Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Although scholars interested in human rights and global issues of crime or justice have demonstrated substantial interest in the truth commission in general, and the TRC of South Africa in particular, very little evidence is available in the literature to account for the nature of crime and violence by non-white and non-black groups in the apartheid era. This paper is a preliminary attempt to understand the nature and extent of violence perpetrated by non-Africans (especially by Asians) in which I wish to analyze select amnesty cases through an examination of TRC’s amnesty hearings. In particular, I would like to compare and contrast the nature of violence, committed by individuals of Asian origin and non-African descent, with that of blacks and whites, and examine the patterns of case resolution as revealed through the proceedings of the TRC in post-apartheid South Africa.