Nearly R2 billion in apartheid reparations unspent

For almost two months, about 150 victims of apartheid have been sleeping outside the Constitutional Court as part of the Khulumani Galela Campaign. They say they qualify for apartheid reparations from the President’s Fund but they have not received them.

The President’s Fund is mandated to make reparations to victims of human rights abuses under apartheid. Over the past five years, the fund has received R531 million in investment revenue but only disbursed R98 million in reparations. As of March 2022, the fund was worth just shy of R1.9 billion.

The fund is administered by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) unit within the department of justice and constitutional development.

As per the recommendations of the TRC, the fund is supposed to make reparations in these categories: a once-off individual grant to victims of apartheid; educational support for victims and their families; housing provision for victims; financial assistance with exhumations and reburials of deceased victims; access to healthcare and rehabilitation of communities severely affected by apartheid.

ALSO READ: Lesufi promises to address demands and issues of apartheid victims

In 2003, then president Thabo Mbeki announced that people identified by the TRC as victims of human rights abuses under apartheid would each receive a R30 000 grant.

The TRC report included a list of 21 000 people. This was later cut down to 17 000.

100 000 apartheid victims challenge fund

According to the fund’s annual reports, all people who applied and were eligible received the R30 000 grant, except for 13 people who could not be traced.

Khulumani Support Group, with a membership of over 100 000 apartheid victims, has been challenging how funds are disbursed since the fund was established.

Judy-Anne Seidman, a board member of Khulumani, said the TRC list of victims was limiting. Some people fell off the list during the migration from analogue to digital records, she said. There are also Khulumani members who did not make it to the TRC, because the commission was at full capacity. Some were turned away at the door.

“There is also a constitutional problem around rape,” Seidman said. Of the 21 000 victims identified in the TRC report, only 14 were identified as rape victims.

Seidman said from her experience running workshops, the number of women raped by apartheid officials must be much higher. She said that the department insisted on using a closed list and was only accepting new applications for the R30 000 grant from people on its list.

But it was unclear what list they were working from, raising concerns about the transparency of the process.

Basic education

Seidman said the department recently told them that about 3 000 people received funding for basic education and 630 for tertiary education.

This is low, given that there are 17 000 people on the TRC’s list and that the department estimated four people per victim were eligible for education assistance.

Application forms for education funding were cancelled this year and new forms were not yet available.

The President’s Fund is mandated to provide housing for apartheid victims but progress has been slow.

The fund is supposed to provide apartheid victims with assistance in accessing healthcare.

But since 2013, the fund has maintained that because of the proposed introduction of National Health Insurance, the department of health would take care of this mandate.

ALSO READ: Raped, shot and blinded: Victims of apartheid demand reparation

Communities particularly affected by apartheid crimes are supposed to be rehabilitated by the President’s Fund but the department decided to only fund five communities.

The TRC unit established “multistakeholder project teams” to conceptualise projects in the communities. This is one aspect where the fund has been relatively successful, said Seidman.

The department of justice did not respond to questions.