Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Friday he could not allow the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to go ahead without it providing evidence of its allegations against him and his party.
The home affairs minister told Sapa the Cape High Court had given the commission until July 31 to comply with an order to produce the records containing evidence supporting its findings.
The TRC had failed to produce this ”body of evidence against me”, and was therefore in ”default”.
The justice department has inherited responsibility for all pending litigation, as the TRC no longer exists.
Justice department lawyers and IFP would meet later on Friday to discuss the matter, he said.
But, he could not allow the TRC to publish its final report without having provided the evidence on which it based the allegations.
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.
Setsetse said a date for the report to be handed to the president would be announced next week. – Sapa