This episode will focus on a compelling book exploring South Africa’s unresolved issue of reparation. It critiques the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s failure to adequately compensate victims of colonization and apartheid, which continues to undermine its processes and legacy. By examining the TRC’s key processes and highlighting their hindrance due to the lack of reparation, the discussion will aim to emphasise the deep-rooted trauma caused by this absence. Furthermore, the discussion will also explore the new concept of “reparative citizenship” to confront these challenges productively. This episode is essential for South Africans grappling with ongoing injustices and offers valuable insights for researchers in post-conflict transitional justice and politics.
Jaco Barnard-Naudé (BCom(Law)(cum laude) LLB(summa cum laude)LLD(UP)MA(UCT)) is Professor of Jurisprudence and Co-Director of the Centre for Rhetoric Studies in the Department of Private Law. In the Faculty, Professor Barnard-Naudé currently serves as the Director of Research. He holds a B2-rating from the National Research Foundation (NRF) and is a past recipient of the UCT Fellows Award. In the United Kingdom, Prof Barnard-Naudé was the British Academy’s Newton Advanced Fellow in the Westminster Law & Theory Lab, School of Law at the University of Westminster between 2017 and 2020, and Honorary Research Fellow in the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, University of London in 2019.
Joel M Modiri is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Jurisprudence in the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria. He holds the degrees LLB cum laude (Pret) and PhD (Pret). His PhD thesis was entitled “The Jurisprudence of Steve Biko: A Study in Race, Law and Power in the ‘Afterlife’ of Colonial-apartheid”. His research and teaching interests are located in the broad field of jurisprudence and relate to critical race theory, Black political thought and African philosophy. His current projects intersect under two umbrellas rooted in the ethics and politics of the global Black radical tradition: Azanian critical theory and constitutional abolitionism. He was recently appointed as a United Nations Independent Eminent Expert in the area of race and racial discrimination.