Transitional Justice and Education in the
context of South Africa: Mutually Reinforcing
Imperatives
Master thesis submitted by
Lisa van Gerwen
Master of Science (MSc) in Political Science: International Relations
Student number: 11254521
Supervisor: M. O. Eze
Second reader: R. Bellanova
Date: 22nd of June 2018
lisavangerwen@hotmail.com
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Abstract
The history of South Africa is characterized by years of colonial rule where racial discrimination touched every political, economic, social and ideological segment of society. By the end of the apartheid, a vision of the ‘rainbow-nation’ became the promised future for South Africa. Transitional justice mechanisms were created in order to deal with the legacies of the past. The educational aspects of transitional justice, including the African philosophy Ubuntu, can be seen as important aspects in revealing and resisting the colonial imagination. However, the created mechanisms brought a change in politics but not a change in decolonisation. The theories of poststructuralism and postcolonialism will help to illuminate the challenges facing South Africa because of their focus on the role of race, power influences, inclusion and exclusions, and, historical narratives. The aim of this research is to demonstrate the relationship between transitional justice and education in South Africa. In doing so, this research will argue that these concepts reinforce one another. The education system is needed, as a source of conflict resolution, in order to create inclusion and a shared-narrative.
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Keywords: transitional justice, education, South Africa, Ubuntu, TRC, Bantu Education Act, poststructuralism, postcolonialism, decolonisation
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Acknowledgements
My curiosity about Africa is boundless in the widest sense. The continent keeps fascinating me in multiple ways. The research project “The African Renaissance and the Politics of Development” has been a great help in the provision of challenging and spellbinding knowledge about Africa. This project has given me the opportunity to write about my interests within the study of International Relations on an academic level. Many people have supported me during the process of writing this master thesis. Special thanks are reserved for professor Michael Onyebuchi Eze because of his contagious enthusiasm and valuable insights. His guidance helped and pushed me towards a higher level of critical thinking. Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude towards my beloved family and friends for the encouragement and support. Especially to those who offered me a ‘sympathetic ear’ when my head needed some clarification. Completing this work would have been much harder without their comfort and belief.
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List of abbreviations
ANC African National Congress
DBE Department Basic Education
DHET Department Higher Education and Training
ETA Education and Training Act
ICTJ International Center of Transitional Justice
NP National Party
OBE Outcome Based Education
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Contents
Abstract ... 2
Acknowledgements ... 3
List of abbreviations ... 4
1. Introduction
... 7
1.1 Methodology ... 10
2. Theoretical Framework
... 12
2.1 Poststructuralism and Postcolonialism ... 12
2.2 Racialist education ... 16
2.2.1 Bantu Education Act ... 17
2.2.2 Language ... 18
2.3 Conclusion ... 19
3. Transitional Justice in South Africa
... 20
3.1 Operationalization ... 20
3.2 Context and understanding of the South African experience ... 22
3.3 Ubuntu and Transitional Justice ... 25
3.4 Conclusion ... 26
4. Education and Transitional Justice in South Africa
... 28
4.1 Educational aspects of transitional justice ... 30
4.2 DBE and DHET analysis ... 33
4.3 Conclusion ... 35
5. The Challenges
... 36
5.1 Shortcomings: Political justice over Socio-Economic justice ... 36
5.2 The complementary role of education ... 37
5.2.1 The influence of globalisation trends on educational policies ... 38
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6. Decolonisation in South Africa
... 40
6.1 Relation to theory: utilize competing narratives for inclusion ... 40
6.2 Contestation at the bottom, collective accountability at the top ... 41
7. Conclusion and discussion
... 43
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1. Introduction
The history of education goes far back in time. For as long as humans have been able to talk and listen, stories have been told, knowledge has been shared, religion has spread, and power has been constructed Although this accumulation may seem far-fetched, it depends on which definition and goal is assigned to the notion of education. Education can emerge on different levels in society: in public and private spheres, and in formal and non-formal ways. There is a profound link between education and conflict that we must not underestimate. On the one hand, conflict can affect educational institutions. On the other hand, education can be a contributing factor for war or for peace (Davies, 2003, p. 8). The structure of educational systems can tell a great deal about the way in which power has influenced this system. Education has been a central element throughout the history of South Africa, where it was a fundamental element of the apartheid regime. In this system, race was used as a given-identity in order to include and exclude individuals on a political, economic and social level. After the abolishment of the apartheid regime in South Africa, a lot of reforms took place in order to make the best suitable transition to peace within the South African context. Several transitional justice measures were implemented in South Africa.
Transitional justice mechanisms have become profoundly present in Africa in the 1990s (Dragovic-Soso, 2011). For instance, the creation of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and other local conflict-resolution and reconciliation mechanisms as a result of traditional practices in Rwanda. The formation of hybrid courts to address particular situations by the provision of domestic and international justice systems in Sierra Leone, Mozambique or Uganda are further examples. A final example of a transitional justice mechanism is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa which investigates the causes, nature and extent of the conflict. According to Dragovic-Soso, some matters of transitional justice in Africa are the equilibrium between justice and peace. On the one side, are those who are calling for accountability for the sake of victims, survivors, combating impunity and (re)constructing democracy and the rule of law (Sriram, 2009, p. 1). On the other side, are those who pursue peacebuilding and the prevention of a reoccurring conflict more than accountability. However, these sides are often portrayed as mutually exclusive but in practise it is often a complex mix of both sides.
To be precise, these measurements can be seen as “a set of judicial and non-judicial measures to promote accountability and redress for massive violations of human rights” (Horde, et al., 2017, p. 11). These mechanisms focus on how to deal with past human right violations in a transitional context. According to Lundy and McGovern (2008), the goals and ends of transitional justice include the restoration of the rule of law; judicial retribution created to oppose the culture of impunity; compensate and rebuild the dignity of victims; restructuring the institutions; social and political reconciliation; ‘nation-building’ and
8 the reconstruction of history on the foundation of a ‘shared narrative’. The extent to which they are developed within a state, differs from context and time.
The relation between the field of transitional justice and the field of education remain undervalued in the context of South Africa. There has been a lot of research on how South Africa is dealing with the legacies of the past and what kind of approach South Africa has taken (Clamp, 2016; Graybill, 2004; Mamdani, 2015). The restorative justice approach, which became prominent after the Cold War, can be seen as characteristic in South Africa. However, the assumption that education should play a role in post-conflict situations, for instance, in addressing the legacies of the past, is relatively new. Recent research from the International Center of Transitional Justice (2018) has stressed the role of education in post-conflict situations. This rather new focus is still underexposed in the case of South Africa and brings up questions. However, the role that transitional justice can play in complementing the education system in order to create peace is unique. More research is needed to do justice to the multifaceted ways in which these fields are connected with regard to the case of South Africa. Correspondingly, this research falls between different strands of thinking within the field of International Relations, namely the literature on transitional justice and comparative education. The framework of analysis is a combination of poststructuralism and postcolonialism because of the strong historical emphasis and claims about decolonisation. This focus will help to prioritize the challenges regarding the situation in South Africa.
Currently, even though there has been a lot of development and process in South Africa, the country is still facing several challenges. According to the most recent data of the World Bank (2018), South Africa has an extremely high inequality rate with a Gini coefficient (a measurement for relative wealth) of 0,69 based on income data. In theory, complete equality would be zero, and 1 means that all income is assigned to one person. This high inequality rate, due to a lack of skilled labour, can be reduced through the improvement of education and structural integration. Another problem in South Africa is the unemployment rate. In January 2018, 26.7% of the population has no job (Trading Economics, 2018). Even though this is less than in July 2017 (27,7%), it is still an enormous percentage. This high unemployment causes, among other things, a high poverty and criminality rate. Due to the global financial crisis of 2008, challenges have become even larger. Despite the fact that South Africa had a peaceful political transition, other transitional justice goals are missing the mark.
There are several reasons why it is both interesting and important to examine the relation between education and transitional justice. First of all, because of the complementary factor between these concepts. Education can play a role in addressing the legacies of the past and transitional justice can also play a role in the existing educational structures. The juxtaposition of education systems and transitional justice is a relatively new approach and therefore an interesting angle in this research with a great scientific and social relevance. Secondly, in the case of South Africa one could argue that the apartheid
9 ideology was enabled by the education system. In relation to this point it is interesting to examine the ways in which the South African education system shaped and formed the apartheid ideology. Thirdly, education has the potential to reach both the first and second generation emerging from the conflict (Ramirez-Barat & Duthie, 2015). Regarding the increasing literacy rate and the increasing number of people attending schools, education can be a great tool for addressing the legacies of the past and tell a certain narrative. An increasing number of people enjoying education in African states will ensure a greater audience, probably the only sector with this kind of reach. Moreover, demands for educational practises that contribute towards peacebuilding are implemented in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Even though it becomes the state’s responsibility to provide quality education by this implementation, it remain difficult depending on the context of the state. Finally, the South African philosophy Ubuntu has a strong emphasis on the idea of collectiveness. This idea can be beneficial to the educational aspects of transitional justice.
Accordingly, the aim of this research is, first, to introduce the concept of transitional justice in the education system of South Africa. Second, to focus within the education system on transitional justice. In this way this thesis shall argue that these concepts are not mutually exclusive, but rather, that they mutually beneficial. More importantly, they can help to decolonise the system. Taking these points into consideration, the following research question has been developed in order to substantiate the argument:
To what extent can a transitional justice approach complement the education system in order to contribute to decolonisation in South Africa?
In order to sufficiently describe the main question, the following sub questions are constructed:
1. What is the relationship between education and racism in Africa and how does this relate to theories of poststructuralism and postcolonialism?
2. What are the challenges of transitional justice, including the educational aspects in South Africa?
3. In what ways can education complement the transitional justice mechanisms in South Africa? As already stated above, the common thread in this research is the interaction between education and transitional justice in South Africa. To make a clear and understandable argument, the second chapter will form a theoretical framework through which this research can be understood. This section, it will focus on poststructuralism, postcolonialism and racialist education in order to narrow down the focus on existing structures, (racial) identities, historical narratives and how education is used in racialist ways. This view will help to highlight the challenges of transitional justice in South Africa and will support the claims regarding the education system. The third chapter will introduce the concept of transitional justice and will explain the transition process in South Africa based on the transitional justice pillars,
10 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the philosophy of Ubuntu. Subsequently, chapter four, dives deeper into the education system of South Africa regarding the goals and values of the educational departments of South Africa. There will be an exploration of areas within the education system while embracing a transitional justice lens. In this section the written text of the Annual Reports is analysed through a transitional justice lens. In chapter five, an analysis is made about challenges and shortcomings of transitional justice mechanisms in South Africa. Considering these research objectives, it is interesting to study the benefits and problems of the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in South Africa but also the educational aspects of transitional justice in South Africa. The objective of the sixth chapter is to examine in what way education can complement the challenges and shortcomings of transitional justice. In other words, is there room for transitional justice mechanisms in the education system of South Africa? Finally, chapter 7, will make the thesis complete with a conclusion and discussion.
1.1 Methodology
The theories of poststructuralism and postcolonialism attach much value to words. For this reason, the thesis is qualitative in nature. According to Bryman (2012, p. 444), qualities as behaviour, political decisions and changes must be understood through context. Another characteristic of qualitative research is the focus on process in order to show how events evolve over time (Bryman, 2012, p. 402). The focus on the interpretation of historical events in South Africa is therefore justified.
This research is going to be primarily theoretical and contains a critical single-case study of South Africa. The case will ensure a better understanding of the real-life phenomena. There are three kinds of case studies to distinguish, namely: exploratory, descriptive and explanatory (Zainal, 2007). In this thesis a descriptive analysis is made about South Africa. This means that I am going to analyse the case of South Africa through a well-developed theory, and the case will show understanding of the circumstances. A case study can be beneficial because of the in-depth description about South Africa, which would be qualitative in nature (Zainal, 2007, p. 4). According to Bryman (2012, p. 557), there are three ways of interpreting documents: qualitative content analysis, semiotics and hermeneutics. This research will focus on qualitative content analysis and will rely on qualitative data such as academic articles, journal writings and policy notes.
A potential limitation of this thesis is the unstructured method of data collection, by which is meant the flexibility of the researcher in determining a direction (Bryman, 2012, p. 403). In order to prevent an unclear structure, it is necessary to substantiate the claims and choices that are going to be made in this research. Second, a case study might limit the applicability and generalisation to a wider population elsewhere. Conversely, that makes this thesis unique. South Africa is a unique case where the introduced concepts have a close connection with each other. In terms of generalisation, the results of this thesis
11 might be applicable to Rwanda because of its history. Rwanda has also suffered from colonial rule, there was also a strict distinction between two populations and transitional justice measurements were implemented. According to these variables, links can be made between South Africa and Rwanda. The fact that the results might apply to another case, ensures a greater social relevance.
