resolutely reproduces the dscourse of factual, forensc truth as ts vantage pont on the past. Tryng to Make A Lttle Go A Long Way: One of the other epstemologcal and methodologcal dlemmas dervng from the TRC's mandate was how to capture the vast and complex phenomenon of gross human rghts volatons for the perod , accountng for what happened and why, but wthout succumbng to the sort of detal whch was morally unnecessary, poltcally nexpedent and unduly tme-consumng 38. Processes of selecton, summary, truncaton and excluson were fundamental to the workngs of the TCR. Overwhelmed by the enormty of ts mandate, the TRC sought to transform t nto a more manageable undertakng. These methodologcal judgements n turn had a profound effect n shapng ts dscourse on the past. The TRC's startng pont on ths front was to treat local cases as nstances of natonal patterns. Overwhelmed by the statements taken n respect of nearly gross human rghts volatons, the TRC hearngs showcased a sample, crafted on the bass of a careful poltcal balancng act, reflectng the dversty of the vctms (representng dfferent ages, races and genders), a regonal and hstorcal spread of cases, and a commtment to even-handedness (reflectng gross human rghts volatons across the poltcal spectrum, from the rghtwng through 37 TRC Report, vol. 5 ch 7, para 52. Although (he lfespan of (he Commsson was extended by a few months, there was lttle sympathy for the dea of a more substantal extenson beyond the two years wthn whch t was orgnally expected to complete ts work. 15

16 to the left) 39. The TRC report then dstlled, selected and summarsed even further: 't was not possble to nclude every case brought to the Commsson; rather the stores that llustrate partcular events, trends and phenomena have been used as wndows on the experences of many people'. The dea of openng exemplary 'wndows" on the past also governed the selecton of ten 'event hearngs' 'amed to provde detaled nsghts nto partcular ncdents that were representatve of broader patterns of abuse' 40. The strategy of creatng 'wndow cases' s recast n the TRC Report under the rubrc of Weberan socal scence. Ths Weberan flrtaton begns by endorsng the vew that to understand gross human rghts volatons requres nsertng them nto a context formed by 'webs of socal networks and contngent cultural meanngs'. Ths poston, n lne wth the Weberan dea of versehen, overcomes the lmtatons of 'decontextualsed human rghts reportng' and purely quanttatve analyss of trends n the commsson of gross human rghts volatons. 41 In response, the report calls for 'methodologcal pluralsm', dentfyng a seemng concdence between Max Weber's noton of socologcal method and the mandate of the Commsson: Lke the Commsson, Weber recommends that analysts dentfy general factors n the unverse of examples by applyng deal types - 'controlled and unambguous conceptons'- whch llumnate partcular phenomena of study. However, the general factors must be understood n terms of the partculartes of the ndvdual cases. Ths defnton of a set of 'deal types' s then appled to a unverse of narratve (or sem-structured) statements taken n ntervews wth deponents...at the Commsson, the data processng teams mplemented these 'deal types' usng a controlled vocabulary and a codng frame. The teams coded deponents' statements n standard forms before capturng the nformaton on the data 19 TRC Report vol 1 ch 6 para IRC Report vol I ch 6 para TRC Report. Vol 1 ch 6, Appendx, paras 10 &

