No Future Without Forgiveness

Apartheid referred to the racist ideology and system in South Africa that classified people into racial groups, which determined where they could live, work, travel, attend school, and do other activities. Although Black South Africans suffered the most, apartheid penalized all non-white people. The apartheid government enforced the system through brutality.

Askaris were the captured African National Congress (ANC) activists who agreed to work for the apartheid police to avoid torture, imprisonment, or death. The police coerced these former resistance activists to commit crimes against the resistance movement. Askaris often led other anti-apartheid activists to death traps. The ANC considered askaris traitors and routinely tortured or killed them.

During apartheid, banned people were those whom the government placed under virtual house arrest. It confined them to their home for 12 hours per day during the week and all weekend, prohibited them from attending any gatherings, allowed them to meet with only one person at a time, and placed several other restrictions on them.

A briefer was a TRC staff person assigned to help victims through their testimony. The briefer sat with the victim and tended to their needs to make the process of testifying as comfortable as possible.

Kitskonstabels were special apartheid police constables who received only minimal basic training before assuming duty. In the 1988 conflict between the Inkatha Freedom Party and an ANC-aligned group, Kitskonstabels killed 11 people, mainly women and children, in error.

A necklace killing was a gruesome form of execution in which a tire, filled with gasoline, was placed around a victim’s neck and set on fire. The ANC used this method of execution to kill traitors, and Tutu considers it an extreme form of dehumanization.

Restorative justice does not seek punishment. Instead, it calls for restoring broken relationships to a state of harmony. The perpetrator has the opportunity for rehabilitation and reintegration into the community in exchange for a full and truthful confession, while the victim can share sometimes horrific experiences and thereby experience some relief. The TRC used this model of justice.