This research is based on comparative political theory method, were the value of a question-driven approach is central (Ackerly & Bajpai, 2017). This means that a historical, interpretive or critical view can be used in order to analyse the case. Comparative Political Theory focusses on content beyond the Western-written texts. First, there is an analysis of transitional justice measurements in South Africa and the educational parts of it. This analysis focusses on process and tends to answer the question: what choices are made and how are choices made? In this section the focus lies on continuities and changes. Second, the obtained information creates the stage of a critical review in order to pinpoint the challenges of transitional justice in South Africa. This is done through a continuity and change analysis in order to analyse critically the loopholes. Poststructuralism and postcolonialism theories will help to locate points of focus and find answers to the posed questions.
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2. Theoretical Framework
2.1 Poststructuralism and Postcolonialism
In light of this research it is interesting to analyse the poststructuralist theory because of its focus and ontological and epistemological considerations. Ontology questions the nature of reality: what do we accept as knowledge, how can we know the truth and what can we study? Epistemology is about the method of defining the truth and is concerned with the question: how can we study knowledge (Hansen, 2014, p. 170). The questions about ontology and epistemology are important in relation to this research because they will locate and substantiate the theoretical perspective of poststructuralism and postcolonialism. The strength of poststructuralism is that it questions the ontological assumptions about what we accept as knowledge and the decisions made in what objects we study. For example, the decision to study international organisations acknowledges the existence and influence of these organisations. This research argues that structural and historical insights will help to illuminate challenges in South Africa. In addition, to study the use of language, discourse and interpretation will also be helpful. These insights are therefore objects of study and considered as valid knowledge. Even though the post-positivist epistemology of poststructuralist theories is far removed from hard sciences, it gives an alternative approach. This alternative approach opens doors to underexposed themes: something at the core of postcolonial theories.
In this research, an analysis is made in relation to the current social, political and economic structure in South Africa during and after the apartheid regime based on transitional justice and education. Before analysing this current structure, it would be helpful to define the terminology behind structures and select a point of view herein. Piaget (1971) has tried to define the term structure by making a distinction between different ideas in which structures exists: the idea of wholeness, transformation and self-regulation. The idea of wholeness means that there is an internal coherence within a structure and different actors have no existence separately outside the structure. Second, the structure is transformative and not static and capable of change. The idea of a transformative structure is useful in the case of South Africa because the state is subject to change. Last, the structure does not make any higher demands in order to validate these transformational actions; it is a self-regulated force. According to this definition it is clear that the focus of structuralism is profoundly based on the perception and description of structures (Hawkes, 2003, p. 6). Obviously, this perception and description can be different for each individual, and thus, exists in the constructed relationships between them. In regard to South Africa this means that the actors within the state, such as government and civil society, affect each other.
Since 1960s, the scholars of structuralism tend to emphasize a more intellectual focus in the human sciences, for example the study on linguistics (Olssen, 2003, p. 190). By way of contrast, Foucault
13 highlights a different angle of the structuralist theories, namely how the structures are affected by power (Olssen, 2003, p. 194). Along with other critical theorists, such as Marxists and feminists, this has resulted in a new way of thinking comprising a closer examination of the “power problematic” (Chowdhry & Nair, 2013, p. 4). Regarding the topic of this research, it is interesting to dive deeper in Foucault’s argumentation and his poststructuralist view about the influence of power. Poststructuralism tends to focus more on power structures, such as the state’s historical and conceptual construction, and its political foundation, economic structure, and social exclusions (Campbell & Bleiker, 2016, p. 199). The focus on power structures and how they develop over time will help to highlight the challenges of transitional justice in South Africa, which will be further explained in chapter 3.
The differences between structuralism and poststructuralism can be found in the way in which the theories analyse structures. While structuralists believe in the notion of one structure, which is both universal and ahistorical, poststructuralists sharpen the term transformation even more in a sense that supporters of the theory assume that identified regularities vary in different time and places. In addition, there is no shared ‘human nature’, the nature of individuals is a creation by power structures (Campbell & Bleiker, 2016, p. 207). Poststructuralist theories study the establishment of inclusions and exclusions. In other words, events, difficulties, and actors that are established throughout history, are created in a certain order. This order will always rely upon the marginalization and exclusion of other identities and histories (Campbell & Bleiker, 2016, p. 208). For example, the creation of an identity is based on differences: the good is constituted by the bad. The substance of poststructuralists is that they consider any given-identity as problematic and consider it as culturally constructed. Therefore, the aim of a poststructuralist is to understand forms of exclusion, understand them and provide alternatives. In this way “taken-for-granted” knowledge will be questioned.
One important methodological precept in poststructuralist theories is the inescapability of interpretation (Campbell & Bleiker, 2016, p. 212). Even though there is a material world next to our thoughts, our thoughts are always navigated by interpretation. This interpretation is based on discourse. Another methodological precept is the mode of historical representation instead of narrativizing historiography. This representation contains an individual perspective and means that calculating and specifying ‘real causes’ is impossible. For this reason, this research does not focus on the identification of the causes of the apartheid regime, but on the link between the concepts of education and transitional justice in South Africa and on the political and economic structure.
The study of post colonialism can utilize and complement the poststructuralist examination of power and knowledge. As Chowdhry and Nair (2013) are claiming, poststructuralist theorists still focus less on the notion of race in the production of power. However, poststructuralist theory tends to focus more on the “non- discursive”, material domain (Tikly, 1999, p. 608). This means that it analyses the material objects without questioning these objects. The focus on power structures evolved throughout history and
14 exclusion within society is also reflected in the study of postcolonialism (Biswas, 2013, p. 220). In the South African experience, exclusion took place based on race, a strong marginalized structure where identities were created on the basis of skin colour. The postcolonialism is an essential view because of its focus on histories, peoples and cultures of the colonized. This focus was missing in the study of International Relations until the 1980s (Sylvester, 2014, p. 194). Postcolonialism draws attention to the shapes and forms of colonial residues in the contemporary world and the historical narratives told by dominant actors. This focus on multiplicity of history is also reflected in poststructuralism. Nevertheless, postcolonialism can complement this theory by narrowing down the focus on race. This focus will help to understand the way historical domination has evolved during and after die apartheid regime in South Africa.
South Africa was colonized by the Dutch and the British, with years of violence and oppression. It is therefore important to examine it through a postcolonial lens as well. Before defining the term postcolonialism, it might be helpful to understand colonialism. Colonialism is not solely the conquest and expansion of European powers over people’s land and goods in the sixteenth century. It has been a repeated and boundless element of human history (Loomba, 2005). According to Eze, colonialism is: “the settlement in territories and the exploitation and development of the resources thereof with a concomitant attempt to govern the indigenous people of the occupied lands by the settlers” (Eze, 2010, p. 30). Colonialism is facilitated through colonial discourses which separates into two directions. First, the label of the ‘other’, signifying the unfamiliar and strange. This label is assigned to the colonized subject that only exists outside the Western civilization. This ‘other’ has no autonomous subjectivity and cannot create things by itself. According to Mitchell (2000), the colonized mind was prisoner of their own mimetic space. The second direction within colonial discourses is the attempt to civilize and enlighten the ‘otherness’ and bring them inside the Western thoughts.
Postcolonialism is a theoretical approach that is concerned with the index of the costs of colonisation in the colonized states (Huggan, 1996, p. 20). The term ‘postcolonial’ is very challenging in itself. As Stuart Hall, fairly enough, points out: “when does the postcolonial era begin?” (Chowdhry & Nair, 2013, p. 11). In other words, postcolonialism is more than just a practical shift in governance, it is a debate about dominance, colonial discourses and the existing legacies (Loomba, 2005, p. 16). In correspondence to South Africa, there was a governmental shift in 1910 but the overall economic and social structures remained the same. Therefore Fanon (1984) argues, gaining independence does not necessarily mean liberation. Moreover, Fanon (1984) challenged the settled ideas of identities with the claim that after independence, the subjects of colonialism continued to be colonized. Because of the continuation of settled ideas and identities, the term postcolonial is rather a descriptive than an evaluative term. Many scholars (Chen, 1996; Chowdhry & Nair, 2013; Rao, 2000) argue that the colonialist era is not over, but it takes on a different shape. This new way of thinking, often called neo-colonialism,
15 describes that instead of an explicit attempt to civilize the other, there is a development of socio-political and economic activities to spread the hegemony of the West indirectly in order to control former colonies. In the 1961st issue of The Statesman, the term neo-colonialism was first used (Rao, 2000, p.
168). The term often goes along with terms like dependency, development and Western capitalism and is seen by Kwame Nkrumah (1965) as “The Last Stage of Imperialism”. The focus of this research is not specifically on neo-colonialist issues, but rather the study of postcolonialism.
The great amount of similarities between poststructuralist theories and postcolonial theories show a firm link. Despite the firm link, there is no consensus in whether it is efficient or inefficient that the theories are often mixed-up together. According to Loomba (2005), postcolonial theorists might depend too much on poststructuralist theories, which can result in undermining their claim of multiplicity of history. In this way, a paradoxical amplification can take place of the term postcolonialism (Loomba, 2005, p. 17). Instead of complementing each other, the theories can also create incongruences between them. Another critique about the use of these theories is that they are too obscure, literary and too much concerned with issues of the past (Sylvester, 2014, p. 194). The examination of contemporary issues instead of always refer to the history of the past would be more accurate. However, all theories have their critics and these theories offer an alternative approach to counter the Western study of International Relations.
The framework of analysis in this research will focus on the similarities between poststructuralism and postcolonialism and more importantly, the complementary relevance of race. Postcolonial theory is concerned with the understanding of racism as discursive practice (Tikly, 1999, p. 611). This means the practice on how racial identities are constructed in discourse. There is a narrow line between education and postcolonialism because education is paired with the concepts of power and knowledge (Rizvi, et al., 2006). On the one hand, there exists a thoroughgoing critique on the postcolonial side regarding the Eurocentric lens and rhetoric of educational systems. On the other hand, education can be seen as an important element in revealing and resisting our colonial imagination, also pointed out by Foucault’s (1975) quote below this section. With this quote, Foucault shows that education is a tool for gaining access to a certain discourse. However, education is also a tool for practising politics. In this way, the cultural practices and policies in education are linked to postcolonial formations. This will make a complete frame with focus points in regard to South Africa. To sum up, the foundation of this research is built on the following elements: the way in which political and economic structures are affected by power, the establishment of inclusions and exclusions of (racial) identities, and, the historical narratives that are told. These are fundamental elements in analysing the history of South Africa.
“Education may well be, as of right, the instrument whereby every individual, in a society like our own, can gain access to any kind of discourse. But we well know that in its distribution, in what it permits and in what it prevents, it follows the well-trodden battle-lines of social conflict. Every
16 educational system is a political means of maintaining or of modifying the appropriation of discourse,
with the knowledge and the powers it carries with it.” – (Foucault, 1972, p. 227)
2.2 Racialist education
According to Miles (1984), racialisation is based on a forced hierarchical arrangement. In this hierarchical arrangement, one person is higher (superior) than the other (inferior). Racialisation is concerned with the process of the apportion of racial identities throughout the history (Fassin, 2011, p. 424). Racialisation can be seen as a social construct that was very visible in times of colonialization and inextricably linked to social, political and economic relations of power. Therefore, it is interesting to analyse these links with the obtained foundational elements from poststructuralism and postcolonialism. This following section will give an explanation about the way in which the foundations of poststructuralist and postcolonialist theories, such as power structures, in-/exclusions and historical narratives, come forward in the form of racialist education in South Africa.
Education, as a building block of society, has been a debated theme throughout the years and can have short-term and longer-term effect. Simply speaking, education can lift and enlighten people and societies in a positive way, but it can also have an excessive negative impact on societies. From a broad perspective, education is more than a liberating force that ensures freedom. It also plays a role in the distribution of cultural capital and the decoration of social space (Nyamnjoh, 2012). Consequently, Nyamnjoh (2012) points out: “The production, positioning and consumption of knowledge is far from a neutral, objective and disinterested process”(p. 130). The socio-political power of education is extremely visible in times of conflict when, for instance, schools are used as a weapon of war (Davies, 2010). It can be used as a weapon of war when educational institutions are the target of bombings. These attacks prevent a large number of children from attending school. The motives of such events can be either political, cultural or symbolic: destroying symbols of control as a political statement, seizing children to turn into sex slaves or combatants, or using the buildings as a military base. During a long period of maintained conflict, an army can take over the schools and pose their own ideological ideas in the classroom. In this way, there can emerge a hate curriculum at school involving discriminative textbooks where the ‘other’ is portrayed as inferior. Ramirez-Barat and Duthie (2015), researchers at International Center of Transitional Justice (ICTJ), stated that education can also be used as a weapon of cultural repression of minorities by denying them access to education. This can be done through unaffordable school fees, or selection criteria that are impossible to meet, or by restricting a certain race from accessing education. Eventually on the longer term, education can play a role in reproducing the status quo where through the repetition of certain terms, ideas or discourses are reflected in what is ‘normal’ (Davies, 2010, p. 492).
