South Africa is a traumatized nation with deep scars in its psyche which were not being acknowledged, said Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu on Thursday.

"It is hard to help someone who doesn't realize they are sick. We are sick - some more than others. What makes a grown-up man rape a baby?"

Tutu was responding to questions about the state of South Africa following the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings during a roundtable discussion at the 'Beyond Reconciliation" conference at the University of Cape Town.

The three-day conference aims to examine ways to deal with aftermath of mass trauma and political violence.

Tutu, who now chairs The Elders, the independent group of global leaders that addresses issues of humanity and human suffering, lamented the violent behaviour of South Africans who he says have not healed in the years since the TRC.

He condemned the "totally gratuitous violence" taking place in society and called for the adoption of the Ubuntu philosophy.

"Ubuntu says that my humanity, whether I like it or not, is bound up in your humanity. If I strip you of your dignity, I am inexorably taking away my own. So treating you with dignity is in my own interest of self-preservation."

He said he would have liked to be spending these years of his life resting and reflecting on good work well done, but there was still a long way to go.

"As an old man who was hoping, at this point in history, to be sitting on the sidelines with Madiba saying, 'look how they are getting along'. But the sensitivity we thought we had is not showing. How do you explain, in the face of such poverty, people going to buy a car that costs R1m or staying in five star hotels, claiming they didn't know what the cost was?"

But he was adamant that it had not been overly ambitious to strive for reconciliation. Prof Deborah Posel, chair of sociology at Wits, asked whether society could scale down expectations of absolute reconciliation to a level of mutual civility, to which the Archbishop replied, "No."

The conference was initiated as a result of discussions surrounding the recurrent xenophobic attacks across the country, and is hearing from representatives from countries around the world who are confronting processes of reconciliation after a period of mass trauma.

Numerous respected figures will be tackling the complex issues surrounding building a life after extreme suffering due to political violence. The TRC model of free and open dialogue has been adopted in various countries seeking reconciliation, yet many feel its country of origin, South Africa, is not healing but festering with increasing levels of fear and despair.

Questions like "How do children of survivors or perpetrators of gross human rights abuses deal with the legacies they have been given?" will come under the spotlight, along with the issues of apology, forgiveness, truth, amnesty, restorative justice and national healing in post-conflict societies.

Among the speakers are Dr Stephen Smith, former director of the UK Holocaust Centre and co-founder of the Aegis Trust, an agency engaged in the prevention of crimes against humanity and genocide, who established the Kigali Memorial Centre in Rwanda - one of few museums in the world that offers visitors full-time counseling services.

Also speaking at the conference are Dr Mamphela Ramphele, whose illustrious career includes being the first black woman vice-chancellor of UCT, Prof Amanda Gouws, chair of political science at the University of Stellenbosch, multi-award winning author and holder of four honorary doctorates, Prof Antjie Krog, and Prof Jonathan Jansen, author and Honorary Professor of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand.