Reparation Yes! Reparation Yes! Reparation Yes!

Statement from reparations workshop of 18 and 19 July 2003 held in Johannesburg, South Africa. This gathering of Jubilee South Africa, together with partners of the popular movements and other organisations of civil society, meeting at Technikon SA from 18 to 19 July 2003, believes:

• That the issue of reparations is rooted in the oppression, exploitation and systematic dispossession of our people.
• That the TRC, because of its limited terms of reference, was not able to consider the nature and scope of reparations in a systematic and comprehensive way. It was thus unable to redress the legacy of Apartheid and racial oppression.

The TRC has unfinished business, especially in relation to big business, both foreign and national. We reaffirm the right and legitimacy of oppressed communities and their organisations to implement a range of initiatives to ensure more far-reaching forms of reparations, including legal claims in foreign and South African courts. In this respect, this gathering gives support to the current court cases being undertaken in the United States of American courts.

In order to secure reparations at a level able to redress the damage of Apartheid and racial oppression in all its manifestations, for all those affected, Jubilee South Africa, together with its partners in the popular movement, will initiate hearings where communities can express and define the scale and nature of reparations that satisfactorily address the past.

This process will culminate in a People’s Tribunal that will determine the people, institutions and businesses that must make reparations and the forms that these should take.

In order to pressure big business into meeting their responsibility to make reparations, Jubilee, with its partners, will undertake a name and shame campaign against the monopolies that were fundamental to the apartheid system.

In addition, we will identify specific companies and products that symbolize the role these corporations played in facilitating the development of apartheid, which will be targeted in a consumer boycott.

The broader conference that has been called for later this year by the churches, amongst others, must be based on clear principles, including the need for reparations to comprehensively address the damage done and the right of those struggling for reparations to use the courts of law to this end.

We see this conference as a step in the process towards a popular tribunal and the intensification of campaigning activity towards the realisation of reparations.

We believe that it is important that the demand for reparations must be integrated into the on going struggles and campaigns within popular civil society that will give the issue of reparations the necessary weight and importance and locate reparations within the increasing challenge to neo-liberal policies.

Furthermore, we recognise that our struggle for reparations is part of a broader struggle of the people of

Southern Africa for reparations for Apartheid destabilisation and other forms of racial and neo-liberal damage.

We stand fully in support of these struggles and demands.

The gathering included participants from the following organisations:

Alternative Information and Development Centre; Anti-Privatisation Forum; Afro-Racism; Abrahams & Kiewitz Attorneys; Africa Group of Sweden; Africana Studies Department –University of Pittsburgh; Ceasefire, SA; Concerned Citizens Forum; Church Community Leadership Trust –Pietermaritzburg; Earthlife Africa Ethikwini; Ecopeace; Environmental Justice Networking Forum; Fairshare; Freedom of Expression Institute; Green Network; Inanda Dam Affected Communities; Jubilee South Africa; Justice and Peace – (SACBC)- Rusternburg; Khanya College; Landless People’s Movement; Malawi Economic Justice Network; Madlana & Ngcebetsha Attorneys; NACTU; Pietermaritzburg Agency for Christian Social Awareness; Rural Development Services Network; Rosa Luxemburg Foundation; Samancor-Retrenched Workers Crisis Committee; South African Non-Governmental Organisations Coalition; Scapei – Swaziland; Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee; Sounds of Edutainment; Timbila; Young Christian Workers; Youth for Work; Wits University P&DM; Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development.