Truth and Reconciliation Commission

South African government commission established in August 1994 to investigate state-sanctioned murders and other human rights abuses under the former apartheid regime. Its chairman, since 1995, has been former Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The aims of the Commission, as its title suggests, are to discover the truth about what happened in the era of apartheid and, in so doing, to bring about a reconciliation between both sides of the divide.

The Commission was given the power to offer amnesties (pardons) for politically-motivated crimes committed before 5 December 1993, when the transitional, multiracial government effectively replaced the existing parliament. In setting it up, however, Justice Minister, Dullah Omar, said the Commission's investigations would include abuses committed by liberation groups, including the African National Congress (ANC), but it would ‘not equate those who fought in the struggle against apartheid with those who participated in all kinds of activities in order to keep apartheid in place’.