REPARATIONS NOW!: CLOSE THE GAPS OF INJUSTICES IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA
As the Country Prepares for the Commemoration of the Sharpeville Massacre of March 21, 1960 and Marks Fourteen Years After the Closure of the TRC Human Rights Hearings, Khulumani Once Again Invites the Department of Justice to Join Victims and Survivors of Apartheid Gross Human Rights Abuses to Close the Gaps in Post-Apartheid Injustices.
Noting that the State has:
1. failed to honour and fulfill its obligations to provide reparations to all victims and survivors of gross human rights violations;
2. failed to work with all victims and survivors of gross human rights violations of the political crimes of the country’s past to provide community reparations to meet their urgent needs, despite being in receipt of community reparations submissions from Khulumani since October 2003;
3. made no provisions for the rehabilitation of all victims and survivors of these crimes and has omitted the category of victims of political crimes in its planning for social development services;
4. enacted provisions for military veterans from non-statutory forces while it has omitted the recognition of and equal provision of benefits for non-military struggle veterans who sustained gross human rights violations in the liberation struggle; and
5. refused to engage victims of the political crimes of the past as equal partners in the resolution of the consequences of these crimes,
Khulumani Support Group now demands that:
i. the legitimate concerns of victims and survivors are heard and taken seriously;
ii. the betrayal of the thousands who fought and suffered for the achievement of freedom and justice in South Africa should now end; and
iii. the Department of Justice should accept this Memorandum and respond to it within thirty days.
Khulumani considers it a travesty that the TRC Unit is holding a stakeholders’ conference on March 22, 2012 at which victims will not be present to participate and debate the issues that are central to their very survival.
Khulumani rejects the limited and entirely inadequate provisions for a subset of victims and survivors of gross human rights violations that will be presented to this conference after nearly one year’s delay since their publication for public comment.
Khulumani rejects the use of The President’s Fund for a small subset of victims and survivors of gross human rights violations while the State arbitrarily overlooks the situation and plight of the thousands who suffered the same violations.
Khulumani asserts that all the non-military struggle veterans who have been so shamefully discarded by this government will never give up this legitimate struggle.
Khulumani commits to continue to raise awareness of the failures of the State to develop inclusive processes to confront and address the harms of the past, in national, regional and international forums while remaining willing to partner government in finding the best solutions to the injustices caused by the state’s failure to provide reparations.
Khulumani and its members commit today to continuing the struggle for justice and equality in South Africa and call on the State to remember the vision and the purpose of that struggle to provide for the well-being of the people of this country and especially for those rendered most vulnerable as a result of gross human rights violations.
May justice prevail in South Africa!
Accepted by:
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On behalf of the Minister of Justice, Honourable Mr Jeffrey Thamsanqa Radebe
On Monday, 19 March 2012
Witnesses:
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