The report is a product of more than five years of fieldwork and data-capturing in an attempt to establish the extent of direct human rights violations that marked the peak of apartheid state repression and resistance between 1960 and 1994. Human rights violations that took place after April 1994 are referred to and handled by the Human Rights Commission. So far the government has appropriated R800-million during last month's budget allocations to be used for reparations. In the past two years the government allocated R300-million on an interim basis to address cases that were considered urgent. Reparations committee chair Hlengiwe Mkhize is quick to point out that reparations would not necessarily constitute monetary compensation.
Emotional losses are just incalculable.
The TRC recommends a variety of reparation measures for the government's consideration and approval. Other reparatory measures proposed in the draft report include symbolic reparations and community empowerment projects. The case of Mapetla Mohapi who died in detention in the 1970s is one example. Mohapi's beneficiary suggested that the deceased had a passion for human rights issues. On the other hand, communities that were at the receiving end of political violence in the early 1990s, such as those in the East Rand and KwaZulu-Natal, would have their traumatic past redressed through skills empowerment and job creation projects.