A critical-theoretic study of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission : with reference to the work of Jurgen Habermas

By using the work of Jurgen Habermas as my central focus
the objective of this thesis was to judge whether the ideas that he has formulated in different bodies of work
illuminate the problems and prospects for sustained
democratic development in a country that has been
affected by the impact of a series of cumulative civilizing
offensives.I argue that the South African Truth and
Reconciliation Commission(TRC) must be judged in relation
to the outcomes that its commissioners attempted to promote.

Following a reading of the works of Habermas I argue that it possible to specify the outcomes that would make it possible for the leaders of a new state to settle their
accounts with the violations of the past by paying the fullest settlement of damages. Through the use of a case
study methodology I was able to step outside of the realms
of pure theory by establishing how some of Habermass
ideas do enable us to acquire an understanding of the outcomes that the TRC was and was not able to influence.

I use the ideas of Habermas in a critical way in order to judge the consequences of successive truth-telling
hearings and the settings in which they were constituted. My
methodology was also theoretic in so far as my goal was to establish whether it was possible to identify a characteristic or trait that differentiates a positive
and/or a full settlement of damages from a negative
and/or an empty settlement of damages.

My analysis has demonstrated that the TRC was not able to establish an authoritative record of the perpetrators who committed violations during the mandate period. Therefore, the judgement that successive truth-telling processes made a decisive contribution to the revision of the country's political culture needs to be revised.