Jacaranda Time: An Investigator’s View of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Association Copy)

Author: Khoisan, Zenzile 
Title: Jacaranda Time: An Investigator’s View of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Publisher: Garib Communications 
Date: 2001 
Place: Cape Town 
Dimensions: 24cm x 17.5cm 

xiii+168pp
1st Edition, Association Copy

Pictorial card wrappers with matching jacket.

Inscribed to Dr Judith van Heerden, a medical doctor and activist who provided expert testimony to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where she presented her pioneering research on the ill treatment of persons in police custody, leading to the deaths of Steve Biko and Dr Neil Aggett. Dr van Heerden advocated for healthcare reform in the South African prison system, shifting responsibility for inmates’ healthcare from the Department of Corrections to the Department of Health.

A personal account of an investigator at the TRC in which the author provides detailed insight into the machinations of that commission, its successes and, importantly, its failings. Khoisan provides detailed descriptions of the investigations he was involved in, dealing with politically motivated killings and other human rights abuses by the Apartheid state through its security apparatus. 

The author is a prominent activist for first-peoples’ rights in South Africa. This often harrowing, candid and important account is often overlooked in the literature on the TRC.

Very good indeed, the jacket with some edgewear.