Wally Mbhele
A major clash looms between the ruling African National Congress and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission over the commission’s final report to be made public at the end of this month.
Behind the scenes, a volcanic war of words has already erupted between the two organisations. The truth commission accuses the ANC of attempting to influence its findings. The ANC has described the commission’s concerns as “utter rubbish”.
The dispute was sparked by the commission’s decision to serve several high-ranking ANC officials with notices informing them they would be implicated in acts of gross human rights violations when it makes public its report.
The ANC’s anger stems from a perception that in making its final findings on gross human rights violations, the truth commission is “casting the same shadow between freedom fighters and apartheid masters”.
According to sources, the ANC is convinced the morality of those who violated human rights in the liberation struggle cannot be equated with those who fought to preserve apartheid.
In anticipation of the report, the ANC assembled a team of senior officials to formulate a response to the commission’s findings implicating some of the party’s leaders.
One of the senior party officials, Mpumalanga Premier Matthew Phosa, confirmed the ANC is drafting an explanation of the commission’s findings against the ANC leadership. He expressed concern at what he saw as the commission’s “minority” view on ANC human rights violations.
He said a majority of the truth commission staff members involved in drafting the report did not share the adverse findings on the ANC.
He said – unlike a court of law where a judgment carries weight only when supported by the majority of the Bench – the commission’s findings on the ANC only represented a minority view.
Truth commission sources said differences existed among its staff on the final report.
More than 200 notices to individuals across the political spectrum have been issued, warning that they would be named in the final report. Some of the high- profile names implicated in the report include senior ANC Cabinet ministers.
The warnings prompted the ANC to seek a meeting with the commission. However, a letter written by the commission’s head of investigations, Dumisa Ntsebeza, rejected the proposed meeting and tersely suggested the ANC wanted to influence the outcome of the final report, sources told the Mail & Guardian.
Phosa said of reports that the ANC sought to influence the findings: “It is absolute and utter rubbish, which is as big as Kilimanjaro mountain.” He said the ANC discussed the matter and saw no logic in the commission “distorting” the ANC’s response to its document.
While the ANC refused to disclose the date it planned to release its response to the report, speculation within ANC circles is rife that it will either be released shortly before or after the commission’s handing over of its document to President Nelson Mandela.
This would have the potential to pre- empt the damaging implications against the ANC leadership, sources said. Alternatively, such a political step – if well calculated – would minimise damage if it could portray the ANC members as victims who operated under hostile conditions.
“We’ll have no business to unduly influence the truth commission. Previously when they sought meetings with us, we never said they want to influence our perceptions,” said Phosa. “It’s an unfortunate and unfounded interpretation of the ANC’s intentions that when we ask for a meeting, the truth commission should say we’re trying to influence their findings.”
Among those named in the report, according to informed sources, include Deputy Minister of Intelligence Services Joe Nhlanhla, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Deputy Minister of Defence Ronnie Kasrils, former apartheid regime presidents FW de Klerk and PW Botha, and Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi, also leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party.
The final report will be in five volumes of more than 35 000 pages. The head of the truth commission’s research unit, Professor Charles Villa’vicencio, supervised preparation of the report.
Most truth commission officials this week remarked about how “interesting” it was for the ANC to start formulating a response even before party leaders had seen the truth commission’s report.
A senior truth commission official this week said the ANC leaders are angry because “they feel bad that history will judge them in the same light as apartheid moguls. The fact remains human rights violations were committed across the political spectrum.
“Determining a political motive as reasons for human rights violations as required by the Act governing the truth commission did not mean that there would be certain politically correct motives for such violations.
“While it’s not for us to apportion blame, people must understand that where people suffered and died, and whoever was responsible, the commission cannot shirk its responsibility and seek to attach political significance to actions of certain individuals.
“We are unable to say certain people were angels, ours is to give an unbiased report in terms of what happened in the past.”
Truth commission representative Mdu Lembede said the final report would remain a classified document until the commission hands it over to Mandela on October 29.
Regarding the ANC’s misgivings about the final report, Lembede said the fact that people’s names were never mentioned in public hearings does not mean they would not be named in a final report.
Elaborating on this, he said the truth commission had used a wide range of sources to gather useful data for the purpose of fulfilling its mandate. For instance, he said, the commission collected information from public documents such as the ANC-appointed Motsuenyane and Skweyiya commissions into atrocities that occurred at ANC camps in exile.
Stressing that their investigations were not necessarily targeting the ANC, Lembede pointed out that the commission also made use of, among others, the Legal Resources Centre, Harms and Goldstone commissions’ reports “and all the relevant information to further enhance our investigations using our own resources”.