By IPS Correspondents
JOHANNESBURG, Apr 16 2003 (IPS)

The South African government will grant financial compensation to the 22,000 survivors of apartheid identified by the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), but it is firmly opposed to international legal action to force companies that benefited from the system of racial discrimination to pay reparations to those who suffered.

The South African government will grant financial compensation to the 22,000 survivors of apartheid identified by the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), but it is firmly opposed to international legal action to force companies that benefited from the system of racial discrimination to pay reparations to those who suffered.

Speaking during the tabling of the final TRC report in Parliament, on Tuesday, South African President, Thabo Mbeki, said: ”Government will provide a once-off grant of R30,000 (3,750 U.S. Dollars) to those individuals or survivors designated by the TRC. This is over and above other material commitments. Combined with community reparations, and assistance through opportunities and services, we hope that these disbursements will help acknowledge the suffering that these individuals experienced, and offer some relief.

”We do so with some apprehension, for as the TRC itself has underlined, no one can attach monetary value to life and suffering. Nor can an argument be sustained that the efforts of millions of South Africans to liberate themselves, were for monetary gain. We are convinced that, to the millions who spared neither life nor limb in struggle, there is no bigger prize than freedom itself, and a continuing struggle to build a better life for all.”

The TRC has identified 22,000 survivors of apartheid. But some South African rights groups are insisting that there are many more victims of apartheid who were not discovered by the TRC and are campaigning for more people to be allowed to add their names to the list.

The government has been reluctant to commit itself to individual compensation for victims of apartheid, arguing that the reconstruction and development of the country is the best way to recompense all South Africans who suffered discrimination.

Fagan has filed a suit in a U.S. court, on behalf of apartheid victims, for damages of up to 6.1 billion U.S. dollars against Anglo American, the South African mining house – now based in London – and its De Beers diamond company. Anglo-American has rejected the lawsuits.

Claims have also been filed against the South African energy company, Sasol and Fluor International, an oil company. A number of other multinational corporations and international banks have been hit with similar lawsuits.

”In the recent past, the issue of litigation and civil suits against corporations that benefited from the apartheid system has sharply arisen. In this regard, we wish to reiterate that the South African government is not and will not be party to such litigation,” Mbeki said.

”In addition, we consider it completely unacceptable that matters central to the future of our country should be adjudicated in foreign courts which bear no responsibility for the well-being of our country and the observance of the perspective contained in our constitution of the promotion of national reconciliation,” he said.

”While Government recognises the right of citizens to institute legal action, its own approach is informed by the desire to involve all South Africans, including corporate citizens, in a co-operative and voluntary partnership to reconstruct and develop South African society,” explained Mbeki.

Mbeki also turned down a proposal by the TRC for a once-off wealth tax on corporations that would be used to finance a fund for the compensation of survivals of apartheid. The TRC proposal has been met with howls of protest from many of South Africa’s big companies, who argue that they are already investing heavily in social responsibility and economic development programmes.

Some rights activists are insisting that the government is more concerned about securing the confidence and investment of businesses, than compensating the survivors of apartheid.

Mbeki also called on the governments in the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) to speed-up economic and social development programmes in the region as a way of compensating those outside South Africa who suffered at the hands of the apartheid regime.

”We shall continue to work in partnership with countries of the sub-continent, jointly to take part in the massive reconstruction and development effort that the SADC has identified as critical to building a better life for all. The peoples of Southern Africa, including the majority in South Africa, endured untold privations and were subjected to destabilisation and destruction of property and infrastructure. They all deserve the speeding up of programmes of integration, reconstruction and development that governments of the region have agreed upon,” he said.

Mbeki said there would be no general amnesty for the perpetrators of human rights abuses in South Africa. He warned that those who did not come forward and apply for amnesty at the TRC would now be prosecuted under the law if their misdeeds were uncovered.

Late last month, the South African Council of Churches (SACC) insisted there should be no general amnesty for those who abused human rights under apartheid.

