Reconciling Victims and Offenders in Swaziland
As offenders come to understand the harm they have caused, they feel the need to express their remorse and take responsibility for their behaviour. In response to this need, the PF Swaziland reconciliation team assists prisoners in this journey toward healing. When prisoners ask PFS volunteers to relay their apology to the victim, the reconciliation team steps in to visit with the prisoner and the victim. During meetings with the victims, often attended by the prison chaplain, the team members explain the desire of the offender to apologize and meet with the victim. After several meetings with each party, a meeting inside the prison is facilitated by the members of the reconciliation team. Often these meetings end in an offer of forgiveness from those affected by the offending behaviour.
The PFS reconciliation team grew out of the personal experience of Mrs. Adelaide Zwane. Adelaide’s husband was a pastor who ministered to prisoners in many ways. With his death after a carjacking and beating in 1995, Adelaide chose to go into prison and minister to the men who were grieving the death of her husband. As a part of her ministry, she and another PFS volunteer felt compelled to help one young prisoner and his grandmother. The young man had been his grandmother’s caretaker prior to his incarceration and was concerned about her welfare. After providing the young man with clothing, Adelaide and the other volunteer used their own money to buy groceries for his grandmother.
Yet, before they could deliver the groceries, Adelaide discovered that the young man she was helping had been responsible for her husband’s death. Although very angry and hurt, Adelaide felt called to visit the grandmother. In this emotionally charged meeting, the young man’s family – grandmother and aunts – expressed their remorse and Adelaide offered her forgiveness to the young man and his entire family. Upon leaving the family, Adelaide went to see the young man responsible for her husband’s death and offered him her personal forgiveness and adopted him into her family. From this personal experience of meeting her offender, Adelaide reaches out to other victims and offenders in the ministry of reconciliation.
May 2007