17 During the colonial era in the nineteenth century, race had become a way of organising colonial and imperial statecraft (Salesa, 2016). Racial discourses were expressed in social, political and economic practices and institutions of particular kinds. The extent to which one had access to resources was based on the colour of your skin: “racialist capitalism” (Eze, 2010, p. 66). In this way, racism highlighted the colonial rules rather than to temper them (Eze, 2010, p. 72). Accordingly, access to education was also based on the colour of your skin: “racialist education”. In 1840, the Education Department was established in South Africa. This was the first institutionalized education system. Education policies during colonialism had made the social divisions more forceful (Nugent, et al., 2007, p. 13). According to Nyamnjoh (2012), education was then used for self-interest purposes, to provide colonizers with a staff. Conversely, a black man, who was educated and therefor deemed ‘civilized’, was rejected from society because of the threat he was representing and the influence he might have had on the status quo. The empowerment obtained by the ‘black man’ due to education gave him an equal civil status and therefore a dangerous position for the colonialist and the logic of colonial mentality (Eze, 2010, p. 28).
2.2.1 Bantu Education Act
After the victory of the National Party (NP) during the elections in 1948, their aim was to further practice racial segregation into a systematic racial ideology (Rakometsi, 2008). According to Nurgent et al. (2007), there were two main purposes for creating such education systems: the maintenance of social and economic supremacy and the advancement of beliefs of national exclusivism. These purposes are reflected in the reforms that took place in South Africa in the 1950s. Through various reconstructing programs, Africans were effectively segregated from whites, a policy that became the blueprint for the apartheid regime (Thobejanea, 2013). The Bantu Education Act, implemented in 1953, was a way of legitimizing and preserving the apartheids regime by racial segregation in the education system (Ramirez-Barat & Duthie, 2015). Education was rather used as a weapon of cultural repression than a weapon of war, as the apartheid regime was not a typical case civil war.
The Bantu Education Act was a typical example of how political power can have its influence on social structures. With the inauguration of the Bantu Act, Bantu schools came under supervision from the Union Department of Native Affaires (Low, 1958). Due to this decision, education of the Bantu was placed out of the hands of the Provincial Councils and churches. In this way, the Act caused a break with current order and made separate education equal to inferior education. Furthermore, the act constrained access to liberal cosmopolitanism and intellectual development by a revision of the curriculum (Moodley & Adam, 2000, p. 62). Even though it was a racialist way of classifying people, the Bantu Act gave the impression to black communities and across boundaries that it was a system of education for indigenous people and therefore a form of inclusion. From the mindset and the historical narrative that the black population had other needs than whites, the education was skewed to the black
18 ‘needs’, in other words, more practical and less academic (Christie & Collins, 1982). The Critical Race Theory verifies this as a notion of interest convergence where reconstructions in the interest of the Whites are framed as opportunities for the black population. The Bantu Education Act, with the inferior education and the limited access to academic, made the racialist education more visible. The racialist undertones in the Bantu Act were also visible in the way of financing black and white schools. Bantu education was separately administered and financed. At first sight, the Union government made 6.5 million pounds a year available for the Bantu schools, but 2 million was paid from Bantu taxation and not the whole 6.5 was spent (Low, 1958, p. 24). This resulted in an unequal distribution of expenditure on education between the black and white population. Hence, it can be seen as a struggle between liberalism and racialism, where the governments invest in education on the basis of socio-economic needs and not because they were racist (Christie & Collins, 1982, p. 74)
These settlements of ideologies, the social and political practises, have caused the African elites to legitimate its endangered states after the colonial politics (Ekeh, 1975, p. 104). According to Ekeh (1975), this way of thinking is an ideological invention of the Western bourgeois in order to validate their activities. The Bantu Education Act can be seen as the most repressive system South Africa has ever experienced which maintained the apartheid regime. Through the Bantu Education Act, the status quo persisted, and differences maintained.
2.2.2 Language
The settlements of ideological discourses, created in times of colonialization were legitimated by the superiority of the Western colonial culture (Dei & Kempf, 2006, p. 35). The way in which language is repeatedly used, contributes to these ideological discourses. Language has the power to exclude people by the way in which terms are used, for example, repeating continuously the frame of ‘the other’. In this way, experiences, histories and identities can operate to silence and mask the other. The openly use of language, defines what is said but immediately also what is not said.
Moreover, the way in which language is used in educational environments has to do with power structures. Language is important in process of learning, psychologically, spiritually, mentally and in a cognitive way, but is also profoundly important in the process of identity formation (Dei & Kempf, 2006, p. 16). The decision to speak a certain language in a school shows the identity of the school to the outside. For this reason, most African countries maintained the language of their colonizers: English, French of Portuguese (Rubagumya, 1990). This decision strengthened the idea that education was not possible without speaking the language of the colonial ruler. In South Africa, for example, students were expected to speak Afrikaans, a language greatly influenced by the Dutch colonizers (Ndimande, 2013, p. 24). During the Bantu Act, this became a serious issue because students were forced to study
19 Afrikaans which was the language of their oppressors. Due to the limited knowledge about the English language, black individuals were isolated from liberal ideas and literature that were expressed in English.
2.3 Conclusion
To conclude, the adopted framework of analysis in this research is based on a combination of poststructuralism and postcolonialism. In line with the ontological position of these theories this research will focus on the development of power structures, in and exclusions and historical narratives as objects of study. The examination of these objects will help to highlight the challenges of transitional justice in South Africa with regard to the education system. The political and economic structures in South Africa were affected through the power of the government reforms in 1950. The radical reconstructions, primarily in the education system, had resulted in a segregated society based on race where the Bantu people had limited access. In this way, Africans were excluded from full participation in society and therefore constrained in their opportunities. By framing the education system as a tool of inclusion and exclusion, and the use of language in terms of ‘the other’, the status quo of the colonial era was maintained. A vision of a ‘rainbow nation’ emerged by the end of the apartheid (Moodley & Adam, 2000, p. 52). However, the legacies of the colonial era and the apartheid regime are still visible in South Africa and the transition to democracy is a challenging way which contests every aspect of socio-political and economic terrains (Nugent, et al., 2007). The next chapter dives deeper into the transitional justice aspects of post-apartheid South Africa.
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3. Transitional Justice in South Africa
The ‘rainbow-nation’ meant living all together in harmony in South Africa. This was the promised future at the end of the apartheid. Questions about what road must be taken to achieve this peaceful society after years of colonial rule became extremely important. This is the main question when it comes down to transitional justice. This chapter will examine the road of South Africa’s transitional justice process: what can be defined by transitional justice through the lens of South Africa? To answer this question, this chapter will first make an operationalization of the concept of transitional justice. Subsequently, section 3.2 will explore the continuities and changes regarding the transitional justice process in South Africa. While exploring these continuities and changes section 3.3 will focus, among others, on the Ubuntu philosophy because of its influence on the transitional justice process.
