'Let's have a TRC to deal with corruption' - Prof Busani Ngcaweni

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Vicky Stark

22 October 2025 | 5:06

“South Africa has perfected the art of exposure without closure. Evidence accumulates. Hearings multiply. Reports stack up. Yet prosecutions are slow,” writes Ngcaweni.

'Let's have a TRC to deal with corruption' - Prof Busani Ngcaweni

People take part at the opening session of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on April 15, 1996 at East London. Picture: Philip LITTLETON / AFP

Could a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for corruption give the country the reset it so desperately needs?
Professor Busani Ngcaweni of the University of Johannesburg's Public Policy African Studies Department thinks so.
In his recent article published in the Mail & Guardian, he writes: "South Africa has perfected the art of exposure without closure. Evidence accumulates. Hearings multiply. Reports stack up. Yet prosecutions are slow, sanctions rare, deterrence absent. Exposure has become ritualised; an end rather than a means to justice."
He believes a TRC-type arrangement where people are forced to make a disclosure will fast-track justice.
"When they've made that disclosure, it could be then that they will get some kind of amnesty from prosecution, but they have to lose something. And we must be clear that they must lose. What do they lose? They must bring back all the money. They must forfeit all the benefits and so on."
Ngcaweni says this could be similarto what the SIU is doing these days in "a most effective way" where they take away the ability to benefit from that which was gained irregularly, even as law enforcement is taking its own course.
"We will be able to take back the state resources much quicker, and those people will be banned from doing business with the state or working for the state for a particular period of time. And that's in return for them not being prosecuted, getting some kind of amnesty with very strict conditions, of course."
He says Hong Kong in the late 70s used this while at the same time they were boosting their capacity to enforce the rule of law.
He believes this type of process will also help shift the national psyche from the prevailing mood of helplessness when it comes to corruption.
For the full discussion between CapeTalk's Clarence Ford and Ngcaweni, use the audio player below:
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