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Pamina Firchow, When political transitions work: reconciliation as interdependence, International Affairs, Volume 96, Issue 3, May 2020, Pages 807–809, https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiaa065
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Extract
Fanie du Toit's seminal book draws on at least two decades of experience providing reconciliation-related technical assistance to organizations worldwide, as well as his role as executive director of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, a South African organization devoted to furthering the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Yet the book is also deeply intellectual, as du Toit draws extensively on theory and research on reconciliation, in particular from religious and philosophical perspectives, as well as the lessons learned from the South African transition from apartheid.
In the first five chapters of When political transitions work, du Toit provides a detailed account of the inner workings of the TRC, arguing that with support from key leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, it was able to effectively grant political rights to all in an inclusive and comprehensive process. The author locates the TRC's failures squarely in the inability of the transitional government to follow through on socio-economic inclusion, and especially delayed and unpaid reparations (p. 104). In addition, issues related to structural violence and socio-economic inclusion, du Toit admits, could have been dealt with more extensively in the TRC's final report, which should have stressed the ways in which structural violence was systemic and widespread in apartheid South Africa (p. 103). In order to rectify the inequalities produced by the structural violence issues neglected by the transitional process, du Toit argues that another institution would have been necessary, a ‘social justice commission’ with a ten-year mandate, that would have brokered ‘agreements between public and private sectors on the scope and modalities of redistribution of wealth’ (p. 119).
