Desmond Tutu.

• Author: Jaffrey, Zia
• Position: Chair of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission - Interview - Cover Story

South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, known as the TRC, is that nation's monumental--some would say impossible--effort to bring together victims and perpetrators of apartheid-era abuses in a historic reckoning and healing process. It represents an uncomfortable compromise between the National Party under former president F.W. de Klerk, and Nelson Mandela and the leaders of the African National Congress (ANC): As a precursor to democratic, multi-party elections, de Klerk argued for a blanket amnesty for all perpetrators of apartheid-era crimes, while Mandela insisted on full disclosure as a prerequisite to amnesty.

The Commission has received 12,500 statements from victims of human-rights abuses, 2,000 of whom have received a public hearing. More than 7,000 people have applied for amnesty. The Commission has reviewed 2,370 of the cases and has tossed out 2,234 of these because the applicants--many scheming to get out of prison--could not show a political motive for their crimes. The Commission has heard about 100 of the remaining cases, with sixty receiving amnesty and forty-three denied it because the commissioners did not believe they were telling the truth.

Over the last two years, Archbishop Desmond Tutu has chaired the Commission. A historic figure in South Africa's freedom struggle, Tutu was the first black archbishop of the Anglican Church. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 and helped bring about the peaceful transition to democracy in South Africa.

For decades, his has been a voice of conscience for black South Africa. A three-part South African documentary called Prime Evil shows footage of a magenta-clad Archbishop Tutu holding up his hands as a group of angry residents in a township near Johannesburg prepares to set fire to a young black man they wrongly believe is an informer. "Oh, my people," Tutu cries out, "please don't do this." His intervention prevents the killing, but the very next day, the group puts a tire doused in gasoline around the neck of the alleged informer's girlfriend--a practice known as "necklacing"--and burns her to death.

Tutu has presided over many of the Commission's hearings, including Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's in Johannesburg in late November and early December, a hearing I attended. Subpoenaed to testify by the Commission, she elected a public forum. It was the TRC's most well-attended hearing, and more than any other, it tested the objectivity of the Commission, trying the decades-old friendships and loyalties of those who had fought for South Africa's freedom. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, former wife of Nelson Mandela and a powerful figure in her own right, was one of the ANC's own. Convicted of the kidnapping of fourteen-year-old Stompie Seipei in 1989, she now stood accused of eight additional murders, including the assassination of her friend and personal physician, Dr. Abu Baker Asvat, allegedly because he had seen the badly beaten Stompie shortly before the teenager died and had refused to corroborate her story.

In the hearing room, killers and their victims' families sat near each other, crossing paths during breaks in hallways and at meals. Those of us in the audience listened to the agonizing descriptions of the assault and...