text: The TRC operated by allowing victims to tell their stories and by allowing perpetrators to confess their guilt, with amnesty on offer to those who made a full confession. Those who chose not to appear before the commission would face criminal prosecution if the authorities could prove their guilt. But while some soldiers, police, and ordinary citizens confessed their crimes, few of those who had given the orders presented themselves. For example, former State President P. W. Botha and then-Deputy President Thabo Mbeki refused to appear before the Commission.
  A Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy was adopted in June 1996. The GEAR strategy was influenced by the economic ideas that became known as the Washington Consensus; it aimed to cut state expenditure, rationalise the public sector and reduce the budget deficit to 3% by 1999. Trevor Manuel had just been appointed Minister of Finance. The GEAR strategy was probably adopted under some pressure from international investors.
  In 1995, South Africa hosted and won the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Nelson Mandela wore a Springbok rugby jersey to present the William Webb Ellis Cup to South African captain Francois Pienaar, a symbolic image of reconciliation between the races.
  Mbeki presidency (1999–2008)
  In 1999, South Africa held its second non-racial elections. The governing ANC increased their majority, putting the party within one seat of the two-thirds majority that would allow it to alter the constitution. Thabo Mbeki was elected as the nation's second black president.