As the country gears up for a year of intensified advocacy for the resolution of the many issues left incomplete by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the eve of the 20th Anniversary of the commencement of the TRC's work in 2016, the continuing challenges that have resulted from the failure to complete the work initiated by the country's TRC, were presented to the UCT Medical Class of 1975 at its reunion on Saturday 21 November 2015 in Cape Town.
2. A Beginning: A Campaign to End the Death Penalty
in South Africa
Sikhumbuto Memorial to the
‘Hanged’ at Freedom Park
The Isivivane
3. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission: 1996 – 1998
An Incomplete Outcome:
Unfinished Business
The failure of justice & the
transgenerational
transmission of trauma
4. Reconstructing Societies after
Trauma & the Role of Victim Agency
Build public understanding of the causes &
consequences of political violence
Build a culture of accountability in place of
denial & impunity
Restore human dignity through redress
measures
5. Engaging our histories to develop
a historical consciousness
Former Home of Chief Lobengula in Fingo Township, Grahamstown
6. A Khulumani Poster Exhibition subtitled “From the power of black to the power of bling”
7. The capacity of South Africans to ignore tragedies unless they are directly affected
8. Developing Critical Thinking Skills
Youth from the comic collective voice their understandings of the reasons for our education failures
9. Creating Platforms for Participation:
The Fingo Festival
Khulumani supports the initiation of a world class festival in Fingo township during the annual National Arts Festivals
10. Towards Accountability
• A struggle for accountability:
• A new judicial inquest for
Dr Neil Aggett
Being advanced by members of the Neil
Aggett Support Group with the
coordination of Khulumani Support
Group
11. KSG Database Report 2006
Building an Archive
The Khulumani Apartheid Archive
19. Developing collective contributions to
community
Facilitating the development of civic competence skills
towards deepening participatory democracy in South Africa.
21. “The struggle today is against poverty” & exclusion
The challenge of
supporting people to
build sustainable
livelihoods through the
construction of local
living enterprises,
defined as “a community
of people who
implement collaborative
and human-scale ways of
making a living.”
22. Reckoning with our experience of the TRC
• The past 20 years have been a 20-year transition that has benefitted
beneficiaries of apartheid (white people) and a small layer of the
black elite.
• We have not achieved the transformation of our society.
• The major challenges for us remain growing poverty and inequality, a
still flagging process of land redistribution, a lack of a genuine social
reconciliation with meaningful coexistence and a durable peace.
23. Raising the Bar: Hope and Renewal in South
Africa: Songezo Zibi, Editor, Business Day
• The call for a movement to
repair South Africa
• South Africa is a broken
society. What will it take to
give it a purpose & strength to
face an initially difficult future,
but one which can have so
much reward for future
generations.
• The hope is for a renewal
characterised by just access
to opportunities for all, the
equitable distribution of
resources & the freedom to
succeed in all areas of life.
24. Help Repair South Africa:
#RepairSA
• The only nationwide
membership group
advocating for justice and
redress for survivors and
victims of apartheid-era gross
human rights violations, as
well as their families.
• We also stand up for people
who suffer post-apartheid
human rights violations.
• Before we won our
democracy, we were part of a
struggle to achieve a just
society.
• Through that struggle we won
our Constitutional Democracy.
• But the struggle for liberation
for all who live in South Africa
is not yet complete.
25. When Justice Fails
• Growing citizen disillusionment with failures to secure aspirations of dignity &
equality through restitution & redistribution measures.
• Intensification of social problems of poverty, unemployment & inequality (PUI) –
48% of population live in households with income less than R500.00 (US$50) per
month.
• Failure of transformation – one immoral & inhumane system replaces another –
political inefficiency & corruption & an excessively powerful, self-serving
economic system orientated to the global economy.
• THE CONSEQUENCES: Failure to address collective trauma through justice
remedies usually results in a return to collective violence
26. Reflections from a Poet
there will be a better time
when time has run out for liars
for those who take and take and take from others,
take forever!
and keep taking for themselves alone
time has run out when we say no!
no more –
No is not a word but an act, remember that - !
Mongane Wally Serote
27. Conclusion
• There is no force stronger than the collective will of the people to be
free
• Citizen-driven, self-determined nationhood with the consent of the
governed is important to achieve. This starts in the minds of the
people.
• This is a continuing struggle for social justice, full equality, a fair
economy, and stable and equitable statehood.
• This is the struggle of Khulumani Support Group