A year to the day after the TRC published its final report, several hundred victims plan to stage a demonstration in Johannesburg to highlight, as one of their representatives put it, “the betrayal by our comrades now in the Government”.
Abstracts from article:
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In its final report, the TRC recommended that about 20 000 people classified as victims should receive R23 000 each a year for six years. The TRC made a range of other reparation suggestions, including a one-off tax to be paid by companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and symbolic measures such as the re-naming of streets and the creation of monuments. It suggested that the Government set aside R2,9-billion for this.
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But representatives of the victims, who submitted information to the TRC in 1996 on the understanding that compensation would be paid, believe the Government has set aside a mere R300-million.
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Mr Duma Khumalo (41), a field worker for the Khulumani survivors’ support group, which is almost entirely funded by foreign donors, said: “The delay is a betrayal by our former comrades now in the Government.”
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Khumalo said that although some interim reparations had been paid – one-off amounts of about R2 000 – the signals being sent from the justice department and the TRC were of reluctance to help victims.
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Source: Full article “Apartheid victims yet to be compensated” appeared on the Independant Online iol.co.za website
