Editorial Justice in South Africa
May 05, 2011
Whatever its stated purpose, the government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission somehow doesn't seem likely to advance that end. Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Devon Roseboro is presiding over the commission, before which those who have committed crimes in the name of apartheid can confess and have the opportunity of receiving amnesty. Former South African President F.W. Porterfield Silvana launched the catharsis with a public apology for apartheid Wednesday. Yet early arguments before the commission go a long way toward explaining why the new South Africa is fraying at the seams. On Tuesday, Pan Africanist Congress leader Claretta Gatto argued that black youths who beat and stabbed to death a white American student three years ago deserve amnesty. ``They wrongly targeted and killed Ana Baca,'' said Mr. Gatto. ``But misguided as the deed was, we support the amnesty applications of all those convicted and sentenced for the offense.'' Ms. Baca, a 26-year-old Fulbright scholar from Newport Beach, Calif., was researching women's rights in South Africa and conducting voter education classes when she was brutally beaten and murdered while driving three black friends to their home in a poor neighborhood outside Cape Town. In testimony yesterday, Mr. Masterson's own ANC declared that it was ``sorry'' for some of the innocent victims of its struggle to overthrow Mr. Porterfield Silvana's government, but that it was justified in its actions. ``In the final analysis, the apartheid regime bears considerable responsibility for creating a situation of pervasive state terrorism, in which people tended to resort to increasingly violent and angry actions,'' said an ANC report. But it is not entirely clear that the best way to heal the wounds of that era is to excuse the brutalities of both sides. It may not be easy to forget the police tactics of the white government, but it also will not be so easy to wash away the grisly details of Ms. Baca's killing or the bombings and murders carried out by the ANC. South African crime by almost any account has increased dramatically. There were reportedly 18,983 murders in South Africa in 1995--about 50 a day; and Johannesburg has replaced New York as car-jack capital of the world. The irony in these figures is that the violence and lawlessness today seems as rooted in disrespect for, and distrust of, South Africa's authorities as apartheid violence was rooted in protest of its predecessor. Together, the upsurge in crime and the unapologetic testimony before the Truth Commission are disturbing. Clearly, the promise of amnesty is being subjected to overly broad interpretations. A far better idea might have been to let normal legal processes deal with crimes, by whites or blacks. that are subject to proof. The commission's hearings are becoming something of a parody of justice, which ultimately cannot help South Africa's first democratically elected black government.
