Few amnesty seekers satisfied the TRC’s full-confession requirement

Evidence

To qualify for amnesty, perpetrators had to confess fully and with conviction for crimes during apartheid considered to be political. Amnesty would preclude prosecution for crimes so confessed, though not for other crimes, political or criminal. The Commission’s official report of 1998 revealed that of the more than 7,000 requests for amnesty, only 849 or a little over 12 percent were granted. The TRC is generally credited with going a long way in helping South Africans to come to terms with one another and the legacy of apartheid. It made political killers sit eye to eye across the table, as Albie Sachs memorably puts it, from those they sought to kill. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1575

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Only 12 percent of amnesty requests to the TRC were granted; South Africa’s TRC traded amnesty for truth, not remorse or atonement — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 2091

Broader Connections

• Only 12 percent of amnesty requests to the TRC were granted #corroborates (0.85)