REPARATIONS NOW!: CLOSE THE GAPS OF INJUSTICES IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA
MARCH 20, 2012: As the Country Prepares for the Commemoration of the Sharpeville Massacre of March 21, 1960 at Freedom Square, Kliptown, Johannesburg and Marks Fourteen Years After the Closure of the TRC Human Rights Hearings, Khulumani Calls on President Zuma to Make the Closing of the Gaps in Post-Apartheid Injustices through Reparations a Priority for this Centenary Year of the African National Congress.
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;
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 Office of the President should accept this Memorandum and respond to it within thirty days.
Khulumani considers it a travesty that all the submissions made to the Presidential Hotline over the two years since its establishment, have not been honoured with any responses to date.
Khulumani rejects the failure of the President to ensure the development of optimal plans for the best use of The President’s Fund to provide for the urgent needs of all victims and survivors of apartheid gross human rights violations.
Khulumani rejects the use of The President’s Fund for the benefit of 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 calls on the President to end the discriminatory practice of providing for military struggle veterans while refusing to recognize the contributions and sacrifices of all non-military struggle veterans who suffered serious harm in the liberation struggle.
Khulumani commits to continuing to raise these issues in all available forums, national regional and international, until the State adopts inclusive and non-discriminatory reparations processes to address the harms of the past.
Khulumani and its members commit today to continuing the struggle for justice and equality in South Africa and calls on the State to remember the vision and the purpose of that struggle to ensure that injustices end in South Africa and the lives of all are improved.
May justice prevail in South Africa!
Accepted by: ____________________
On behalf of the President of South Africa, Honourable Mr Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma
On Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Witnesses: ______________________
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