History and the Commission on Truth and Reconciliation: the problem of collective guilt

Abstract

When the New South Africa finally came into place after the April elections in 1994, all South Africans were faced with the question of how they were to come to terms with the past, characterised by strife, conflict, untold suffering and injustice, and how they should build a common future founded on the recognition of human rights, democracy and peaceful co-existence and development opportunities for all South Africans.