”Those making suggestions about a free amnesty for all must be well advised that human lives are involved. General amnesty fails the equation that the TRC held between perpetrator assurances and victims’ needs. General Amnesty does an injustice to victims,” said the general-secretary of the SACC, Molefe Tsele.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
JOHANNESBURG, Apr 16 2003 (IPS)

The South African government will grant financial compensation to the 22,000 survivors of apartheid identified by the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), but it is firmly opposed to international legal action to force companies that benefited from the system of racial discrimination to pay reparations to those who suffered.

Speaking during the tabling of the final TRC report in Parliament, on Tuesday, South African President, Thabo Mbeki, said: "Government will provide a once-off grant of R30,000 (3,750 U.S. Dollars) to those individuals or survivors designated by the TRC. This is over and above other material commitments. Combined with community reparations, and assistance through opportunities and services, we hope that these disbursements will help acknowledge the suffering that these individuals experienced, and offer some relief.

"We do so with some apprehension, for as the TRC itself has underlined, no one can attach monetary value to life and suffering. Nor can an argument be sustained that the efforts of millions of South Africans to liberate themselves, were for monetary gain. We are convinced that, to the millions who spared neither life nor limb in struggle, there is no bigger prize than freedom itself, and a continuing struggle to build a better life for all."

The TRC has identified 22,000 survivors of apartheid. But some South African rights groups are insisting that there are many more victims of apartheid who were not discovered by the TRC and are campaigning for more people to be allowed to add their names to the list.

The government has been reluctant to commit itself to individual compensation for victims of apartheid, arguing that the reconstruction and development of the country is the best way to recompense all South Africans who suffered discrimination.

Turning to the lawsuits filed against South African and international corporations who benefited from apartheid by U.S. lawyer Ed Fagan, Mbeki made it clear that the South African government was opposed to the legal action.

Fagan has filed a suit in a U.S. court, on behalf of apartheid victims, for damages of up to 6.1 billion U.S. dollars against Anglo American, the South African mining house – now based in London – and its De Beers diamond company. Anglo-American has rejected the lawsuits.

Claims have also been filed against the South African energy company, Sasol and Fluor International, an oil company. A number of other multinational corporations and international banks have been hit with similar lawsuits.

"In the recent past, the issue of litigation and civil suits against corporations that benefited from the apartheid system has sharply arisen. In this regard, we wish to reiterate that the South African government is not and will not be party to such litigation," Mbeki said.

"In addition, we consider it completely unacceptable that matters central to the future of our country should be adjudicated in foreign courts which bear no responsibility for the well-being of our country and the observance of the perspective contained in our constitution of the promotion of national reconciliation," he said.

"While Government recognises the right of citizens to institute legal action, its own approach is informed by the desire to involve all South Africans, including corporate citizens, in a co-operative and voluntary partnership to reconstruct and develop South African society," explained Mbeki.

Mbeki also turned down a proposal by the TRC for a once-off wealth tax on corporations that would be used to finance a fund for the compensation of survivals of apartheid. The TRC proposal has been met with howls of protest from many of South Africa’s big companies, who argue that they are already investing heavily in social responsibility and economic development programmes.

Some rights activists are insisting that the government is more concerned about securing the confidence and investment of businesses, than compensating the survivors of apartheid.

Mbeki also called on the governments in the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) to speed-up economic and social development programmes in the region as a way of compensating those outside South Africa who suffered at the hands of the apartheid regime.

"We shall continue to work in partnership with countries of the sub-continent, jointly to take part in the massive reconstruction and development effort that the SADC has identified as critical to building a better life for all. The peoples of Southern Africa, including the majority in South Africa, endured untold privations and were subjected to destabilisation and destruction of property and infrastructure. They all deserve the speeding up of programmes of integration, reconstruction and development that governments of the region have agreed upon," he said.

Mbeki said there would be no general amnesty for the perpetrators of human rights abuses in South Africa. He warned that those who did not come forward and apply for amnesty at the TRC would now be prosecuted under the law if their misdeeds were uncovered.

Late last month, the South African Council of Churches (SACC) insisted there should be no general amnesty for those who abused human rights under apartheid.

"Those making suggestions about a free amnesty for all must be well advised that human lives are involved. General amnesty fails the equation that the TRC held between perpetrator assurances and victims’ needs. General Amnesty does an injustice to victims," said the general-secretary of the SACC, Molefe Tsele.

Excerpt: