ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the manner in which South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) dealt with the issue of corporate complicity under apartheid, and on potential and problems of using the courts to hold corporations liable to redress shortcomings of the TRC's approach and the government's implementation of the TRC's recommendations. In most instances, transitional justice is aimed at the abuses committed by individuals, with hardly any consideration given to the role of corporate actors as aiders and abettors of the human rights violations. Indeed, the fact that foreign corporations challenged the South African government's policies aimed at addressing past socioeconomic injustices. This type of litigation faces inordinate legal challenges can be seen from the Kiobel judgment. The selective overview of some of the experiences of South Africa regarding corporate accountability in the context of transitional justice presented has shown the tensions that transitional societies face when trying to break free from the past and construct a changed society.
