Truth And Reconciliation Commission Analysis

South Africa has chosen to remember the history of its country by providing amnesty and reparations for those affected by the tragic events that took place during the apartheid era. This idea was achieved by means of a commission that worked to heal the country of its deeply wounded history. This would therefore allow the survival of a new system of democracy, which was to be introduced by President Nelson Mandela who was elected leader in 1994. The commission that worked towards a greater goal, was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). South Africa has chosen to remember its past by teaching the youth of today about the TRC and the impact that it had, whether it be detrimental or successful. The TRC was implemented in order to help
This committee provided victim support and helped to restore the dignity of those affected by the acts of apartheid. Although it focused mainly on the direct victims, the R&R also helped provide rehabilitation to the families of the victim as well as the communities.
The last Committee, the Amnesty Committee, was given the task to consider all amnesty applications and decide whether the applicant would receive such forgiveness for the acts that they committed. This committee could grant amnesty from prosecution. The success of an applicant depended on two conditions: The crime that was committed needed to have a political motivation behind it, as well as the applicant was forced to come before the public and confess the truth of all the acts they had been involved in. The TRC insisted on public hearings, so that the public would be aware of the atrocities that were committed by normal human beings.

The committees that were introduced to the TRC all had a main aim, and that was to help the victims gain closure and the perpetrators to be sentenced. This helped aid the process of living through the terror that was caused by apartheid and helped them remember the past as something that they were given rehabilitation
It is unfortunately true that there are more negative achievements than positive when it comes to discussing the outcome of the TRC. Although the mandate of the TRC was to promote reparation and forgiveness, the commission was not fully able to succeed in that goal. The idea about punishment is that those who commit a crime should be punished with appropriate punishment. Often, this was not the case. Those who directly committed the crimes were given the same punishment as those who simply followed orders that they were given from a higher power. Proportionate punishment is a very important thing, because if someone who committed a higher level of criminal activity, were only given a small punishment [such as community service], meanwhile someone who simply ran a school that followed segregation laws was sentenced to a certain amount of years in jail, then the system is