Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
November 17, 1997
Many critical activities of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission are about to come to an end as the expiry date for those activities approaches on December 14.
The TRC accordingly urges any members of the public who have not yet reported gross violations of human rights to submit the information to one of our offices within the next three weeks.
Sunday December 14 this year is the final date upon which TRC offices will be able to receive new statements from the public. The law governing the Commission allows us to complete work after that date, but not to take on new work of any nature, including the collection of statements.
The violations which can be reported to the Commission include killings, torture, abduction and severe ill-treatment. To be taken up by the TRC, violations must have occurred between March 1960 and May 10, 1994.
The Commission has already collected more than 12,000 statements from victims and survivors, and our pro-active statement-taking campaign ended with our last radio advertising and pamphlet campaign in June this year. We have also spent millions of rands in ensuring that everyone who wants to report their cases has been told how to do so and TRC activities have probably received more publicity than any other national project since the 1994 elections.
As a result, the Commission does not expect a large influx of late statements. We are nevertheless anxious to give anyone who has not had the opportunity to tell us their story to do so now, particulary since access to reparations depends on making a statement to the TRC.
Those wishing to make statements will need to come to our offices in Cape Town, Durban, East London or Johannesburg to do so. The office telephone numbers are:
Cape Town (021) 245161 Durban (031) 307 6767 East London (0431) 43 5223 Johannesburg (011) 333 6330