Special Hearings — Political Party Hearings — 1996-08-19

MR GREEN: The honourable Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Chairperson of Truth and Reconciliation Commission, honourable Deputy Chairperson Dr Alex Boraine and honourable Commissioners Advocate Chris de Jager, Advocate Denzil Potgieter, Dr Mampula Ramashala, Mr Dumisa Ntsebeza and Mrs Mary Burton, on behalf of the African Christian Democratic Party I just wish to start our input by expressing our sincere appreciation for your invitation.
 As a newly formed political party barely three years old, we understand that we might as a political party not have been directly involved with the conflict but as correctly expressed by the Chairperson we were all members of the South African society and therefore we were either part of the conflict, we were either part of the problem, or we were part of the solution.  Now as a political party we think there are certain aspects which we can contribute towards as far as the solutions are concerned but also as far as the understanding of truth and reconciliation is concerned.  
 As far as the issue of repentance is concerned, just as we feel that as a Christian political party we might be able to bring a dimension that has not been brought before, and it is with this in mind that I would like to start my input or our input.
 There is a proverb which states that the heart is the organ that sees better than the eye. The extension of this is that what the heart sometimes sees may not be what conventional wisdom or the status quo may prescribe.  The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is metaphorically the heart of the nation.  During this transition period in our country's history and it's task is to apply the correct wisdom about what it reads about either the receding or the resurgent currents that flow through our society, whether they are ideological, moral or any other trends and to employ persuasive fronts for those currents, it may perceive as contributing positive developments to our society.
 In our submission we would like to deal with certain concepts such as truth and justice, reconciliation and amnesty, repentance and forgiveness, and restitution from a Biblical perspective.  
 We would also forward recommendations in terms of Section, and here we would want to add Section 4b up to 4d and we would just like you to add the numeral 4 of this institution of course which is the TRC, of measures that could be followed regarding the granting of reparations to victims and measures aimed at rehabilitating and restoring dignity to victims. And we'd also like to find answers to questions as, does the exposure of the truth in itself have the power to heal?   Secondly, can a nation experience true and lasting reconciliation without reference to God and His law?   And thirdly does God value Amnesty, that is forgiveness greater than justice?  And must the one be sacrificed in order to have the other?
 The Biblical Christian recognises that God is the centre of all that is and that he is the answer to the questions of origin, of knowledge, of value and destiny.  It is therefore not possible to effectively and justly operate as the Truth Commission without reference to God.  Any attempt to do so cannot succeed and ultimately will result in scepticism, cynicism and despair.  It is also likely to result in the very strife and anarchy the Truth Commission seeks to avoid.  To the secular humanist mind truth is relative, it is based on the knowledge and value of man which fluctuates as man changes his mind.  It becomes very difficult to define truth because it varies from person to person.  Truth becomes circumstantially based and not dependent on Divine principle.  Truth in this context could refer to the evidence as given and the testimonies of witnesses. Frederick Moore Vincen, an American Chief Justice said, and I quote, 
"Nothing is more certain in modern society than the principal that there are no absolutes".
For Vincen who is a relativist there was no truth.  No absolute right or no absolute wrong.
 The possibility of true knowledge concerning ultimate reality is denied by relativism and to ...(indistinct) that man cannot know God if he exists, nor can he know the world of nature truly.  He can use reality but he cannot truly know it. To deny that there is any absolute truth and absolute knowledge is to deny that there is a God who is the creator and lord over all things and with order and truth governs all things and is the source of all truth and all knowledge.  If there is no absolute knowledge in God and from God in his revelation then the only absolute in any man's life is himself.  Every man becomes his own god, his own law and his own source of knowledge.
 One of the challenges of the Truth Commission is to reveal to the nation the full objective truth regarding human rights violations perpetrated in the past 40 years. What the nation needs is not a politically correct version of the truth, but the full objective truth irrespective of which political parties of leaders would be exposed when the truth is known.
 Let us now deal with the concepts of amnesty and reconciliation from a biblical perspective.  The idea of truth, amnesty and reconciliation parallels the Christian experience in the spiritual realm.  To obtain forgiveness from God we must confess our sins, that is we must tell the truth.  We must ask for forgiveness, that is we must apply for Divine amnesty and then experience reconciliation first with God and then with others.  In principal we cannot object to the idea as a process and as we see it unfolding in the Truth Commission. The Biblical Christian is more concerned with God's true reconciliation and realises that there may be pain and confrontation involved in attaining it.  Reconciliation involves forgiveness on the one hand and true repentance on the other for it to be effective.  There must in both parties be an internal change of heart for the bitterness and the hostilities to be destroyed.  The notion of forgiveness and amnesty has a direct bearing on our understanding of the concept, reconciliation.  
