Book reviews/Boekbesprekings

Funct ioning be tween November 1995 and April 1998, the Tru th and Reconcil iat ion Commiss ion (TRC) to a considerable degree symbol i sed the relat ively opt imist ic political a tmosphere of the ear ly phase of the New South Africa. It is this per iod wi th w h i c h this monograph , wr i t t en shor t ly a f te rwards , is concerned. The a u t h o r a r g u e s t h a t in fac t the Commiss ion was not so m u c h in te res ted in ethical , mora l concerns or 'polit ical cor rec tness ' bu t was pragmat ica l ly seeking to br ing about a peaceful political t rans i t ion (p 66). This expla ins i ts moderate pos i t ion in s t ee r ing a c o m p r o m i s e course b e t w e e n ignor ing p a s t poli t ical conflicts on the one hand, and on the other, seeking to pu t former whi te Nat ional Par ty leaders on tr ial for alleged war cr imes. Ins tead, a m n e s t y was g ran ted to those who openly and publicly confessed their cr imes. 'Amnes ty was the price of secur ing peace and coopera t ion in the negot ia ted collapse of whi te ru le ' (p 122). A peacefu l poli t ical t r a n s i t i o n w a s so n e c e s s a r y because there were no clearcut political w inne r s in 1994 (pp 68, 176}. In fact, however , it is ha rd to see the 1994 set t lement*as a rea l compromise . The legalisat ion of the ANC in 1990 a s s u r e d it political control of the t ownsh ips where it had a l ready achieved de facto hegemony be tween 1983 1985, pr ior to the s ta te of emergency. Its only signif icant black rival had been the IFP, which, in late 1992 had in fact been excluded from the negot ia t ions t h r o u g h the Record of U n d e r s t a n d i n g s igned be tween the gove rnmen t and the ANC. By the end of 1993 the Nat ional is ts had finally been p r e s s u r e d into conceding the pr inciple of a un i t a ry s ta te based on a full one man, one vote principle. From then on, the r e s u l t of the e lec t ion w a s a foregone conclusion. Fur thermore , dur ing the per iod of the i n t e r im g o v e r n m e n t (December 1993 April 1994), the two remain ing ' i ndependen t ' home lands not yet unde r ANC control had col lapsed and fallen unde r ANC influence. Within two years of the 1994 elections the Nat ional Par ty had formal ly w i t h d r a w n f rom the initial Government of Nat ional Unity for the obvious r ea son tha t t hey had had so little inf luence in it anyway . Can one thus easi ly agree wi th the view, allegedly expressed by m e m b e r s of the TRC to the author , t ha t ' i f there had been no negot ia ted amnes ty , the coun t ry would have been faced wi th a b loodba th scenar io ' (p 66). In view of the fact tha t the whi tes h a d a l ready given up power to the ANC, did the a m n e s t y really make such a crucial difference in thei r eyes? For tha t ma t t e r , as Chr is t ie h i m s e l f po in t s out , wh i t e opin ion a bou t the TRC w a s gene ra l ly host i le (pp 101, 169). A more plausible a rgument , therefore, for the conci l ia tory na tu re of the T ru th Commiss ion would be tha t while the ANC g o v e r n m e n t was not over ly conce rned about domes t ic whi te react ion, it was be ing careful no t to a l ienate ove r seas public opinion and in par t icular , no t to f r ighten off ove r seas inves tment . Dur ing the 1995-1998 period (the period of the TRC) after all, the gove rnmen t still v iewed the p rospec t of growing fu ture foreign i n v e s t m e n t s in a relat ively opt imist ic light. As Adrian Guelke ha s pointed out, the National Par ty was in fact host i le to the TRC ' in con t ras t to the overwhelmingly posi t ive in ternat ional react ion ... Indeed,