ABSTRACT
This fi rst chapter explores the meaning of rape in the context of the political transition in South Africa. After increasingly brutal state repression and a near civil war during the 1980s, the new, democratic South Africa was born in 1994 out of extended negotiations between particularly, the African National Congress (ANC) and the National Party (NP). As part of the political settlement, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was created through the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act (no. 34 of 1995) for dealing with the diffi cult moral dimensions of the transition. Aspects of the TRC’s task included addressing the trauma of the struggle, repairing trust, restoring humanity (and humaneness, often referred to as ubuntu), building a moral basis for creating a society with new values, as well as legitimizing the new dispensation. My reading of the transitional process takes as its point of departure the perspective of the victims of ‘struggle rape’ but gradually extends to South African women in general.
