By Barnaby Phillips BBC Southern Africa Correspondent

There have been reconciliation celebrations in South Africa this month

South Africa has started paying reparations to thousands of victims of apartheid, the government says.

They were identified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which spent seven years examining the crimes committed under apartheid.

The government is giving a one-off payment equivalent to about $4,500 to the victims of apartheid.

The TRC examined decades of human rights abuses and identified about 20,000 victims earlier this year.

Slow process

The government says it has processed payments for 9,000 people, but more than a third of these payments have already been returned because victims supplied invalid bank accounts.

The government is paying far less in reparations than was recommended by the TRC.

It also rejected suggestions in the TRC's final report that it raise more money for reparations by imposing a special tax on big business.