Apartheid victims received R30 000 one-off payments and millions for education, says Kubayi

Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has detailed how victims of apartheid have been compensated.

Lwandile Ngaxa/GCIS

Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has detailed how victims of apartheid have been compensated.A one-off payment of R30 000 was made to victims identified by the TRC.Kubayi was responding in a written parliamentary reply to a question by an MK Party MP.

Victims of apartheid displacement,torture and violence have received a one-off grant of R30 000,as well as medical benefits and social assistance.

The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development said it had also provided education assistance,which had funded thousands of high school pupils and university students.

In a written parliamentary response,Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi revealed details of the government assistance provided to victims who had come forward at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

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She was responding to MKP MP Adil Nchabeleng,who wanted to know whether the government intended establishing a national reparations programme for apartheid crimes beyond once-off payments.

“In June 2003,Parliament approved the granting of reparations to TRC-identified victims in respect of final reparation in the form of a once-off grant of R30 000.00; medical benefits and other forms of social assistance; symbols and monuments; and rehabilitation of communities for purposes of contributing to healing the wounds of the past and restoring human dignity,” she said.

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In addition to the R30 000 once-off grant,millions had been spent on education for the children of victims identified by the TRC,the minister added.

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“Thus far,the department has supported a total of 11 783 learners between Grades 1 and 12,and the payments made to the beneficiaries in respect of this reparation amount to R135 995 409.07. Furthermore,1 896 students received funding to further their studies at higher education and training institutions,and the payments made to the beneficiaries in respect of this reparation are R129 174 450.05,” she said.

Kubayi added that the TRC had recommended the establishment of a task team to investigate unresolved cases of missing people reported to the TRC.

The Missing Persons Task Team (MPTT) was established within the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to conduct investigations into the 477 cases of people who had disappeared in political circumstances between 1960 and 1994,as reported to the TRC.

The 477 cases excluded victims who were judicially executed for political reasons.

Furthermore,Kubayi said that symbolic reparation and rehabilitation included expediting exhumations and reburials,facilitating the renaming of streets and community facilities,and constructing monuments and memorials.

She added: “The regulations provide for travel and subsistence allowances for relatives of missing persons to attend the exhumation procedures,cleansing ceremony and handover ceremony,payment of once-off grant of R17 000.00 for the reburials of the remains of deceased victims,R8 500.00 for the symbolic burials of deceased victims,payments of an amount not exceeding R1 500.00 to purchase an animal to be slaughtered for the purpose of a cleansing ceremony.”

There is also a provision for a coffin under certain circumstances,funeral items,and accessories not exceeding R12 000.

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To ensure closure and healing for the families of judicially executed political prisoners,the Gallows Exhumation Project was launched in March 2016,Kubayi said.

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This was to enable the exhumation of the remains of 83 political activists who were judicially executed.

“Thus far,the total number of deceased’s remains handed over for reburial is 180,and payments made to the beneficiaries in respect of this reparation is R5 196 035.36,” the minister said.

Recently,the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria dismissed President Cyril Ramaphosa and the government’s bid to stay or postpone a R167-million constitutional damages claim launched against them by 22 families of murdered and missing anti-apartheid activists.