The Goldstone Commission, formally known as the Commission of Inquiry Regarding the Prevention of Public Violence and Intimidation, was appointed on 24 October 1991 to investigate

political violence Political violence is violence which is perpetrated in order to achieve political goals. It can include violence which is used by a State (polity), state against other states (war), violence which is used by a state against civilians and non-st ...

and intimidation in South Africa. Over its three-year lifespan, it investigated incidents occurring between July 1991 and April 1994, when democratic elections were held. The relevant incidents thus occurred during the

negotiations Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more parties to resolve points of difference, gain an advantage for an individual or Collective bargaining, collective, or craft outcomes to satisfy various interests. The parties aspire to agree on m ...

to end

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

. The Commission's mandate was both to investigate the causes of the violence and to recommend measures to contain or prevent it. The Commission played a critical role in defusing the political violence that erupted when apartheid in South Africa began eroding in the late 1980s as the country moved toward its first democratic elections, and concluded that political violence was fuelled by a 'third force'. The Commission was established in terms of the Prevention of Public Violence and Intimidation Act of 1991, as a condition of the National Peace Accord of September 1991. President

F. W. de Klerk Frederik Willem de Klerk ( , ; 18 March 1936 – 11 November 2021) was a South African politician who served as the seventh and final state president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994 and as Deputy President of South Africa, deputy president a ...

appointed Justice

Richard Goldstone Richard Joseph Goldstone (born 26 October 1938) is a South African retired judge who served in the Constitutional Court of South Africa from July 1994 to October 2003. He joined the bench as a judge of the Supreme Court of South Africa, first i ...

to chair it. It operated from 24 October 1991 to 27 October 1994 and, over that period, submitted 47 reports to the President. The Commission was fairly large: its investigation team, set up in 1992, comprised five units, staffed by 13 police officers, ten attorneys, and five international observers. It had offices in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, and

East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

. Some of the Commission's reports focused on broad thematic concerns, such as taxi violence (to which seven separate reports were dedicated) or the effects of political violence on children. Others investigated specific allegations or events, among them some of the most prominent incidents of political violence of the period, including the

Boipatong massacre The Boipatong massacre took place on the night of 17 June 1992 in the township of Boipatong, South Africa. Massacre The attack on township residents was carried out by armed men from the steelworks residence KwaMadala Hostel, which is located ...

, the

Bisho massacre The Bisho massacre occurred on 7 September 1992 in Bisho, in the then nominally independent Bantustan, homeland of Ciskei which is now part of the Eastern Cape in South Africa. Twenty-eight African National Congress supporters and one soldier w ...

, the

storming of the Kempton Park World Trade Centre The storming of the Kempton Park World Trade Centre took place in South Africa on 25 June 1993 when approximately three thousand members of the Afrikaner Volksfront (AVF), Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) and other right-wing Afrikaner par ...

, and the

Shell House massacre The Shell House massacre was a 1994 shooting incident that took place at Shell House, the headquarters of the African National Congress (ANC), in central Johannesburg, South Africa in the lead up to the 1994 elections. Description Shell Hou ...

. Several reports investigated the role of the

South African Police The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the ''de facto'' police force in the territory of South West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981. After South Af ...

and

South African Defence Force The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence Fo ...

in political violence, and particular public attention was given to the May 1993 report on allegations of a

third force Third Force may refer to: Politics * Third party (politics), party other than one of the two dominant ones in a two-party political system ** Third party (United States), in American politics ** Third parties in a Two-party system#Third parties ...

, as well as to related reports such the report of the Malcolm Wallis-led subcommittee on the causes of the violence between the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

and Inkatha.

Commissioners

The Commissioners were: *

* Danie Rossouw * Solly Sithole * Lillian Baqwa * Gert Steyn Other individuals served on multi-national panels, acted as observers, or participated in committees under the Commission.

Investigations

References

External links

Records of the Commission's inquiry into the conduct of 32 Battalion in Phola ParkRecords of the Commission's inquiry into the Boipatong massacre
{{Political history of South Africa Apartheid in South Africa Public inquiries in South Africa