GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General
12 October 2025
If Afriforum has information about acts of terror carried out in the name of the ANC or anyone else during the apartheid era it must share this information with the NPA instead of trying to use it to whitewash apartheid security force killers.
Threatening to release information about the ANC, but only if the government doesn’t stop investigating crimes perpetrated by erstwhile members of the apartheid security force, amounts to political extortion and undermines the Constitutional principles of equal justice and accountability.
Afriforum CEO Kallie Kriel announced today that the organisation had requested the Khampepe Commission – established to investigate reasons for the tardy prosecution of apartheid crimes – to determine why ANC leaders have not been prosecuted for acts of terror.
“Afriforum once again calls for the book on the past to be closed – but if that does not happen, that ANC leaders who did not receive amnesty should also be investigated in the interests of equality before the law,” Kriel said.
Apartheid was declared a crime against humanity by the United Nations. South Africa established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to achieve what Kriel refers to as closing the book on the past.
The TRC was a mechanism to grant amnesty to people who committed apartheid-era crimes, provided they approached the commission, and were judged to have told the truth and committed the crimes to achieve a political objective. Those perpetrators who chose to ignore the opportunity to apply for amnesty, or did not qualify, were liable for prosecution – regardless of their political leaning. And regardless of whatever information Kriel claims to have.
The Khampepe Commission was established by President Ramaphosa this year to investigate why so few of these cases have been followed up by the NPA.
Former President Mbeki and his Justice Minister Mabandla have denied allegations of political interference levelled by former NPA chief Vusi Pikoli in a sworn affidavit.
Just before he died, former President De Klerk’s Foundation issued a statement alluding to a secret agreement between members of apartheid government and that of the ANC that prosecutions would not take place. Compromising information, the two former adversaries held against each other effectively cancelled out justice.
That Afriforum wants this alleged agreement to hold is no surprise: There has been precious little redress for a brutal and divided history, and very few besides a small handful of lowly bureaucrats have ever been held accountable for any crimes.
Kriel seeks to revise history by creating a false equivalence between those who perpetrated and defended apartheid, and those who struggled for democracy and justice.
If Afriforum has compromising information about ANC leaders he must give this information to the NPA, which has a mandate to prosecute without fear, favour or political direction.
Afriforum wants to believe that Afrikaners in particular, and white people in general, have “got away” with apartheid without ever being held accountable or contributing to the development of a sustainable democracy.
It wants to distance its people for any responsibility, more than 30 years into democracy, for the fact that colour-coded structural inequality remains a dominant feature of South Africa’s landscape – as does criminal impunity.
Afriforum (and its sister organisations in government) are swimming against the preamble of the Constitution which states South Africans must “recognize the injustices of our past… honour those who suffered for justice and freedom, and respect those who have worked to build and develop our country”.
If Afriforum has any integrity it would release whatever information it holds about acts of violence committed by ANC as well as its own supporters.
The NPA must carry out its mandate to prosecute criminals.
*The GOOD Party is a founding member of UNITE FOR CHANGE.
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