The lecture honoured the life and enduring legacy of Nokuthula Simelane, a courageous anti-apartheid freedom fighter whose disappearance remains part of South Africa’s unfinished business of apartheid.

The discussion offered a powerful reminder that the pursuit of reconciliation cannot come at the expense of accountability.

Yasmin Sooka reflected on how the desire for reconciliation in South Africa obscured the need for accountability. Nokuthula’s story is not simply the story of a missing person. Her enforced disappearance represents the thousands of people who never came home, whose remains were never recovered, and whose families continue to live with unanswered questions and grief.

Further raising a difficult but necessary question: Why did the democratic state not pursue the prosecutions necessary to address these cases? Thirty years after the end of apartheid, South Africa continues to confront the consequences of prosecutions not pursued, reparations not adequately addressed and families left without justice.

The question of whether South Africa can truly “move on” without confronting these unresolved injustices remains central to the country’s transitional justice project.

Professor Helen Scanlon reflected on the work of TRC@30, which brings together experiences and reflections from truth commissions around the world three decades after South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

A key lesson emerging from these experiences is that South Africa is not unique in struggling to translate truth-telling into lasting accountability. Truth commissions may document violations and establish important historical records, but their recommendations can remain unrealised without sustained political and societal pressure. This is why the work of the Nokuthula Simelane Foundation, journalists and the next generation remains important.

For the ATJRC, these conversations reaffirm the importance of keeping questions of truth, accountability, reparations and memory at the centre of transitional justice debates across the continent.

The Nokuthula Simelane Memorial Lecture was more than an act of remembrance. It was a reminder that memory can be a form of accountability, and that remembering is not simply about looking backwards. It is about what we choose to do with the past in the present.

South Africa’s transitional justice project remains unfinished. The challenge before us is to ensure that the pursuit of justice does not become another unfinished chapter.