Government slammed over slow reparations

A FORMER senior Truth and Reconciliation Commission official has lambasted government for the slow pace in providing reparations to those who had been identified as victims of apartheid.

Nearly two decades after the ad hoc restorative justice body made its recommendations to provide relief for victims‚ the President’s Fund – which was established to finance the recommended reparations – had grown to about R1.5-billion while thousands of victims continued to suffer.

“I’m getting close to giving up on whether the government actually appreciates the pain of those victims of apartheid atrocities who need reparations‚” former TRC commissioner and head of the commission’s investigative unit Dumisa Ntsebeza said.

“It’s amazing that a fund that was established at the turn of the century still has not benefited those for whom it was intended.”

Once-off payments of R30 000 were made to 17 408 beneficiaries who have been identified as victims by the TRC. Altogether 21 676 people applied to the TRC.

Ntsebeza pointed out that government had not implemented certain reparations according to the commission’s recommendations.

“We recommended R2 000 per month for a period of six years‚” he said.

The Justice Ministry said the fund would benefit only TRC-identified victims‚ their dependents or next-of-kin.

Ministry spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said the available money in the President’s Fund had been provisionally allocated towards the implementation of various reparations on the following basis:

ý Once-off individual grants of R30 000 (future applications) – R5-million;

ý Assistance toward reburial of exhumed remains of missing persons reported to the TRC – R35-million;

ý Basic education and higher education assistance – R350-million; ý Health assistance – R270-million; ý Housing assistance – R110-million; and ý Community rehabilitation – R500-million. This comes to more than R1.27-billion. However, Mhaga did not say how the remainder of the fund would be spent.

Apartheid victim support group Khulumani’s national director Marjorie Jobson said there were more than 100 000 people with legitimate claims for reparations‚ and that the TRC only reached people who represented the more advantaged victims. – TimesLIVE