Johannesburg - South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), investigating apartheid-era crimes, must speed up its work if it is to complete its mandate by a July 1998 deadline, a spokesman said yesterday.
More than 7,000 people are seeking amnesty from the panel, set up by the government of President Nelson Mandela after the end of white minority rule. The commission stopped accepting applications at midnight on Tuesday. Spokesman Mr John Allen said the commission, which began work in April 1996, had received 7,040 applications.