GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
18 March 2024
Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola, like former President Thabo Mbeki, can’t explain why the State elected not to prosecute apartheid killers as recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
In his reply to questions submitted last month by GOOD MP Brett Herron, Lamola didn’t answer whether he had established the reasons for the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) decisions.
The Minister, instead, sought to rationalise the NPA’s decision this year to re-open the inquest into the 1985 murder of the so-called Cradock Four by security policemen.
According to Lamola, the decision was based primarily on “new evidence” submitted to the TRC – more than 25 years ago!
Two weeks ago, in a rare statement, Mbeki strongly denied that the investigation of cases recommended by the TRC were stopped due to executive interference.
This followed a Supreme Court of Appeal finding in 2021 that there had been executive interference. The court based its finding on uncontested submissions by former NPA head Vusi Pikoli that he had been ordered to stop investigating TRC cases by Mbeki’s then-Minister of Justice, Bridget Mbandla.
But Mbeki said there had been “no such interference”, adding that the NPA should demonstrate its integrity by issuing an apology.
Lamola avoided the subject of political interference altogether, choosing to focus his answers on re-opening the Cradock Four inquest, and on “measures, checks and balances” the NPA had put in place since 2021 to prioritise TRC matters.
It was “especially important that finality and closure is brought to the families of the deceased who have waited decades for the truth of who murdered their loved ones”, he said.
He didn’t comment on the subversion of justice occasioned by the unnatural delays; most perpetrators have died in the interim, so there is all but nobody still alive to be held accountable.
In respect of the Cradock Four matter, The State’s decision comes 25 years after the TRC turned down amnesty applications by six former security policemen who confessed to participating in the crime.
Those six policeman are now all dead, as is former President FW De Klerk, who attended the Security Council meeting where the murders were authorised.
Last month, the NPA released a damning report by senior council advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, who it appointed to investigate the non-prosecution of TRC matters.
“The consequences of this failure have manifested themselves in the vast number of cases that have now become irredeemable – memories have faded, witnesses have died, perpetrators have died, evidence which should have been archived, has, over time, got lost or destroyed – or both.
“Against these odds, one has to ask, how it is even possible to realise the national social compact struck with victims and all South Africans – to achieve accountability and justice,” Ntsebeza reported.
The TRC was the democratic South Africa’s primary instrument to effect nation-building in the immediate aftermath of apartheid.
The State’s failure to follow through on the commission’s recommendations – not only prosecutions, but on narrowing inequality, too – have contributed to a culture of criminal impunity, corruption and lack of accountability in South Africa.
If we couldn’t be bothered to prosecute the worst of the apartheid killers what hope is there of arresting the current crime rate?
That Lamola’s department is belatedly taking the TRC matters more seriously is good, but he nonetheless owes the country a truthful explanation for his department’s subversion of justice.
Media Enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
Cell: 082 518 3264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Janke Tolmay, GOOD Media Manager
Cell: 073 367 1223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za