17 base.' 42 Supposedly followng Weber, the report then calls for a two-pronged process of researchng gross human rghts volatons n the past: a method of'ethnography' s needed to produce an understandng of the 'relevant socal networks and contngent cultural meanngs' n terms of whch to make sense of ndvdual cases; a process of typfcaton then allows for a quanttatve analyss of general trends and patterns. And here, seemngly, s a neat and effcent match between a respectably scentfc methodologcal pluralsm and dual facets of the TRC's mandate: analysng the 'context, motves and perspectves' leadng to gross human rghts volatons requres 'hstorcal or ethnographc reflecton', whle exposng 'systematc patterns' n gross human rghts volatons 'mples a quanttatve treatment'. 43 Invokng Max Weber mght lend an ar of methodologcal rgour and authorty to the proceedngs, but the parallels are ultmately spurous, n ways whch reveal much'about the lmts of the TRC's research process and ts powers of hstorcal explanaton. What Weber had n mnd was to lnk ethnographc nterpretatons of the subjectve meanngs of socal actons, wth a causal analyss of j the measurable patterns n socal behavour across groups or socetes at large. Ths, for Weber, would enable an explanaton of why partcular patterns of subjectve meanngs ('perspectves', n the language of the TRC) emerged at partcular tmes and wth partcular effects. As a scentst, hs goal was to understand the broader mpersonal, structural constrants on how people thought and acted, human volton and ntentonalty. Hs noton of deal types was therefore ntended to make fuller sense of ndvdual cases by lnkng them to more general causatve patterns. The TRC however, proceeds along a rather dfferent path. A great deal of tme and effort seems to have gone nto developng methods of data capture and codng whch would facltate the producton of quantfed trends n gross human rghts volatons. Indvdual cases of gross human rghts volatons j 42 TRC Report, vol I ch 6, Appendx, para 13. TRC Report, vol. I ch 6 Appendx, para

18 were coded accordng to ther 'type' and patterns n ther occurrence then quantfed 44. Ths exercse n quantfcaton then produces a seres of natonal and regonal surveys of gross human rghts volatons, perodsed accordng to the types and prevalence of these volatons and dsaggregated by age, race and gender. But the quantfcaton then bears lttle or no relatonshp to the narraton of ndvdual cases, other than n provdng the bass for a (descrptve) perodsaton. In the report, the quanttatve data s presented as a preface to the natonal and regonal 'profles' of gross human rghts volatons, whch narrate what happened and produce the TRC's judgements about who was responsble for them. But there s no explanatory lnk between the two knds of exercses. The mpulse of Weberan methodology, of understandng why ndvdual acts they way they do by nsertng ther actons nto a broader causal context, s stllborn. Oddly, the report deals wth the ssue of 'motves and causes' n a separate chapter, also unrelated to the narraton of gross human rghts volatons and the allocaton of responsblty for them. Ths chapter contans a general dscusson settng out dfferent possble ways of explanng motves, rangng from 'the prmacy of the poltcal motve', through the dea of'ndvdualstc psychologcal explanatons' (spannng 'human nature', 'psychologcal abnormaltes', 'authortaransm') to the dea of'socal denttes' (ncludng de-ndvduaton, masculnty), endng up wth a remnder that 'deology s a form of power n whch meanng (sgnfcaton) serves to sustan and reproduce relatons of domnaton'. Well, so what? In general terms the chapter consders all of these factors are consdered relevant; n concrete terms lttle f any of ths s demonstrated, because ths chunk of ntroductory psychology and socology remans dsconnected from the rest of the report. The report's pseudo-weberan method s responsble, then, for the unweldy structure of the fvevolumes. Its text on the past reads as a rather dsconnected complaton of dscrete chunks of nformaton: quanttatve surveys of natonal and regonal patterns of gross human rghts volatons; a general dsemboded dscusson of dfferent approaches to understandng the motves and perspectves of the vctms and perpetrators; 'background' sketches of the aparthed past, and As the report ponts out, ths not a census of gross human rghts volatons. Nor s t based on a representatve sample. It s a complaton of only those gross human rghts volatons reported to the TRC. 18

