The Impact of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the SANDF

This paper proceeds from the assumption that the process of truth and reconciliation is necessary for both normative and practical reasons

South Africa, in some ways similar to other countries that have moved from authoritarian rule to democracy, has instituted a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The end results of this process cannot yet be gauged. The effects of such a process on the military, its morale, its structures of command and control, as well as on issues that involve military professionalism and ethics in the short, medium and long term, are open to speculation. It is important to remember that truthfinding – or the TR process, for that matter – should be dealt with in such a way that it does not create/worsen fault lines in the broader military system. This is even more crucial where the military is going through a process of simultaneous restructuring, `rightsizing` and integration, as is the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). This paper proceeds from the assumption that the process of truth and reconciliation is necessary for both normative and practical reasons. Notwithstanding these reasons, however, it outlines a series of practical challenges that confront the armed forces in internalising the principles of the TRC into its institutional discourse.  

Authors

Ian Liebenberg, Senior Researcher at the Centre for Constitutional Analysis, HSRC, and Rocklyn Williams, Director of Defence Policy in the SA Defence Secretariat