Khulumani Support Group
Khulumani Support Group was founded in 1995
by three women, when parliament was debating an acts called The Promotion of
National Unity and Reconciliation Act. Victims were not directly consulted
about any aspects of the act.
People have come to know each other because
they have participated in supporting families who had children in detention
decided that they should make their own decision about whether to engage with
something of which they have never been consulted about. The result was small
Khuluma group that said it’s lucky that the benefits will be greater than the
disadvantages of participating. It ended up in doing a lot of advocacy,
especially on radio telling people about the GRC, because the concern was that
if there were only going to be 18 months for veterans, it was very likely that
of people would be left out the GRC process and that has been brought out
because in the 18 months of its operation only 22 000 people had their
statements taken. The consequences are that the hundred and four thousand
people now on data base, nearly all of them qualify for any of the remedies. Remedies
such as reparations. The overall purpose of reparations is to restore the
dignity of survivors, to accompany the rebuilding of affected communities and
to facilitate the reintegration of survivors.
Khulumani continues to stand up to remind
the South African government of its as yet unfulfilled commitments to dealing
with the consequences of the collective trauma of the violent past to ensure
that harmed individuals and communities can be restored to a dignified
existence.
Written By: Micurls Muller
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