PROF MEIRING
Thank you, Pumla.  I think a question that is foremost in many minds, is what happens now to the victims. Is this all that the Truth Commission offers to victims, the opportunity to make a statement or to some of them to come to the public hearing to present their statement, is that all.  The answer of course is no.  There are three committees in the Truth Commission. One is the Committee for Gross Human Rights Violations, who organise these hearings. You all know about the second committee which is the Committee for Amnesty, who has to consider all the applications of perpetrators who want to ask for amnesty. But there is also a third committee, the so-called R & R Committee, the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee.  They are the people who are tasked to listen very carefully to the needs of all the victims, to sit in at all the hearings, to go through all the statements that have been collected by the Truth Commission, and to make a long list of all the needs of the victims, survivors and their families. You may be interested to know that many people, when we ask about their needs, talk about medical need. Other needs, psychological or pastoral assistance.  Many people say what we really need is education. Or other people talk about money for shelter, for houses.  Some people come with very interesting requests for what we call symbolic reparation, for a tombstone or for a reburial. Some people think widely about community reparation, about monuments, street names that should be changed to commemorate the heroes of the past, a national day of remembrance.  All of these requests, all of these needs are carefully catalogued by the Truth Commission.
 We are preparing a long series of recommendations on reparation that will have to be finalised by the end of the year.  It has to be put to Parliament to approve all the reparation measures that we propose.  Hopefully, on the 1st of March, when we do hope that the President will be able to bring the document, the whole report of the Truth Commission to the nation,  that reparation can take place.  That all the people who are found to be victims, who are in dire need, will be able to be helped by the Truth Commission.
 So you may know that people who - the victims, the survivors, their families, we take their plight very much to heart and we are working very hard that reparation and rehabilitation will take place at the end of the Truth Commission's life.  
 The Truth Commission cannot implement reparation.  The Truth Commission has the role of listening, of listening very carefully, of giving the opportunity to people to bring their testimonies, but after the life of the Truth Commission, an implementing body will have to be found that will be our first recommendation, and this implementing body will have to start making reparations, helping people to regain their dignity, to regain something in life that is important to them. Thank you very much.
MEETING POSTPONED TO 10 JUNE 1997