Law, War and the TRC | The AZAPO Case

The family of an Azanian People’s Organization (AZAPO) member who had been murdered by the security police, challenged a provision in the Act establishing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) which permitted the granting of amnesty from criminal prosecution or civil liability to persons who came forward to the TRC and acknowledged the crimes they had committed involving violations of human rights in the course of political conflict. Justice Sachs signed onto what he describes as a poetic judgment written for the Court by Deputy Chief Justice Mahomed which held that the Epilogue to the Constitution authorised parliament to make the agonising choice to grant amnesty as a means of getting to the otherwise hidden away truth.