LEWE NA APARTHEID: LIDMATE SE NARRATIEWE VANUIT 'N ...

Hoofstuk 5: Die post-apartheid verhaal?
p286
Krog 1998a:3). Die beleid van apartheid, en die onreg wat daarmee saamgegaan het,
was die breinkind van die Afrikaner. Daarom is dit ook net reg dat versoening ook direk
die Afrikaner sal betrek.
Krog (1998a:45) haal ʼn swart kollega aan wat versoening so beskryf: “Reconciliation
will only be possible when the dignity of black people has been restored and when
whites become compassionate.” Omdat die onreg van apartheid die menswaardigheid
van swart mense aangetas het, sal versoening ook by menswaardigheid moet begin.
Daar is bedenkinge oor hierdie moontlikheid. Nico Smith (aangehaal in Oosthuizen
2010:15) wonder: “As mense vir só lank in ʼn staat van onversoendheid geleef het, is
daar dan enige hoop dat hulle tóg eendag op ʼn wonderbaarlike wyse tot versoening sal
kom?”
Vir sommige is die oplossing eenvoudig: los net die verlede en gaan aan. Dis
gewoonlik wit mense wat so praat. Kollapen (aangehaal in Kassiem 2008:1) sê: "In
South Africa, reconciliation has been given a restricted meaning. It was just a case of
move on and not dwell on the past." So ʼn benadering doen egter die waarheid en die
slagoffers se ervarings geweld aan.
In die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks het Asmal, Asmal en Roberts (1997:46) die volgende
oor versoening geskryf:
it is the facing of unwelcome truths in order to harmonise incommensurable
world views so that inevitable and continuing conflicts and
differences stand at least within a single universe of
comprehensibility... Reconciliation is as shared and painful ethical
voyage from wrong to right, and also a settling of moral and political
indebtedness.
Gibson (2006:88) dink wyer as net die menseregtevergrype en wil alle bevoordeeldes
van apartheid insluit in sy definisie van versoening: “Reconciliation may therefore be
thought of as a continuum describing the relationship between those who were masters
and slaves under the old apartheid system, not just those who were victims or
perpetrators of gross human rights violations.” In die lig van die fokus van hierdie
navorsing, is hierdie definisie belangrik.