Piet Meiring: Member of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee

The following blog post was written on the evening of the 24^th July. Due to technological restrictions it was posted at a later date.

This evening we were lucky to meet with Peit Meiring, who was a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee. Piet is a retired Afrikaans theology professor from the University of Pretoria who was asked to join the committee in 1996 by Desmond Tutu, with the approval of Nelson Mandela.

For those of you that are not familiar with the purpose of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, they were given the responsibility of overseeing the public hearings on the abuses that occurred during apartheid. Specifically, they heard about 27,000 cases of murder, manslaughter, rape, or severe torture that occurred during the apartheid era. The committee was set up for three reasons, 1) to hear cases of human rights violations, 2) to create a process to provide reparations and rehabilitation, and 3) to allow amnesty to individuals who met high expectations set up by the committee. Individuals seeking amnesty needed to tell the whole truth , they needed to prove their actions were based on director orders from superiors, and there needed to be a balance between the motive and the actions.

Overall, the committee provided people in South Africa the opportunity to share their pain with the public, allowing the chance to heal through forgiveness. I find the process fascinating and plan to read more about it when returning to the United States.

It was also great to meet Piet, who was a fantastic speaker and full of great stories.