19 narratves of cases of gross human rghts volatons and the fndngs reached about them. What the report lacks s an attempt to ntegrate and synthesse these nto a unfed analyss 43. Instead, severng "motve' from 'cause', and de-lnkng both from the narraton of ndvdual cases, the report deprves tsel f of one of the essental tools of hstorcal analyss. As a consequence, the report reads as an often bland, largely descrptve account of what happened, when and how. One of the strkng features of these narratves s that jthey convey almost nothng of 'socal networks and contngent cultural meanngs'. These are relegated to what the report calls the 'rchness' of local hstores whch resde n the TRC's archves, beyond the realm of the report tself. Despte the notonal commtment to an 'ethnographc' project, t seems to have been margnalsed j by the energy and effort whch went nto the quanttatve research exercse - a pont underscored by Commssoner Wynand Malan n hs 'Mnorty Report' to the Commsson 116. The descrptve recountng of what, when and how thngs happened s subject to other strateges of ncluson and excluson. In respect of the few cases selected for the report, hghly edted, condensed accounts of events and ther context have been gven. They have been peced together drawng on combnatons of ndvdual testmony and statements drawn from amnesty and gross human rghts volatons hearngs, other vctm statements, prmary research undertaken wthn the Commsson, and the occasonal pece of secondary hstorcal research. It's never clear why some aspects of the broader pcture are deemed relevant and not others; nor why some scholars and not others are cted. But ths begs the bgger queston: how much nformaton was consdered 'enough' and accordng to The report lacks an ndex, whch makes l almost mpossble for ts readers to cross-reference and connect dfferent parts of the lve volumes. In hs Mnorty Report. Commssoner Wynand Malan pcks up on ths pont:' a qualtatve analyss of the data that has been collected, especally from vctm statements and testmones or through the amnesty process, would have made a very valuable contrbuton to a better understandng of our socety and the underlyng endemc rsks of the conflcts of the past repealng themselves n dfferent forms. Unfortunately we have not been able to undertake such an analyss. It s recommended that nsttutons of learnng and research, the prvate sector and cvl socety promolc research programmes amed at qualtatve analyss of the data.' {TRC Report, vol. S, Mnorty Poston Submtted by Commssoner Wynand Malan, paras 86 & 87.) The 1'RC Report, on the other hand, makes a recommendaton callng for further quanttatve analyss of ts data (vol 5 ch 8 para 21).! 19

20 what crtera of suffcency? The TRC Report has wrtten the past hstory of gross human rghts volatons n a form whch passes decsve moral judgements n respect of responsblty for gross human rghts volatons. The tact crteron for decdng how much hstory s 'enough' was 'enough, n the eyes of varous Commssoners and/or authors of the report, to pass moral judgement'. The report s wrtten n such a way that fndngs allocatng responsblty for gross human rghts volatons are the conclusons of narratves about what happened; there s no evdence for the fndngs over and above the narratve as t s presented. So the narratve produces the fndngs; but ths also means that the narratve has been shaped by what has been deemed necessary evdence for those fndngs. Underlyng the report's clams to the authorty of ts fndngs then, s a self-effacng crcular process n terms of whch the past s recorded only nsofar as t s necessary to produce moral judgement; and the only bass for these judgements s the verson of the past as t s wrtten n the report. How much then, s ths? How much evdence s consdered suffcent as the bass for producng fndngs about responsblty for gross human rghts volatons? When ths ssue s rased early on n the report, the ssue of'justfcaton' s flagged as beng crucal: 'the act must have been commtted wth the objectve of counterng or otherwse resstng the sad struggle" 17 and should have been demonstrably the 'result of delberate plannng" 18. The Commsson also nssts on trackng the chan of command: 't must be sad that those wth the most power to abuse must carry the heavest responsblty' 4 '. Yet, as suggested earler, establshng the motves, the 'justfcaton', and degree of plannng attached to partcular acts of volence, s one the most conspcuous lacuna n the report. And the gap s bggest n respect of those most senor n the relevant structures of command. Admttedly, there were some large mpedments n the way of the Commsson's dong so. The search for relevant state archval documentaton uncovered a systematc process of the 47 TRC Report, vol I ch 4 para TRC Report, vol 1 ch 4 para I24(c). 49 TRC Report vol I ch 4 para 80 20

