The publication of the final report of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission has been put on hold pending further litigation by the Inkatha Freedom Party and its leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
Buthelezi’s advisor, Dr Mario Ambrosini, said on Friday the home affairs minister and the IFP would again challenge the justice department in the Cape High Court in November to produce the records containing evidence supporting its findings.
November was the earliest court date available, he told Sapa.
The court had previously given the commission until July 31 to comply with an order to produce the records, but failed to do so.
The justice department has inherited responsibility for all pending litigation as the TRC no longer exists.
Ambrosini said Justice Minister Penuell Maduna had given an undertaking not to go ahead with the final report until after the case had been decided.
The report was expected to be handed to President Thabo Mbeki this month, but it seems this will now only happen towards the end of the year.
Earlier on Friday, Buthelezi said he could not allow the final report to be published without it providing evidence of its allegations against him and his party.
The TRC had failed to produce this ”body of evidence against me”, and was therefore in ”default”, he said.
On Thursday, it emerged that the government was trying to reach an out-of-court settlement with the IFP over the report, which was expected to be made public later this month.
Justice ministry representative Paul Setsetse told Sapa: ”We are trying to finalise the matter out of court.” In its interim report, the TRC found that the IFP, under Buthelezi, was the ”primary non-state perpetrator …responsible for approximately 33% of all the violations reported to the commission”.
Buthelezi has spent the past three years challenging this in court, which he says is not supported by the evidence.
In a letter to the Sunday Times last month, he said: ”Having gained access to the commission’s documents after launching an appeal to the Constitutional Court, we remain convinced that the
commission had no evidence to justify its findings in respect of the IFP and myself.
”The continued absence of this evidence supports the truth that I never once ordered, ratified or condoned human rights violations,” he said. – Sapa