THENEWSOUTHAFRICA
negotiations leading to the 1994 election, the National party had wanted
to be given a general amnesty for apartheid. The ANC refused, but eventu-
ally de Klerk and Mandela agreed that a commission should be appointed
with the power to grant amnesties to individuals, on condition that they
revealed the truth and could prove that their actions were politically moti-
vated. After looking at precedents in eastern European and Latin Ameri-
can states that had recently rejected authoritarian regimes, parliament cre-
ated a Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(TRC). Its mandate was to
deal with gross human rights violations committed since March
I, 1960
(the month of the Sharpeville massacre). Unlike some of the foreign prece-
dents, the TRC was to meet in public and was empowered to subpoena wit-
nesses and to grant individual amnesties on the above conditions.I" In-
stead of appointing a legal body, such as the Constitutional
Court, to
perform this task, Mandela selected seventeen commissioners from can-
didates nominated
by nongovernmental
organizations.
Most of them
were chosen because of their roles in opposing apartheid. Nine were men,
eight were women. Ethnically, it was a diverse group of two Afrikaners,