Restitution is a complex term that is often misunderstood and evokes emotion from most South Africans, whether it be relief and hope, or fear and anger. Some have mistakenly referred to it as retribution; others think it is about revenge. This toolkit will help define the true meaning of restitution.
This toolkit will help in understanding the importance of using the guardrails of the restitution process, the steps to be taken in the restitution process and offer practical restitution suggestions.
The Restitution Foundation has comprised a list of religious and secular litany of restitution for use in church services or processions.
Restitution is an integral part of the value system of the Christian tradition. Thus the Restitution Foundation developed this practical guideline on the theology of restitution as a tool to support the South African church community to lead the resuscitation of the reconciliation project.
The Restitution Foundation invited South Africans from all walks of life to participate in bottom-up process of developing a draft restitution plan for South Africa. Participants identified five focus areas for the draft plan: Education, Employment, Land Reform, Housing; Just Economy.
As simulated situations in which we can explore without consequence and occupy role-play positions, they help people learn experientially. This experiential learning allows us to feel the emotions associated with particular dynamics and, as such, can result in a more visceral grasp of particular ideas.
Land restitution is a burning issue in South Africa. The majority of South Africans were dispossessed of their ancestral land through the policies of colonialism and apartheid. Sustainable peace will only be possible if the land issue in the country is successfully addressed.
To take a pilgrimage requires us to take a journey that connects ourselves with the stories of the place through which we journey. The Castle of Good Hope holds many sites of significance and sacred life. We hope that in you, it would evoke memory, emotion and reflection. We invite you to fully participate and be present in these spaces.
The St George’s Cathedral and the Restitution Foundation invite you to join a reflective journey evoked by sites of significance on Robben Island. We welcome you to these spaces and offer this liturgy as kindle to your contemplation.
The Restitution Foundation has created a library with texts and books by respected authors on restitution to offer you additional resources to aid in your quest in contemplating restitution. These books and texts contain powerful contexts to help better understand restitution and its importance.
Here we have comprised the entire Restitution Toolkit in 12 presentations to aid you with your restitution journey. This is a powerful toolkit that we believe will help pave the way in building a strong foundation in your restitutional work and help you and your community to better understand what restitution is and why it is so important.
The Restitution foundation has compiled a list of frequently asked questions about what restitution is, why restitution is important and many more as to help others understand the importance of restitution and the role that it plays in restoring equality amongst South Africans.
Ordinary people just want somebody who has some knowledge about the different themes of the Victim Offender Dialogue to share their knowledge in a very accessible way with them. We identified experts on each of the different themes and asked them to explain in no more than 500 words their understanding of the different themes.
The Restitution Foundation in partnership with the HSRC conducted a social attitudes survey on restitution in 2017. The outcome of the survey highlighted that much more work is required to make restitution happen in SA.
The Restitution Foundation and its partners arranged two restitution conferences under the themes “Restitution: Something for Everyone” (2016) and “Restitution – Creating a Shared Future” (2018)
This document contains dialogue on the complexity of racial reconciliation in South Africa as well as videos where both national and international dialogue has been held discussing restitution, the importance of it and the implementation of restitution.
The purpose with this model is to mobilise a whole community to develop and implement their own restitution intervention at a local level. It is largely based on our learning through the Worcester Hope and Reconciliation Process, which is presented as a case study.
Ministers and other church leaders (both black and white) are well positioned to accept the leadership responsibilities and roles with the promotion of the need to apply restitution. The resources found on this page are aimed at assisting churches seeking to deepen their restitution capacity.
Youth Dialogues recognise that restitution is a future-oriented as well as historical project. The dialogues take place in a series of high school-based workshops that aim to introduce the concept of restitution and develop an understanding of its significance. This document describes the process we followed in organising the workshops.
There are many businesses now doing much to support communities who have been victims of colonialism and apartheid. A restitution approach acknowledges that intervention is required as a response to an injustice that have occurred and not because of empathy for the potential beneficiaries.
The Restitution Foundation developed a Victim-Offender Dialogue (VOD) toolkit to support the VOD Process. Restitution processes are strengthened when the perpetrator acknowledges the abuse, take responsibility and express a desire to meet with the survivors of the abuse to listen how the unjust action affected their lives and to render an unconditional apology.
To take a pilgrimage requires the undertaking of a journey that connects ourselves with the stories of the place through which we journey. Pilgrimages with a focus on restitution related themes serves an experiential learning purpose to deepen the understanding for the need for restitution.
Racist South African rule caused the fighting of white and black South Africans against each other in the liberation war. The Restitution Foundation arranged a three day residential workshop for 15 ex-combatants from both sides of the war. This process sat in motion the potential for restitution for ex-combatants.
Since its establishment in 2003, the Restitution Foundation has developed and evolved different restitution models in partnership with other organisations to offer society different restitution models in the hope that it would assist the broader South African society with the execution of restitution.
In our celebration of this document, we are mindful of Krog’s sentiment that “it is important that black South Africans decide what restitution white South Africans should do” and not the other way around. We trust that the toolkit will become an important resource that will facilitate restitution transformation.