Parliamentarians have debated how South Africa can play a role in securing hundreds of trillions of dollars in reparations from Europe and the United States.
A 2023 meeting of the African Union (AU) and Caribbean counterparts declared the need to ramp up pressure on former colonial and imperial powers to atone for past injustices.
Despite billions in aid and investment having flowed into Africa via western nations, African leaders remain adamant that the historical bill remains unpaid.
AU proclamation on reparations
Officials from the department of international relations and cooperation (Dirco) were before the portfolio committee on Wednesday to discuss progress made on the Accra Proclamation on Reparations.
The proclamation lays out a 15-point plan that uses existing legal and institutional frameworks to “restore dignity, heal historic wounds, reclaim cultural heritage and repay economic injustice”.
Dirco’s presentation said the previous AU declarations stipulated that 2025 was a year for country-specific actions.
Dirco explained that South Africa’s contribution amounted to a public lecture delivered to the National Council of Provinces in May, a diaspora week at Freedom Park and representation on the AU’s regional framework for reparations.
Additionally, Dirco highlighted two pieces of legislation that were well-received by AU human rights body.
“South Africa’s delegation to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights elaborated on the Bela Act and the Land Expropriation Bill as two Acts which seek to redress the past,” Dirco’s presentation reads.
‘A premium ought to be paid’
Dirco deputy minister Thandi Moraka said that apologies from the West were insufficient, as its involvement in Africa had left it deeply scarred.
“We ought to now start to work towards making sure that we find those who were at the centre of driving these social ills in our people,” Moraka said.
“Because when you speak of issues of reparations, it then requires that a premium ought to be paid to a particular community that is still struggling to deal with the effect of colonialism.
“Those who were perpetrators of these kinds of crimes, they ought to really take up a responsibility and where we need to categorise those countries, we need to work with speed.”
However, committee members were upset at Dirco’s lack of implementable steps and some suggested Dirco was not the right department to monitor redress.
“The system was designed to make sure the African child remains poor and remains a slave. We are now left with those colonies here in Africa that are used to further divide us into fighting over the crumbs,” the EFF’s Nqobile Mhlongo said.
Set definitions required
The AU has set a 10-year target for the achievement of its reparation goals, but committee members said Dirco needed to go beyond commemorative calendar dates.
uMkhonto weSizwe’s Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala reminded Dirco that her party had tabled a motion to establish a reparations committee in parliament that would clearly define objectives.
“If it is not legislated, it is not law, it is just a talk show. We need a common definition, from Cape to Cairo, Morrocco to Madagascar. What do we mean by reparations? What is included in reparations?
“When we talk reparations, we can’t shy away from monetary value,” said Litchfield-Tshabalala.
The UDM’s Nqabayomzi Kwankwa said that Africa needed to project an image of unity.
“It should be part and parcel of the institutional architecture of the AU. It should inform how we trade with the world.
“If we are able to institutionalise it, that would also help us to deal with the aspects of neo-colonialism, economic imbalance and how the African continent can position itself globally.”
Western aid to Africa
An earlier AU conference placed the bill owed by Europe and the US at $777 trillion, with Britain alone owing £18 trillion for unpaid labour.
The Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies in 2024 said that over the last 30 years aid to Africa stood at an estimated US$1.2 trillion.
The United Kingdom reported that it had been given just over £2 billion each year to Africa since at least 2014.
This came in the form of financial aid, technical cooperation and government loans.
Former US president Joe Biden’s administration said in 2024 that US$65 billion had been spent in Africa since 2022.
This included $1.37 billion for support for refugees and conflict victims, as well as $15 billion for HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria treatment.
The European Union said in 2019 that €75 billion had been spent by its members on international aid and finance.
Making sure money reaches destination
The ACDP’s Meshoe agreed on quantifying reparations but wanted to know how funds received were would be properly tracked.
“Will the compensation benefit leaders, more than their children or grandchildren?
“We know, living in South Africa, that monies have been given to help the poor. That money did not help the poor, it went to some leaders,” said Meshoe.
MK party’s Wesley Douglas said that in 1994, the proper course of action would have been to evenly distribute the wealth of the nation, but the process was hijacked by a few.
“A certain group of elites – political elites and business elites, whether they are white or black, it doesn’t matter, they are all the same – they decided to have an economy focused on white monopoly capital.
“We cannot accept that. We must make sure that reparations are not just charity. Reparations are not developmental aid, they are not anything but a legally owed historical debt to us as Africans,” said Douglas.
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