21 destructon of offcal records by the aparthed state, partcularly durng the 1990s. Also, the poltcs of compromse dsabled a more robust, nsstent effort to subpoena key decson-makers n ether state or lberaton movement herarches of authorty. But the report's slences on questons of ntentonalty also reflect prortes and gaps n the research process tself, wth the emphass on the quanttatve data codng exercse dwarfng the process of'hstorcal or ethnographc reflecton'. j Ths docs not nhbt the report from makng wde-rangng moral ndctments, across the poltcal j spectrum. The amount of nformaton and degree of detal accompanyng these fndngs vares I enormously, some regons subject to a far fuller account than others and some fndngs are presented more cautously and n more qualfed ways than n others (eg. KwaZulu-Natal). In some cases, only named ndvduals n the polce are held responsble for gross human rghts volatons. But n many other nstances, the net of responsblty s thrown far more wdely, wth 'the state' or the relevant Mmstcr/s held responsble for gross human rghts volatons commtted by ther underlngs. Applyng the Commsson's own crtera for evdence, these fndngs often read rather baldly and at tmes as altogether flmsy, partcularly n respect of earler perods. For example, n the report on the 1960 Sharpevllc massacre, the SAP n Verecngng s held responsble for havng delberately opened fre on the fleeng crowds of ant-pass protestors, but so too s the 'state and Mnster of Polce' - although the precedng narratve makes no menton of any processes of'delberate plannng' between the varous perpetrators. 50 Reportng on the deaths n detenton of Ahmed Tmol, Sulman Salojee and others, the report fnds the Mnster of Justce 'drectly responsble for the falure of magstrates to take account of evdence presented to them of the torture and assault of detanees by the polce', but agan wth no menton of the organsatonal lnkages between them 31. Wth smlar omssons, the 'former state' was held responsble for actons undertaken by the j SADF's mltary ntellgence n Cske, as a result of whch ffteen people ded". 50 TRC Report, vol 3 ch 6 para IRC Report, vol. 3 ch 6 para TRC Report, vol 3 ch 2 para

22 All n all, the unevenness wth whch fndngs are made and motvated s strkng, partcularly n relaton to the supposed need to demonstrate the 'motvatons' and 'delberate plannng' along a chan of command. Whle many readers of the report would be unsurprsed by, and sympathetc to, a fndng that the aparthed state should take responsblty for the actons of Mltary Intellgence (for example), from a forensc pont of vew, these sorts of fndngs n respect of'the state' at large beg crucal questons about how much members of the Cabnet and other cvlan structures/bureaucraces knew about the actons of the mltary, how far partcular ndvduals and bureaucraces wthn the state acted ndependently and wthout authorsaton from superors, what sort of co-ordnated plannng charactersed the aparthed state. If the Commsson's fndngs n respect of'the state' and many of ts senor decson-makers read as summarsed and ncomplete, they pont to the way n whch much of the report should be read - as prmarly a moral narratve about the fact of evl n South Afrca's past, for whch the prevalence and character of gross human rghts volatons s ultmately suffcent evdence. Gven the constrants of the poltcal compromse, the dsnclnaton to antagonse or ncrmnate leadng poltcans, the emphass on the 'healng' process, as well as the problems of archval access, the TRC chose to deal wth the hghest echelons of decson-makng n the state largely by gnorng them, passng judgement on the system of aparthed tself, as a crme aganst humanty. The state s then responsble as the author of the system, but wthout the TRC havng to demonstrate much about ts nsttutonal apparatus or modus operand. Grapplng wth Aparthed As suggested earler, the aparthed system was the 'background' to the Commsson's nqury (nsofar as ts mandate was lmted to gross human rghts volatons not human rghts volatons and therefore the aparthed system n ts entrety) and yet the crux of ts nvestgaton, as the source of these gross human rghts volatons. The TRC's powers of hstorcal explanaton rested heavly on ts abltes to come to grps wth aparthed. The prevous secton has exposed some of epstemologcal and methodologcal reasons why the TRC report s ultmately more of a descrptve than an explanatory exercse. Ths secton examnes how these epstemologcal and methodologcal 22

