Interviews with Albie Sachs

I think there have been 20 or more Truth Commissions throughout the world. The one that´s best known is the South African Truth Commission. And it´s partly because of the extraordinary leadership given by Desmond Tutu, who combines a deep spirituality that comes from his vocation with tremendous common sense and humanity and a media savvy personality.

Very rich and very brilliant imitation of what the commission was about came through his persona. [Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1931 – ) was the first black Archbishop of Capetown in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, serving from 1986 – 1996. He is a human rights advocate and was a leading anti-apartheid activist. Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.]

But I think it´s important to understand that we had the truth commission partly because the ANC wanted to deal with the fact that its members had used torture in the liberation period and had to come clean in the new society. [The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party that served as the most prominent resistance movement against South Africa’s apartheid system, at times resorting to violence through its military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. It was officially banned by the South African government from 1960 to 1990. As apartheid collapsed, the ANC’s leader, Nelson Mandela, was elected President of South Africa in 1994 and established a democratic government.]

Partly because the generals in the apparatus looked at the proposed constitution and they´d been promised amnesty by President de Klerk; they didn´t see amnesty there. And they said, “We protected the democratic process, we know that there are plans to bomb the first elections to smithereens.

We will defend the first elections but not if we´re all going to go to jail afterwards for things that we did under the command of President de Klerk and the others.” And so the ANC agreed to the idea of a Truth Commission linked to amnesty. And that became the crucial factor in South Africa, that if people would come forward to tell the world about their suffering and their loss and loss of relatives they´d be able to discover where the bodies had been buried of people who´d disappeared. They´d be able to discover the lost moments of loved ones who died in the struggle and be able to have dignified burials for them.

[Frederick Willem de Klerk (1936 – ) served as President of South Africa from 1989 – 1994. Under de Klerk’s leadership the apartheid system was dismantled, the African National Congress’ 30-year ban ended, political prisoners were released and majority (multiracial) elections were established.]

They´d be able to articulate their pain for the world to understand. But in addition, those who´d been responsible for the violations could come forward maybe for those for who it was a burden, get the burden off their shoulders, but at least reveal the truth of what had happened. And if they revealed the truth, they could get amnesty.

And so our Truth Commission achieved a certain international acclaim. It´s controversial in South Africa. Some people complain that it favored certain sections of those who´d been involved in armed struggle, combat and others. Others complained it let off too easily the killers, the torturers. But I have no doubt personally that it was a crucial ingredient in enabling some of the most intensely painful moments of our past, allowing this past to come to the light of day.

To be known, to be acknowledged. As one American put it, “What the Truth Commission did was to convert knowledge into acknowledgment.” Knowledge, yes, there was torture, yes, people died, yes, bad things were done but that´s abstract, that´s statistical, that´s in a report. Acknowledgment is when you see on television the people who did it coming forward to say, “I did this, I did that.” When you hear the laments and you see the tears of those who suffered, when you say where was I, what would I have done, how would I have behaved, how can we stop these things from happening?

Where these experiences, terrible experiences are sold into the psyches of millions of South Africans who are now thinking about what they meant, what they signified, how we can avoid it in future that´s what our Truth Commission did. And enabled us to move forward to deal with the harder issues until we had real equality in our country.

Until everybody´s living in a decent home and has access to decent medical treatment and decent education and decent employment, we´re never going to have full reconciliation in this country. But at least by removing some of the most painful sores, some of that agony is lightened and the possibilities of beginning to live together and actually living together as equals in one country are made much easier. Not just through the formal system of one person, one vote in form of democracy and rights under the bill of rights but through an acknowledgment of the pain, the injustice, the unfairness, the inhumanities, the degradation imposed on the past. Letting it come out enables us to move forward.

Albie Sachs was born on January 30, 1935 in South Africa and grew up under the apartheid government.

His career as a freedom and human rights activist started at seventeen, when as a second-year law student at the University of Cape Town, he became active in nonviolent, anti-apartheid protests. At 21, he began practicing law and was known for defending individuals charged under racial statutes and repressive security laws. Sachs himself was arrested by the security police, subjected to banning orders restricting his movement, and eventually placed in solitary confinement without trial for extended periods of time.

