Johannesburg - The families of apartheid victims and survivors have welcomed the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA’s) progress in pursuing post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) prosecutions, saying it is long overdue.
The NPA announced on Friday that it had taken a step to further enhance its efforts to deal with and prosecute cases stemming from the TRC.
NPA has appointed advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza SC to review the measures adopted to deal with and prosecute TRC matters and to provide recommendations as needed.
“Over the last couple of years, the NPA has focused on reopening and pursuing priority cases and enhancing its internal capacity and processes both to ensure effective handling of these cases and to prevent any undue political influence. 64 new cases have been registered for investigation. 25 prosecutors and 40 investigators have been appointed within the various divisions to deal specifically with TRC matters,” said NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga.
Mhaga said a detailed overview of these measures was presented to Parliament in November 2022.
Mhaga said Ntsebeza’s appointment was in line with the remarks made by the full Bench in Rodrigues v National Director of Public Prosecutions of South Africa and Others (76755/2018) (2019) in the South Gauteng High Court in 2019, where the court held:
“It is also for these reasons that the conduct of the relevant officials and others outside the NPA at the time should be brought to the attention of the National Director of Public Prosecutions for her consideration and, in particular, to consider whether any action in terms of Section 41(1) of the NPA Act is warranted.
“Finally, 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.”
The nephew of Ahmed Timol, Imtiaz Cajee, speaking to The Star yesterday, said the appointment of a senior counsel Ntsebeza was certainly welcomed.
Timol was an anti-apartheid activist who was tortured and murdered while in police detention on October 27, 1971.
“Families need answers and closure in their lifetime as loved ones pass on as well as alleged perpetrators,” said Cajee.
He further said: “History will judge the government of the day for failing to implement post-TRC prosecutions as well as all other TRC recommendations.”
Allegations of political interference in TRC prosecutions first surfaced in the mid-2000s, when the NPA’s Vusi Pikoli and Anton Ackerman were deposed in the Nokuthula Simelane case.
“These were repeated by the NPA’s Dr Torie Pretorius and Chris MacAdam in papers filed in the Roderigues matter in 2019,” Cajee said.
He wrote to NPA head Shamila Batohi in 2020, requesting that she acts on this matter.
“The progress made by the NPA in pursuing post-TRC prosecutions is welcomed. Again, long-overdue.”
Mhaga said the senior counsel would conduct a thorough assessment and make recommendations, if necessary, to strengthen the NPA’s handling of TRC cases.
“If counsel finds evidence or information that could amount to a violation of Section 41(1) of the NPA Act, such issues will be escalated to the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) to take forward as appropriate. If necessary, the NPA will refer relevant matters for criminal investigation,” Mhaga said.
Mhaga said Ntsebeza had three months to finalise his report and recommendations.
“The NPA will provide the necessary support to ensure that this timeline is kept and relevant interventions and improvements are implemented without delay.
“The NPA has engaged with the executive as appropriate on this matter. The executive is expected to release its own statement in due course, as per the remarks by the court highlighted above,” Mhaga said.
Cajee is hard at work on his latest book, which will reveal events after the 2017 Timol judgment, explaining why Roderigues’s criminal trial proceeded and was removed from the court roll after his death.
The Star