The government is trying to reach an out-of-court settlement with the Inkatha Freedom Party over the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report which is expected to be made public later this month.
Justice ministry representative Paul Setsetse told Sapa on Thursday: ”We are trying to finalise the matter out of court.”
In its interim report, the TRC found that the IFP, under party leader Mangosuthu 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 the Cape High Court had given the commission until July 30 to comply with an order to produce the record containing evidence supporting its findings.
”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 letter said.
”The continued absence of this evidence supports the truth that I never once ordered, ratified or condoned human rights violations,” it added.
Setsetse said a date for the report to be handed to the president would be announced next week.
It was hoped that the IFP would not try to delay publication, so that important matters such as reparations could be dealt with, Setsetse said.
Neither Buthelezi nor IFP representative Musa Zondi could be reached for comment.
National Assembly Speaker Dr Frene Ginwala told the
Parliamentary Press Gallery Association on Thursday that she was expecting the report to be tabled in Parliament at the same time that Mbeki received it by month-end.
It would be debated by MPs in September.
As was the case in 1998 when the TRC’s initial report was tabled, the president would also respond to it in Parliament, she said.
The justice department has inherited responsibility for all pending litigation, as the TRC no longer exists. – Sapa