A New Push for Justice in South Africa's Apartheid-Era Crimes, Before It's Too Late
More than three decades after the end of apartheid, families of victims of some of the worst crimes of South Africa's past are still fighting for justice, NPR reports. What's new is the vehicle: a wave of legal efforts pursuing truth, accountability and reparations, pushed forward as survivors and perpetrators grow older.
Those three goals don't always travel together. A court can establish a record without producing compensation; a negotiated acknowledgment can produce payment without a conviction. The clock is why the push is happening now — the people who can testify, and the people who could be tried, are aging out of the process.
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Truth, accountability and reparations are named as separate aims, and they're usually pursued through different machinery.
Time does the work here: with survivors and perpetrators growing older, every year of delay shrinks who can testify or stand trial.
Which is why some families may trade a court verdict for an acknowledgment and a payment that actually arrive while people are still alive to receive them.