In 1966, he went into exile. After spending eleven years studying and teaching law in England, Sachs worked in Mozambique as law professor and legal researcher. In 1988, he survived a car bomb, but lost an arm and sight in one eye.

During the 1980s, working closely with Oliver Tambo, leader of the African National Congress (ANC) in exile, Sachs helped draft the organization’s Code of Conduct, as well as its statutes. After recovering from the bombing, he devoted himself full-time to preparations for a new democratic, South African constitution. In 1990, he returned home to South Africa and as a member of the Constitutional Committee and the National Executive of the ANC, took an active part in the negotiations leading to South Africa’s democratic transition. After the first democratic election in 1994, Sachs was appointed by President Nelson Mandela to serve on the newly established Constitutional Court, where he served until 2009.

Sachs has travelled to many countries sharing South Africa’s experience and discussing human rights.

South Africa is a nation of almost 53 million on the southern tip of Africa. The nation has a unique multicultural character and is approximately 80 percent African and 10 percent European, with the remaining 10 percent being of mixed race or Asian heritage. These broad racial categories include a multitude of ethnic and linguistic groups.

Although it has the largest economy on the continent, much of the nation remains in poverty and there is great economic disparity. Historically, the mining industry has played a key role in South Africa’s economy and it continues to remain an important industry today, alongside manufacturing, tourism, and financial services.

South Africa was first settled by non-natives in 1652, when the Dutch established an outpost in what would later become Cape Town. Soon after, British, French, and German settlers came to the area. The descendants of the original Dutch settlers became known as Afrikaners. Conflicts over land and power arose between the settling groups as well as between the settlers and the native people of the region. In 1910, Britain formally created the Union of South Africa as a self-governing dominion within the British Empire.

Throughout South Africa’s history, non-whites were subjected to widespread discrimination. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the government passed a series of laws institutionalizing discrimination and segregation. In the 1948 elections, the National Party, which served as a platform for Afrikaner nationalism, gained power. The National Party program was centered on the system of racial segregation known as apartheid. Supporters of apartheid argued that South Africa was made up of four distinct racial groups: white, black, “Coloured” or mixed-race, and Indian.

The white minority oppressed the African majority and other non-white groups. Black Africans were particularly disadvantaged in terms of education, housing, income, and health. Blacks were denied citizenship and not permitted to use the services and facilities accessible by the white minority. Many blacks were forced to relocate when their neighborhoods were declared “white.” A series of laws enacted in the 1950s further codified and expanded racial segregation. In part, the National Party justified its policies by branding its opponents as communists.

The African National Congress (ANC) was founded in 1912 to advocate for the rights of black South Africans. As apartheid expanded, the ANC and other groups used both nonviolent and violent actions to combat the government. The ANC and other groups were oppressed by the government, and many of their senior leaders were banned or imprisoned. Nelson Mandela, a prominent ANC leader, was imprisoned from 1962 to 1990.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the anti-apartheid movement gained strength. Foreign governments and the international community isolated South Africa. International sanctions damaged the economy and helped erode domestic support for apartheid. Meanwhile, the end of the Cold War weakened the government’s claim that yielding power would lead to a communist takeover.

In 1990, the government of South Africa took its first steps toward ending apartheid when it ended a ban on certain political organizations including the ANC. Nelson Mandela and other opposition leaders were released from prison and apartheid legislation was repealed. F.W. de Klerk, President from 1989-1994, helped to broker this transition of South Africa from the apartheid-era to a multi-racial democracy. In 1993, de Klerk and Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize for their work.

In 1994, South Africa held its first election that allowed all adults to vote, regardless of race. The ANC gained power and Nelson Mandela was elected president. South Africa enacted a liberal, democratic constitution, backed by a strong and independent judiciary. While the ANC has remained the strongest party, elections are vigorously contested and democratic safeguards are respected. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigated abuses and crimes committed during the apartheid era.

Freedom House’s 2013 Freedom in the World report categorized South Africa as “free” with an overall freedom rating of two, with one being the most free and seven being the least. The country also received ratings of two in political rights and civil liberties. However, in the 2013 Freedom of the Press report, the nation was categorized as “party free” due to government restrictions on the press and the prevalence of civil cases brought against journalists for libel.