3.1 Operationalization
It would be too simple and general if only a definition of transitional justice would be given. However, a definition and short description of the concept is needed. Hence, this section will operationalize the concept in the context of South Africa: translate an abstract theoretical concept to a measurable term in the context of South Africa. After the occurrence of a violent conflict within a state, a process in pursuing peace in justice takes place. This process can take different shapes in the creation of judicial or non-judicial mechanisms in post conflict situations. The aim of these mechanisms is to seek accountability for perpetrators, compensation for victims, reconciliation for the broader community and restoring the rule of law (United Nations, 2004).
The examined literature about transitional justice shows no consensus about the origins of the transitional justice field. The conception of transitional justice made its entrance after the Second World War, characterized by Teitel (2003) as phase one. The Nuremberg Trials can be seen as a unique phase because of its achievements in international law to the point that it criminalized state wrong-doing. During this phase the focus was predominantly on human rights. Granting amnesty was exceptionally devoted to the rule of law (Teitel, 2003, p. 82). The second phase in the genealogy of transitional justice made its appearance after the Cold War. The concept of transitional justice became more diverse because of its focus beyond judicial mechanisms. Arthur (2009) argues that this phase is the start of the transitional justice field. During this phase, the question arises about what action to take against former oppressors from authoritarian regimes in Latin America. The transition from authoritarian regimes into democracies required a new way of thinking apart from the ruling strategy after the Second World War. Hence, justice was no longer understood as retributive justice.
21 The need for a new paradigm expanded from Latin Amerika to other parts of the world (Teitel, 2003). As already stated in the introduction, transitional justice mechanisms occurred increasingly in Africa since 1990. According to Arthur (2009, p. 324), the field of transitional justice became official during a conference, called “Dealing with the Past”, in post-apartheid South Africa. Since this conference, transitional justice mechanisms started to develop across the African continent. In addition, there appeared a need for other terms than “revolution”, “regime change” or “restorations” (Arthur, 2009, p. 337). The term “transition” focuses on “transition to democracy” and this frame became leading in analysing political change. The transitional justice field is very different in contrast to the human rights field. The strategy of the human rights field is to ‘name and shame’ repressive governments and pose new problems without providing answers (Arthur, 2009, p. 335). This activist method, which was often an idealistic one-size-fits-all ideal model, may develop adversaries. The second phase of transitional justice, described by Teitel (2003), tends to focus more on the comparison between national and local experiences with an emphasis on democracy. However, as the basis was still shaky, a debate was taking place on a moral, political and jurisprudential level about how to deal with governments who were involved in gross violations of human rights (Arthur, 2009, pp. 351-352). There was debate on the process of pursuing concerning discreteness and austerity, but also on the outcome. With regard to the process, there was a discussion about the choice to pursue someone because of the inherent link with a political judgement. With regard to the outcome, the question emerges: in what way does justice lead to peace on a broader level? Along with these questions,granting amnesty became rather normalized than an exception. This shift will be further explained in order to qualify the fairness of amnesty with links to the context of South Africa in section 2.3.
In 2006 Louise Arbour, the United Nation High Commissioner for Human Rights at that time, denounced the broader notion of transitional justice. In this article, Arbour is stating that while searching for the causes and contributors to a conflict it is likely that: “one would expose a great number of violations of economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights and discriminatory practices” (2006, p. 2). The broadening of the term had caused that focussing and resolving social injustice became also part of the goals within the framework of transitional justice. This claim is important in this research and builds further on the argument of Carranza (2008), Duthie (2008) and Cavallaro (2008) who have argued that transitional justice should not be restricted to criminal justice. However, there are several reasons of why transitional justice mechanisms are failing to address social and economic aspects of the conflict (Waldorf, 2012, p. 173). One of the reasons is the influence of human rights in the field of transitional justice. On the one hand, the human rights field advocates generally for civil and political rights because these rights are more susceptible for ‘naming & shaming’ activities. On the other hand, one can argue that structural inequalities and exclusions are harder to address. In this way, advocating for civil and political rights would obtain more successes. Second, according to Arbour (2006, p. 7), the transitional justice field was at its core based on national criminal justice systems that left out the structural causes
22 of a conflict. To deal with the past, the national law system is not sufficient. These influences of human rights and criminal justice are reflected in the way transitional justice measurements are shaped. Before analysing the transition of South Africa, some key lessons are important to consider. One of them is the need to question ‘what is it all for?’ when analysing created transitional justice institutions. Especially in regard to the Western influence during the colonial era, it might be useful to examine the amount of local support of a new institution. Moreover, the relation between local and international politics and laws tends to be difficult, whereas local approaches may be different from international attitudes. Lundy & McGovern (2008), also argue for this point by emphasizing a participatory approach in transitional justice, hence, moving away from a top-down approach and a one-size-fits-all model. Creating a dialogue on a local level and be context-specific can be seen as a great benefit in transitional justice (Lundy & McGovern, 2008). Thinking outside the box is needed to accomplish this approach and be effective. In light of this research this argument is extremely powerful when education is taken into consideration. This can be done by taking local practises into account, for example, Ubuntu an African philosophy of community (Mutua, 2015). This practice will be explained and linked to transitional justice in South Africa in section 3.3. In order to illuminate the challenges of South Africa in regard to the transitional justice mechanism it is first helpful to make a sketch of the experience.
