The government was conscious of the concerns some Afrikaners had regarding the TRC's work, he said in an address opening debate on his Budget vote.
It took note of Afrikaans voices suggesting the TRC represented a witch-hunt.
The diversity of Afrikaner people meant, however, that Afrikaners would know that when a specific perpetrator of gross human rights violations, who was an Afrikaner, appeared before the Commission, it was not the Afrikaner in general who was being called to account.
"Because, as with other language and cultural communities, it is not in the nature of the Afrikaner as such to be brutal to others.
"All of us, as a nation that has newly found itself, share in the shame at the capacity of human beings of any race or language group to be inhumane to other human beings. We should all share in the commitment to a South Africa in which that will never recur," Mandela said.
It was no longer as easy as it once was to speak in any monolithic way about "Afrikaners", just as it was not that simple for anyone to claim to speak on behalf of the Afrikaner people.
"Afrikaners are spread throughout our society: in different spheres, holding different positions and different viewpoints, speaking in different voices. Afrikaners are an inextricable part of our Rainbow Nation, reflecting among themselves the rich diversity which is its strength."