 When a crime is committed there are at least, from a Christian perspective, three offended parties.  Firstly God, secondly the State and then the victim.  When the State offers amnesty it is merely offering a form of legal, statutory and constitutional forgiveness.  It forgives as the state but not as the victim or as God.  While the State may choose to forgive by granting amnesty, it cannot automatically legislate the victim to forgive.  If the victim does not forgive, then how can there be any real reconciliation?  There can of course be a sort of resignation that the matter is now settled, but that it is not reconciliation.  If there is no personal forgiveness expressed by the victim to the offender, the bitterness and hatred may continue indefinitely and this we think is one of the greatest dangers as far as the process is concerned.  The TRC then simply becomes a vehicle to keep bad memories and resentment alive and we hope that this would not happen or that this is not about to happen.  
 The key element that we in the ACDP ascribe to, and which we believe is essential to all spheres of political, civil and economic life is justice.  Justice cannot be compromised, nor do we believe it should be diminished, to utilitarianism pragmatism. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission must endeavour to establish the impression that justice has prevailed throughout all the proceedings.  Justice is first and foremost a product of spirituality.  God has built into the structure of the universe a Divine order which corresponds to a higher law decreed by him.  
 Two of the basic components of this higher law are justice and righteousness.  However in a secular society, justice is not reflected by a higher law but is determined by the will of the legislator, law is simply technique and justice becomes relative.  The question may be asked, how does justice as spirituality then relate to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  It relates to the TRC in that the Commission can recapture the spiritual value that underpins justice.  The Commission is in the position to do this because it is not a tribunal, it is more by general design a confessional forum.  Conversely secular law by it's philosophy and nature no longer calls people to something higher.  We therefore see that the TRC can facilitate ways to fill this gap and do this in conjunction with churches, with synagogues and with mosques.
 Our Christian history has shown us that through the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the lesson we can draw from it, how relevant that event is to our present circumstances, it as Christ reconciled us to God that we reach a spiritual renewal and maturity.  It is by reawakening the spirituality in our people that the work of the TRC combined with other institutions will gain greater depth and comprehension among our people.  It is then also through the spiritual context that the natural justice with its limitations may be deemed acceptable and the people of this country will be able to fully understand the statements that was made by Patricia Alwyn, ex president of Chile, and which we think the TRC supports in spirit and we wish to quote these words. 
"The main duty of political leaders is to persue the common good.  This entails harmonising the longing for justice with other values that are just as important for the common good.  These include the stability of democratic institutions and social peace".
 Of special note to our discussion is when he states the following:
"On the other hand justice is not achieved solely by punishing the perpetrators to publicly reveal the truth to vindicate the good name of the victims and to provide reparation for their relatives are also forms of justice".
 Chairperson these statements may be difficult to comprehend and even to accept and therefore to only operate at the natural level of humanity and to disregard the higher spiritual nature of humanity, we may have failed in our purpose. Should we endeavour to travel this route it may be that the due process of the law, the court's application and granting of amnesty will also make greater moral sense.  If natural justice is served against a perpetrator of political violence, it will not be seen as being vindictive. If amnesty is offered it will not be seen as cheap justice or efforts and actions in the TRC process will be seen in terms of applying a higher focus of morality, justice in human relations.  
 Furthermore we must remember that at the basis of our experience have been the tremendous forces of dehumanisation that infiltrated our emotions, our thoughts and our psyche.  In order to lift this veil of dehumanisation that still envelopes our nation we need to urge all our people to involve themselves in the work of the TRC.  
 The whole nation must be heard and encouraged to attend these meetings or provisions could be made whereby the various religious institutions could set up their own communicative forums and once such hearings are done, could present them in a forum in the form of a submission to the TRC.  
 The tactics of dehumanisation policies of the past have resulted in all types of social pathologies prevalent in our society today.   It would however seem yet again that South Africa presents a microcosm of all the world's ills which are slowly finding fertility in our land today.  We witness a surge in drug smuggling, rampant corruption and violent crimes, moral ambivalence, social theory experimentation, South Africa being the guinea-pig to test various ideologies and doctrines on an emerging democracy which are too sensitive to be employed in all the democratic societies.  Ironically enough these ills are replacing the horde of past ills of racial hatred an economic exploitation that ruled our country for over 300 years, but especially the last 40 years.  These are all the issues we must address.
  Mr Chairman, ACDP very strongly objects that while it is here to evaluate the infringement of human rights on the one hand our government is in the process of legislating laws with similar dehumanising effect.  We must be careful that we do not replace one set of dehumanising values with another set of values which may evolve into a scenario with similar dehumanising effects.  
 It is morally inexcusable for a government not to protect the right to life of all future generations.  That is the unborn children whilst political parties, organisations and individuals are called by the Truth Commission to account for human rights abuses of the last 40 years.  
