GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
13 January 2023
The GOOD Party welcomes the NPA’s appointment of Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza SC to review its non-performance with respect to the prosecution of long-outstanding TRC matters.
In its final report, published two decades ago, the TRC recommended that approximately 300 apartheid-era cases – in which perpetrators had not applied for, or not been granted, amnesty – should be investigated with a view to prosecution. But for nearly 20 years, no cases were investigated.
Many of the ghastliest perpetrators have since died.
Former National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli revealed on affidavit in 2015 that he was instructed not to proceed with the matters. Two years later, when the NPA bowed to family and civil society pressure to re-open the Ahmed Timol inquest, the presiding judge ordered it to prosecute a former security policeman, Joao Roderigues, for Timol’s murder.
Keeping a lid on the TRC cases was proving increasingly difficult to sustain…
Announcing Ntsebeza’s appointment today, the prosecuting authority said that “over the last couple of years” it had focused on reopening and pursuing priority cases, and enhancing its capacity “to prevent any undue political influence”. More than 60 new cases had been registered for investigation, and 25 prosecutors and 40 investigators had been appointed to deal with TRC matters.
Should Ntsebeza find evidence that could amount to a violation of the NPA Act, the matter would be escalated to the National Director of Public Prosecutions and, if necessary, referred for criminal investigation, the NPA said.
The State’s failure to follow through on the TRC matters, combined with revelations of the alleged existence of an informal agreement on non-prosecutions between representatives of the old South African government and the new, is a betrayal of post-apartheid morality.
Victims’ families have been marooned without closure or any sense of justice, and the integrity of the TRC has been severely damaged.
The NPA’s appointment of Advocate Ntsebeza to probe the matter and make recommendations is a brave one. Ntsebeza was a senior TRC commissioner, who led the commission’s investigative unit, and is known as an independent thinker. He is also known to have been very critical of the State’s abandonment of the TRC process.
First, the State must acknowledge the wrongfulness of its post-TRC inaction. Then it must explain why.
*In 2019, a Full Bench of the South Gauteng High Court, in Rodrigues v National Director of Public Prosecutions of South Africa and Others, said: “… there must be a public assurance from both the Executive and the NPA that the kind of political interference that occurred in the TRC cases will never occur again. In this regard they should indicate the measures, including checks and balances, which will be put in place to prevent a recurrence of these unacceptable breaches of the Constitution.”
Media Enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
Cell: 0825183264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Janke Tolmay, GOOD Media Manager
Cell: 0733671223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za