3.2 Context and understanding of the South African experience
The roots of the conflict go back to the entrance of the first European colonisers in 1652 and after 1800, the white rule became formalized by the British (Van der Merwe & Lamb, 2009). Notwithstanding from the fact that the origins of the current power constructions are a result from this period, for the purposes of space in this research the focus lies on the timeframe from the eighties to the current situation. Still, in order to make a complete and inclusive outline of the challenges, context must be given to the historical events and the choices that have formed the state. According to Fletcher, Weinstein and Rowen (2009), the nature of the conflict was mainly identity-based and economic with as main cause apartheid: racial discrimination financed by the state. The systematic racial classification of the apartheid project can be described through three objectives: ideological, privileged economic position and political dominance (Seekings, 2008, pp. 3-6). Its objective was ideological in a sense that the racial purity had to be maintained on every level of society where social interaction could take place. The economic pillar is strongly linked to education where white people were privileged. Furthermore, the white minority saw the black majority as a threat and therefore political dominance should be maintained. Accordingly, the nature and existence of apartheid was not restricted to the governmental rule but deeply rooted in society. Identity was assigned to you in relation to the colour of your skin, identity was not something where one could move in and out. The status quo consisted of the idea that a black person had no autonomous subjectivity and could not create things by him or herself. Identity is not something that
23 belonged to a person in a biological way, but a stance that is constructed by people or groups and assigned to a person (Hansen, 2014, p. 180). In this way, identity is based on what people make of it. In South Africa, the transition to democracy started during the negotiations between the National Party (NB), which had institutionalized apartheid since 1948, and the ANC (African National Congress), a liberation party, in 1990 (Van der Merwe & Lamb, 2009, p. 7). During those negotiations, the minority government, led by the National Party, kept in control of the military and economic power (Kamali, 2001). Hence, the extent of leverage of the other parties remained very low. The consequences of this choice will be explained in chapter 4. In the 1980s, the focus of transitional justice was predominantly on accountability through International Criminal Justice and Truth Commissions in the Latin America context: a retributive approach (Fischer, 2011). As discussed above, this focus was revived in the second phase of transitional justice where granting amnesty was traded for peace. The persons who had led the government during apartheid were exempt from prosecution in change for power sharing (Gibson, 2002, p. 541). According to Gibson (2002) this process of granting amnesty to those who have committed violations during the apartheid regime is “ an inherently unfair policy in the sense that evil deeds seem the be excused, if not rewarded” (2002, p. 541). This research distanced itself from this statement by arguing that the decision of granting amnesty is not necessarily unfair in the case of South Africa.
Before continuing this argument, there is an overview of the implemented transitional justice mechanisms in South Africa. Boraine (2006) created five pillars which formed his all-encompassing approach to transitional justice: a retributive approach complemented by a restorative approach. The five pillars were influenced by the South African transitional justice experience and contain: accountability, truth recovery, reconciliation, institutional reforms and reparations. For the integrity of this research, all the five aspects will be briefly explained in relation to South Africa.
Accountability is an important judicial pillar because it acknowledges the need for punishment when possible but it also the limits the law and embraced a broader notion of justice (Boraine, 2006, p. 19). In legal terms, accountability upholds the notion of criminal justice procedures. Conversely, it can also be seen as a form of taking responsibility. In contrast to the tribunals of Nuremberg or Tokyo, South Africa’s accountability seeking process involved a form of conditional amnesty because of the need to compromise (Kamali, 2001, p. 119). In addition, accountability should not be sought in the pursuit of revenge but in the pursuit of historical accountability (Kamali, 2001, p. 125). This pillar will be more deeply explained in the section of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Truth recovery is an important option in dealing with the past and is expressed in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) (Boraine, 2006, p. 20). The TRC defined four kinds of truths. First, factual or forensic truth, which includes the findings based on information and forensic research. Second, personal or narrative truth, where through storytelling personal experiences are told. This way
24 of sharing a story will turn numbers to human faces and make events and experiences more real. The next type of truth is social or dialogical truth, which is reflected during interaction, discussion and debate. The conditions for the acquisition of an effective dialogue lie in transparency, democracy and participation. These conditions might be useful in general as a member of society. Lastly, healing and restorative truth, which have the objective to look at what happened in the past in order to prevent it from happening in the future and therefore acknowledgement is needed. The key truth-finding function accredited to the TRC had to do with the first kind of truth (factual truth) and consists of a research that establishes an overview of violations held in the period of apartheid (Van der Merwe & Lamb, 2009). Reconciliation can be seen, according to Boraine ( (2006, p. 22) as one step further than truth recovery because it involves commitment and sacrifice. Reconciliation is an expensive, ongoing, long-term process where all the involved parties must come together. However, practicing reconciliation through educational activities would be less expensive. Inclusiveness in education would be a precondition and this is hard to achieve in segregated societies. The role of education will be further explained in section 3.2. The notion of reconciliation was visible in South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation commission. This was a compromise between human rights violations and creating trust within society.
Another pillar is institutional reform, where institutions are at the centre of attention (Boraine, 2006, p. 24). In the South African experience, it was important to reintegrate the apartheids institutionalizations in regard to the racial, social, and economic divisions (Kamali, 2001, p. 121). However, even though the military and police had a white-dominated profile, it was difficult to change this system. First, because the ANC and other anti-apartheid organisations had no control over the military and police forces because those were still in the hands of the NP. Second, despite their efforts to make it more diverse, the combatants were lacking education and basic skills (Van der Merwe & Lamb, 2009).
The last pillar reparations came forward in a model of lump-sum payments for victims who were registered by the TRC (Van der Merwe & Lamb, 2009). In other words, the TRC had the privilege to determine who was a victim and who was not. This binary way of classification caused friction. For example, soldiers who were tortured could not be classified as victim (Mamdani, 2002, p. 33). The reparations were only shaped by money transfers, directly sent to the bank accounts of the victims. More importantly, the reparations did not include the ease of access to health care, social or educational services.
Nevertheless, the TRC established in 1995, can be seen as an influential mechanism because the organisation obtained the ability to grant amnesty for perpetrators during the period of 1960 to 1994 (Van der Merwe & Lamb, 2009). The purpose of this legal framework, among others, was to form an equilibrium for impunity. In addition, the TRC received an exhaustive mandate related to truth-recovery and became a vital element in the process towards democracy (Fletcher, et al., 2009, p. 185). Although
25 South Africa experienced a significant democratic deficit, the court system upheld a positive status in the rule of law. However, the court system did not immediately lead to prosecutions (Fletcher, et al., 2009, p. 194). Consequently, for this reason people claimed that the justice system was extremely dysfunctional, and this affected the extent of local support. The architects of the TRC defended this by stating that prosecution is not the only way in effort to restore balance (Leebaw, 2008). This shows a higher value for public acknowledgement than individual criminal accountability and retributive measures of justice.
3.3 Ubuntu and Transitional Justice
To understand the transition to peace in the South African context, a link must be made with a traditional African philosophy: Ubuntu. Ubuntu arises from the following expression: “People are people through other people or I am because we are“ (Eze, 2010, p. 189). This philosophy contains a thought of collectiveness with important elements such as humaneness, caring and community that touched every social, political and economic segment in society. These focal points of Ubuntu had influenced the character of South Africans transition process where a balance was sought between justice and amnesty (Mabovula, 2011). With this intention, the Ubuntu practice became an important notion of the ‘rainbow-nation’ were the need for restorative-driven notions of justice were re-articulated. This was reflected in the redefinition of crime and focus on reparation on the larger community. Ubuntu is mentioned several times in Volume One of the TRC reports (TRC, 1998). This volume is an introduction to common concepts and debates within the TRC in order to fulfil its mandate. Ubuntu is mentioned as a counterpart of victimisation: “These can now be addressed on the basis that there is a need for understanding but not vengeance, a need for reparation but not for retaliation, a need for ubuntu but not victimisation” (TRC, 1998, p. 103).
