Apartheid victims wait for reparations

By Bronwen Roberts

CAPE TOWN (AFP): South Africa's government is paying interim emergency reparations to thousands of victims of violations under apartheid, but has drawn fire for failing to set guidelines on long-term grants.

Martin Coetzee, chief executive officer of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) set up to probe apartheid-era human rights violations, urged the government in an appearance before a parliamentary committee this week to "move speedily to finalize and implement a clear reparations policy."

Coetzee explained to AFP: "We deal with the victims every day and they ask us these questions (about reparations) and we don't have answers."

The opposition Democratic Party said the government showed signs that it intended "sliding out of their obligations on reparations."

President Thabo Mbeki denied similar suggestions in parliament earlier this month, saying a cabinet committee had been appointed to look into the policy.

"Maybe this thing is moving slowly, but the matter is being addressed," he said.

Justice ministry spokesman Paul Setsetse told AFP: "Even though the process has gone at a slow pace, it would be incorrect to say that government has forgotten the people."

Interim urgent reparations amounting to 33 million rand (US$4.6 million, 5.2 million euros) had by April been issued to 10,185 victims identified by the TRC, he said.

These averaged 2,000 rand per person, and were issued for immediate needs such as medical costs and tombstones.

But the payment of long-term reparations as recommended by the TRC awaits government policy.

The commission has rejected government suggestions that the policy can be drawn up only after the TRC finishes its work, which will probably be later this year.

The TRC chairman, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, said in a weekend newspaper that the commission's analysis of predicted victim numbers "give a clear enough picture for accurate assessments to be made."

He said the commission had projected that about 22,000 people who appeared before the commission deserved long-term reparations.

The TRC now believed that 19,000 people deserved the payment, Coetzee said.

Tutu said: "We recommended that they should be entitled to annual reparation grants of between 17,000 rand and 23,000 rand, for a maximum of six years."

This recommendation was made to government in 1998.

The TRC estimated this would cost 500 million rand a year for the six-year period, Tutu said.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said in his 1998 budget that he would allocate 600 million rand in the following three years towards reparations.

Tutu said: "So although there is disagreement about how much to spend, money already allocated is going unspent for a lack of a decision on how to spend it."

Setsetse said, "One would want to develop a policy that is implementable, not one that cannot meet its obligations because of financial constraints."

The TRC -- appointed in 1995, a year after the end of white minority rule -- is winding down its work.

Last year it wrapped up its probe into apartheid-era abuses, finding that the apartheid regime and its law enforcement agencies committed the "predominant portion of gross human rights violations" though the liberation forces had contributed.

Its amnesty committee, which received more than 7,000 applications for political amnesty, has only about 300 more to hear, officials said.

The committee said late last year it had given 568 people amnesty for apartheid-era human right violations but refused pardons to nearly 10 times as many self-confessed rights abusers who did not meet amnesty requirements.

The TRC aims to hand its final report to government by March.