23 postons arc manfest subsanvcly. n the TRC's lmted and rather unmpressve engagement wth the nature of aparthed. The report announces on a number of occasons the TRC's dscomfort wth the excluson of human rghts volatons more generally from ts scope (although the mnd boggles at how the Commsson would have been straned by an even more extensve mandate). Many Commssoners, as well as the authors of the report, emphassed repeatedly the need to understand aparthed tself as the systematc volaton of human rghts, contextualsng gross human rghts volatons as one end of a contnuum that should be understood as such, and whch had ts roots n the laws and nsttutons of the aparthed system. Spurred by ths nsstence on the need to factor the broader context nto account n descrbng and explanng gross human rghts volatons, the TRC dversfed ts hearngs n ways whch promsed to shed greater lght on the socal, deologcal and nsttutonal character of aparthed South Afrca. In addton to the amnesty and human rghts hearngs, there were ten event hearngs (as mentoned prevously), nsttutonal hearngs nto the busness sector, meda, medcal professon, legal professon and 'fath communty', specal hearngs nto youth, women and mltary conscrpton, and poltcal party hearngs to allow for fuller nterrogaton of the actons and atttudes of ther leaders and rank and fle. The TRC's research commttee also recognsed the need to throw ts research net wde enough to encompass large chunks of the aparthed system. In short, there were some promsng sgns that a serous exercse n hstorcal analyss was on the cards. But t was not to be. The TRC reports sheds remarkably lttle lght on aparthed, and partcularly lttle over and above what we already know. A narratve on aparthed s constructed n bts and peces, through a combnaton of general 'background' accounts, as Well as natonal and regonal 'profles' on gross human rghts volatons. But ths narratve too, s prmarly descrptve. It s also extremely bref, selectve and at tmes hstorcally naccurate. To a reader famlar wth South Afrca's recent hstory, much of ths text seems to have been wrtten by persons wth relatvely lttle hstorcal expertse. Swathes of exstng research do not fnd ther way nto the report, even though wrters occasonally make reference to one or other secondary text. [ 23

24 One of the more conspcuous gaps n the TRC's engagement wth aparthed s n respect of the aparthed state. Curously, the research department's lst of fourteen 'strategc research themes' dd not nclude one whch dealt drectly wth the state, other than by way of research nto the 'development of the securty establshment', the judcary and legal system. The state seems not to have been theorsed, nor adequately conceptualsed. As a result, the effort to understand the character and nner workngs of the aparthed state was rather desultory. Hampered n ther efforts to read the prevously secret mltary and polce records, researchers seem not to have probed elsewhere for evdence of the dstrbuton of power, technques of decson-makng and methods of nternal dscplne deployed wthn the aparthed state. In the lght of the prevous methodologcal dscusson, these gaps n the report's rendton of aparthed can be read as symptoms of what emerged as the domnant logc of the report's global encounter wth the past. Notwthstandng the TRC's mandate to account for why gross human rghts volatons occurred as they dd, wth reference to the motves, perspectves and 'delberate plannng' on the part of the perpetrators, the report offers lttle on ths front. It emerges as prmarly as a story of moral wrongdong, for the purposes of whch the complextes of motves, perspectves and plannng on the part of state actors are far less mportant than ther consequences - the commsson of ncreasngly gross human rghts volatons. The mprnts of the report's noton of factual/forensc truth are also powerfully felt n ts encounter wth aparthed. Aparthed s wrtten n the factual, forensc mode, as though a successon of 'facts' collated and assembled by the Commsson. The report defnes factual forensc truth as the busness of the socal scentst; but n fact t s only the most postvstc of socal scentsts who would recognse ther practce n the Commsson's wrtng. Any non-postvst would see the practce of producng truth as an nterpretatve exercse rooted n a seres of theoretcal assumptons about the object of nqury and normatve assumptons about the value and purpose of the nqury. In the case of wrtng the hstory and character of aparthed, there s by now a large body of lterature straddlng a seres of debates borne of conflctng theoretcal and normatve assumptons. Wth the 24