TRC is unfinished business

Truth of the matter: Dr Mary Burton does not believe that the whole truth was revealed at the TRC hearings.

Award-winning struggle stalwart Dr Mary Burton - who received an honorary doctorate in social science from UCT in 2011 - says she has given up hope that the state will implement all the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

But she still expects the state to deliver services to people who were excluded by the apartheid regime, Burton said in her talk, How Much Truth, How Much Reconciliation, hosted by the Centre for African Studies in conjunction with the Centre for Curating the Archive in March.

While she believes that the whole truth was not revealed at the hearings, Burton, a commissioner on the TRC's Human Rights Violations Committee, said that the commission provided both victims and perpetrators of apartheid human rights violations a genuine opportunity to reach out to each other.