Following a negotiated transition to democracy in South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established to deal with crimes of the past regime. Despite the detail of submissions and the length of the Final Report, this article highlights the partiality of truth recognised by the Commission. The usefulness of acknowledged truth to deal with South Africa's past is shown to have been neutralised by wider concerns of social and criminal justice. In detailing the governmental reticence to provide reparations, the judicial disregard to pursue prosecutions, and the dismissal of responsibility for apartheid at a wider social level, the author argues that opportunities for reconciliation and developmental change are limited. Against the problems of crime, violence and unresolved land issues, the potential of the TRC to build a ‘reconciliatory bridge’ is called into question. The truth offered by the Commission increasingly appears of limited value.

Extending our prior work on tungsten and molybdenum oxides, we have found that a wide variety of vanadium oxides can be prepared using hydrothermal methods. These include a number of layer compounds as well as cluster complexes. The starting reaction medium usually contained vanadium pentoxide, an alkali containing compound such as LiOH, an organic template such as tetramethylammonium, and the pH of the whole was controlled by the addition of acid. Reaction temperature was 150°C to 200°C, and time was up to 3 days. A new lithium vanadium oxide, which has the simplest structure of any layered vanadium oxide, was formed. The lithium could be readily removed leading to a new form of vanadium dioxide. This vanadium oxide was also capable of intercalating a variety of other ionic and molecular species. Several other new vanadium oxides containing the TMA cation were also formed; one of these TMAV3O7 readily absorbed oxygen to form TMAV3O8. Addition of zinc or iron to the reaction medium caused the formation of layer structures containing double V2O5 layers; for iron the TMA was retained in the structure whereas for zinc the TMA was excluded. Changing the organic entity resulted in other new structures, for example methylamine and dimethylamine gave tetragonal structures.