Truth commissioner Yasmin Sooka and the commission itself had been “clueless” about the reality of the Caprivi training and “intentionally blind” to the findings of the Magnus Malan trial court, Mario Ambrosini, Inkatha leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s adviser, said last week.
“Unfortunately the commissioner shows little understanding of what she is talking about, as the TRC did,” Ambrosini said, emphasising that the Malan trial had looked into the issue for eight months.
“It is a matter of law that minister Buthelezi had no operational control over the KwaZulu police, which was deployed by a commissioner based in Pretoria. The selection of the trainees [in Caprivi] and their training was conducted by the South African Defence Force. Their deployment was never under the legal or political control of Buthelezi,” Ambrosini said.
“It is ludicrous and bad faith to attack minister Buthelezi’s 30 years of integrity and non-violent stand with this type of rubbish.”
Earlier the Inkatha Freedom Party’s national chairperson, Lionel Mtshali, said in response to the settlement between the commission and the IFP that “the battle to rectify the record of history will need to continue. The historical reality has been blatantly warped by the TRC’s report, as its findings were based on evidence supplied by self-confessed criminals seeking amnesty for their crimes, in a process in which amnesty can only be obtained by proving a link between such crimes and the political directives or purposes of a participant in the conflicts of the past.”
Mtshali accused the commission of being influenced by financial and political motives. “This led to an account of historical events which reflected the mind-set, paradigm and version of the victor under whose political patronage the overwhelming majority of the TRC’s commissioners and key staff members were first professionally or politically brought up, and then selected and appointed.”
Related:
The nailing of Buthelezi 31 January 2003