/ 16 October 1998

ANC keeps pressure up on TRC

Wally Mbhele

The African National Congress says the credibility of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report will be questioned if the commission continues to refuse to meet the party before it releases its findings.

ANC officials are demanding a meeting with the commission to discuss the report’s implications for the party.

The commission has refused the meeting on grounds it would be illegal to discuss the report with the ANC – or others – before it is handed to President Nelson Mandela at the end of the month.

ANC representative Thabo Masebe confirmed his party has been given notification by the commission that it may be implicated in the final report.

Masebe indicated that the ANC would “insist” it be granted a hearing in the form of a meeting. “We are ready to present our submission to them as the Act allows us to do. We would want to have a meeting with them to address those issues that may adversely affect us.”

Despite the truth commission’s refusal, Masebe remained optimistic it would give ANC officials an audience.

He stressed the ANC did not want to discuss the entire report but those aspects “that will negatively affect the organisation. We are convinced we deserve an opportunity for such a hearing.

“If they don’t, it would be unfortunate as it would bring into question the credibility of the commission’s final report.”

At a meeting this week, the truth commission reaffirmed its position that it “should not meet with individuals or organisations to discuss the final report”.

Commission sources say they insisted that “whoever” wants to respond to Section 30 notifications can do so by making a written submission for the purpose of incorporating it into the report.

Commission insiders said this was done for the purpose of giving the report a required balance.

“While they’ve been investigated and allegations corroborated, we would like to give them an opportunity to reply because the allegations have not been tested in a court of law,” said a commission source.

This, sources agree, is meant to give those implicated an opportunity to “put forward their side of the story and be in a position to counter allegations … if they feel they have been unjustly implicated”.

Commission officials said the report is “a classified document and it would be illegal for the commission to discuss it with anybody before it is handed to President Mandela”.

A senior commission official said this week: “It is illegal to influence the findings. We are not leaving room for discussions. This does not only apply to the ANC, but to everybody who is implicated.”

Sources say the ANC is unhappy the commission has given the impression that as a party it is guilty of human rights violations. For instance, it is understood the commission feels that besides alleged abuses at the ANC camps in exile, the party is also guilty on some aspects of its armed struggle that took place inside the country.

“The essence of our position is that we conducted a just war in terms of international conventions. Our guerrilla warfare followed each and every international protocol,” said an ANC source close to negotiations with the truth commission.

Party insiders said they feel that in formulating an opinion about the ANC, the commission failed to put the party’s armed struggle into proper perspective, thereby placing it in the same league as apartheid hit squads.

Truth commission acting deputy chair Yasmin Sooka said the commission “has laid out a process that’s applicable to everybody who is implicated”. She said she was not prepared to argue with particular individual positions and reiterated the commission’s insistence that only written submissions would be considered.

ANC insiders this week predicted that once the ANC has submitted its written response, the commission may be prepared to meet the organisation.

The Mail & Guardian last week reported ANC officials describing the commission’s findings as representing a minority viewpoint and said its assertion that the party sought to influence its final report “was utter rubbish”.