The truth and reconciliation commission on business and apartheid: A critical evaluation

Unlike truth commissions elsewhere, the South African Truth and Reconciliat ion Commission (TRC) investigated the role of business in its exploration o f the past. In so doing, it moved beyond its brief to examine gross human r ights violations by individuals acting with political motives. The TRC foun d that some sectors of business were more involved with the apartheid regim e than others, bur that most businesses were culpable by virtue of having b enefited from operating in a racially structured environment. Whereas apart heid agents were granted amnesty in return for full disclosure and encourag ed to seek reconciliation with their victims, the TRC proposed that wealth taxes be considered as appropriate restitution with regard to business. The TRC thus shifted from a focus on individual perpetrators, to a systematic analysis that equated any profitable activity with prospering under aparthe id and drew a link between benefiting from the system and moral culpability for it. This systemic approach directed attention away from those whose in volvement with the apartheid regime was of graver moral concern than that o f others, and took the heat off wealthy individuals who, by virtue of perso nal contacts and financial muscle, might have been able to effect change fa ster had they acted more decisively.