ABSTRACT
This chapter unpacks the unfinished business of the TRC, by placing its failure to reconcile the nation within the current context of growing inequalities and mass poverty, stark divisions and intense racism, gender violence, feminism and xenophobia in South Africa. It argues that the TRC processes that were followed were fundamentally flawed and therefore incapable of delivering reconciliation as expected. By ignoring issues of socioeconomic reform, including downplaying land reform which would have benefitted the majority of those deprived of resources, the TRC contributed to the collective undermining and maintenance of the impoverished economic and social conditions confronting the mostly black working class. Instead, the TRC should bring the nation a sense of pride for allowing its people to tell the story of its horrific history, and for providing the nation with a sophisticated historical account of a brutal past, based on the consciousness of those who lived through it, in order to build a future free from retribution.
