Although South Africa with its Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
has gained worldwide attention and thereby set new standards, the
chapter of compensation and reconciliation for the majority of the South
African population so far has not been closed.
Only a small
number of apartheid-victims have received any compensation, whereas many
of the perpetrators - among them international companies - have
abdicated from their responsibility and continue to benefit from the
neoliberal system, which South Africa joined in 1996. Those
underprivileged sections of society, which suffer both from personal
psychological and physical injuries as well as from destroyed
communities, disrupted families, violence and HIV/AIDS, have only little
opportunities to benefit from the amenities democracy and freedom
offer.
In the realm of compensation KASA uses its lobby and
campaign work in order to support the prosecution initiated by the
victim organisation Khulumani Support Group in the USA, which is covered
by the Alien Tort Claims Act. The scope of this prosecution is to hold
International companies responsible for their human rights violations
during apartheid.
Only five of the originally 22 companies are
still prosecuted due to the conclusive judgement of the district judge
Scheindlin in April 2009. The judge considered evidences against the
affected banks as not sufficient.
Khulumani’s objectives centre
on the societal acknowledgement of the injustices towards apartheid
victims and compensation payments for their - by now - 58000 members.
These payments are supposed to be used for immediate and emergency aid
and investments in disadvantaged communities.