A case in point is the Termination of Pregnancy Bill which has recently been passed by the Cabinet.  The bill attempts to legitimise the murder of innocent unborn children. Will there be a truth commission 40 years from now to establish how many innocent unborn children have been murdered by the structural violence that is being planned by the acceptance of this bill? The Reverend Peter Hammond says the following in the publication, Fight for Life, and I wish to quote him:- "One of the first acts of the Nazi government in Germany was the legislation of abortion.  This was followed by the legislation of euthanasia, then the extermination of the mentally and physically handicapped. Very soon they were killing the political undesirables and their political opponents. Abortion could be termed the hidden holocaust.  More people have died through abortion in this century than through all other violence combined. The most dangerous place in the world today is not Bosnia or Rwanda, it is the mother's womb. Abortion turns the womb into a tomb.  It turns the mother into a murderess, it turns the doctor who should be preserver of life into a hired assassin who takes life. In the name of human rights the pro choices will take away the right to life of the pre born instead of discrimination based on race as we've had it in the past, they want to have discrimination based on age".
 Mr Chairperson  on behalf of many Christians in this nation, I want to repent publicly here and now for their silence during the 46 of not taking a stand for the truth and the abuse of human rights of millions of South Africans.  However inaction  in the past does not prevent us from defending human rights presently and should not prevent us from doing so in the future.   Before South Africa can play a meaningful role in international politics, it must develop its own national philosophy born out of the experiences of the past, establish a national moral order which would stand the test of time, it's own unique political language and concepts.  We are busy doing it with concepts and language such as the RDP, tolerance, ubuntu, constitutionalism, our political miracle etc.  But there is still much work that needs to be done to make these concepts to become meaningful to the whole nation.  
 The TRC is one vehicle that can help to establish this national moral order.  Building or reconstructing a morally must order entails developing a political culture and setting in place values, institutions and policies that will guard against the repetition of the type of atrocities committed in the past.  With regard to the granting of reparation to victims to be liaised with the committee that dealt with dealing with victims and the families of the St James massacre and we make the following submission:
1. To call regional meetings in all the nine provinces of all the South Africans that have suffered from gross violation of human rights.  At this meeting a full presentation will be done by an appropriate authority like the repair unit of the police force members to understand their hurts.
2. A follow-up session of all groups will follow for a period of weekly sessions of six weeks when counselling will be done in groups by for example psychologists, pastors etc.
3. Individuals that were identified as serious will then be on a one to one basis for a period of six months.
4. We believe that abovementioned function should be the function of communities and churches and not that of the state.  
 As a nation in a new emerging democracy with its invaluable opportunities we need to develop a social mosaic that shows uniquely the efforts and energies of all South Africans pulling together to develop a new conceptual framework for a future beyond the year 2000.  It is with this in mind that we come to the conclusion that there is an inextricable link between the objectives of the TRC and that of the RDP.  The one operates at the realm of intangibles with its aim to achieve values of morality, justice, forgiveness, reparation, whereas the other operates at the level of the tangible with its objectives of development, investment and economic opportunities.  Out of these two processes we will be able to carve our national values that will involve the full spectrum of nation building.  These national values could be embodied in the following conceptual framework:
Godly Morality, a faith spectrum.
This is the distinct role of the church and other religious organisations, a constitutional state and a new understanding of nationhood and nationality.  
 We wish to put forward the idea that at the heart of the TRC is its task to create the impression that when it has reached the end of its tenure the work of the Commission would be summed up as having lifted our political history beyond reprisals and unto the road of a new beginning of our nation and which will be expressed by the richness of our countries experience through the achievement of a national wisdom which could be summed up in the following way.
 To have endured to the bitter end and struggled through the forces of evil and to have overcome.  This is the essence of forgiveness and reconciliation to know that through confession and admission, judgement and justification would have been rendered, this is the process of truth.  
 To hold no bitterness, to feel that one has been vindicated and restored, this is the fruit of commitment to higher ideals, the fruit of repentance and the wisdom to change and march to the beat of a higher morality.   To take the hands of those who were instrumental in orchestrating the pain of the past and to rise collectively out of the murky pit of the old apartheid system, this is the creation of a new wisdom and a new beginning.  
 To have been able to achieve all of this and to recognise the frailty of our own humanity is to realise that this is a gift from God and the result of our faith is the existence and the presence of a living God and to recognise that once this process is over and probably long forgotten the social spin-offs of a higher value system which will be characterised by norms of tolerance, of equality togetherness, achievement would be our society's indebtedness to the work done through the truth and reconciliation process.  Our inner hope is that this process Mr Chairperson, once it is completed, will eventually obtain these qualities.  
I thank you.