Specific ontological and epistemological considerations can be found in this paradigm (Eze, 2010, p. 123). The ‘nature of being’ is determined through the existence of others and it makes a distinction between believe and opinion (Oviawe, 2016, p. 3). The understanding of Ubuntu is based on unity, and this unity creates an environment for forgiveness. However, because there is no consensus about the tenets of the concept of Ubuntu it is important to examine the work of more authors on Ubuntu. Ramose (2002) approaches Ubuntu through ontology: the theory of being. This is not only concerned with being a person, but also with becoming one (Ramose, 2002, p. 43). Persons are not created by truth, persons are the makers of truth. In this way, observations cannot be fully neutral. Van Binsbergen (2001, p. 61) takes a more philosophical approach to Ubuntu by referring to utopianism and the idealistic society. He argues that Ubuntu can be seen as an African ideology invented for individual gain (Van Binsbergen, 2001, p. 57). In addition, Van Binsbergen (2001) attempts to disqualify Ubuntu’s authenticity by saying that specialists on Ubuntu are well-informed academics on a global level. The point made by Ramose
26 (2002) is considered to be more important in South Africa’s case because of its ontological considerations in a sense that people exists through other people.
However, according to Gade (2017), Ubuntu was used as a commercial label to advertise the compromises to the black population. In this view, it can be seen as an ideology used by the powerful to influence the political and legal agenda. The use of Ubuntu changed the way of systematic masking the ‘other’ (Eze, 2010, p. 163). Conversely, transitional justice measures may only be visible when they are brought to the communities and translated to ethics that are closer to their way of thinking. In line with this argument, the TRC was built on a philosophical cover of Ubuntu in order to legitimize a restorative justice process on a local level. Van Binsbergen (2001) dives deeper into this argument by stating that Ubuntu is a constructed philosophy, invented by the globalized elites. This contribution is considered to be a step too far in this thesis. In essence, Ubuntu contributed to the legitimation of the TRC by bringing it more to the people, for this reason, the instrumental function should be higher valued than its historical merits.
3.4 Conclusion
In conclusion, this chapter has examined the term transitional justice through the South African lens and has outlined the implemented transitional justice measures in South Africa. A lot of reforms took place after Apartheid, causing the creation of various institutions in order to assist the transition to a more peaceful situation. The need for a new paradigm to transitional justice by the end of the Cold War has broadened the spectrum from judicial accountability to a wider notion of justice. The structure TRC was characteristic for this process. The creation of the TRC was justified under the philosophical cover of Ubuntu, which accomplished an equilibrium between peace and justice. Even though this thesis acknowledged the claim that Ubuntu is a constructed philosophy, the instrumental function is considered to be more valuable in this thesis. Accountability was not sought in revenge but in a broader notion of amnesty. Public acknowledgement was valuated higher than individual prosecution and this was reflected in the minor amount of punishments. Furthermore, continuity was recognizable in the binary way of classification into victim and perpetrator was too narrow and ensured that a large group was not included in the process. Moreover, the TRC focused on factual truth by introducing a research group who was responsible for collecting data about the violations of the past. Reparations took place in form of bank transfers, directly led to registered victims and did not include other needed services. However, according to Ubuntu persons are the makers of truth. Every decision from the TRC regarding classification, seeking accountability, reparations can be seen as a way of telling their truth.
In sum, Seekings (2008) has pointed out that the racial classification was connected to ideology, privileged economic position and political dominance. This research adopts the concerns of Carranza (2008), Duthie (2008) and Cavallaro (2008) that transitional justice mechanisms are restricted to the
27 political era. Duthie’s (2008) suggestion is to complement the transitional justice field with a more development-sensitive approach in order to address the social and economic causes of conflicts. In a like manner, Carranza (2008) is arguing for an engagement with corruption and economic crimes because these crimes are left out of the transitional justice framework. In contrast to these ideas, this thesis will advocate for an approach that is more suitable to South Africa. This thesis began with the idea that a different approach is needed in South Africa. In regard to the road taken on transitional justice, the creations of political institutions and the TRC, this thesis will argue for and educational approach to transitional justice. Education is inevitable in the situation of South Africa. To continue this argument, the next section will explain more about the educational aspects of transitional justice.
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4. Education and Transitional Justice in South Africa
Chapter 3 has shown which path post-apartheid South Africa has taken regarding the created transitional justice mechanisms. There are three notable elements about this transitional justice process that will justify the educational approach to transitional justice in this chapter. First, public acknowledgement became higher valued then individual prosecution. This development opens a door for other mechanisms than juridical mechanisms. Second, the focus was predominantly on reconstructing the political domain. Education might bring a change in other domains. Last, the TRC became able to tell their own truth due to their classification methods. Truth-telling can also be practiced in educational settings where it is more likely that every voice is heard. For these reasons is interesting to examine the role that education has played in post-apartheid South Africa in order to analyses other possible ways in which education can complement. The main question in this section is therefore: what was the role of the education system regarding transitional justice in South Africa up to now? In the first part, educational aspects of transitional justice are explained in relation to South Africa. The second part consists of a content analysis of the educational departments, the Department of Basis Education (DBE) and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHETT). This analysis pays attention to the use of language, the sensitivity to legacies of the past, in and exclusions, and use of Ubuntu within the departments.
Chapter 2.2 has shown that education can have profound racialist effects in times of transition. However, in the aftermath of a conflict, education can also be a contributing factor in communicating and memorializing the past and promoting peace (Ramirez-Barat & Duthie, 2015). The educational institutions in post-conflict situations can contribute to the improvement of legitimacy of democratic organisations and prevent reoccurrence of violence. This can reflect in the reconstruction of schools, accessibility and promoting peaceful values but also a more sensitive approach in addressing the legacies of human rights abuses of the past. This research takes into account that education cannot solve all problems within the South African society. In fact, there must be a conjunction between social, political and economic parts of society. In addition, in light of the applied theoretical framework in this research, structures are always affected by power and these influences are inescapable. However, because of the strong racial identity-based nature of the conflict, partly enabled through the segregated education system, an educational approach is needed.
In 1979, the institutionalized Bantu Education Act was officially abolished with the Education and Training Act (ETA) taking office. The recommendations made by ETA were based on abolishment of legal separation, stressing the curriculum, focus on equality and bringing the sector under a single department (Rakometsi, 2008). However, despite these aspiring recommendations, progress was hardly visible, and tensions and violence remained. The protestors were demanding, among other things, for equal expenditure between racial groups. With 1990 in sight, the discourse changed towards ‘liberation
