Former police minister Bheki Cele told the Khampempe Commission that the state should not have paid the legal fees of former apartheid-era Security Branch officers facing prosecution for crimes committed under apartheid.
“My position then continues to be that the SAPS ought not to have extended monies to pay for the legal costs of lawyers who were, in essence, providing legal representation to members of the SAPS, like Colonel [Johan] Botha who had tortured, kidnapped and killed innocent people who were fighting for the liberation of the country,” he said.
Responding to questions about state funding for police officials facing criminal charges linked to matters arising from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Cele said he had long opposed the practice.
Cele said his views were shaped by his own experiences as an anti-apartheid activist who had lost comrades at the hands of apartheid security forces.
“I find it very much awkward that it did happen that we had to pay for the legal fees of the people that killed people, who were running the system that was declared by the United Nations as a crime against humanity.”
He said the perpetrators were effectively shielded through state-funded legal representation.
“It is still living with me. They were supposed to pay for themselves … the crimes they committed while pursuing the system that was declared a crime against humanity,” he said.
Cele said he struggled to reconcile himself with the fact that the democratic state was required to fund the litigation costs of individuals accused of crimes against humanity.
“They should not be carried by the very same people who they wanted to see eliminated and not exist. They should do that on their own steam. They should pay for the sins that they created. For me it was too easy and too soft for them to be given an opportunity to be paid for by the state and the people they wanted to see eliminated.”
He acknowledged that court rulings had obliged the SAPS to cover the legal fees of former Security Branch members.
“Legally and as far as the rule of law was concerned I should and ought to have challenged the payment of legal costs.”
Cele said he was aware that many apartheid-era cases required investigation but, as police minister, operational decisions fell within the mandate of the national commissioner and the head of the Hawks.
Cele told the commission that he initially refused to authorise payment for the accused in the Cosas Four case. Although reluctant to approve the expenditure, he said he ultimately complied with a court order requiring the state to cover the legal costs.
He said the then-head of the Hawks, Godfrey Lebeya, told him not to appeal the ruling and to comply with the court's directive.
“I accept that as a result of the position that I adopted, there are members of the Security Branch who never faced prosecutions and that affected members of the families [of victims],” he said.
Cele said responsibility for investigating and recommending the prosecution of former SAPS members who served in the apartheid Security Branch ultimately rested with the Hawks.
“However, right or wrongly, I struggle with how and why democratic South Africa expects me to pay for the crimes Colonel Botha committed against me and my comrades,” he said.