Justice: President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered a commission of inquiry into ANC governments’ role in possibly delaying investigations.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered an inquiry to establish whether previous governments led by the ANC intentionally blocked investigations and prosecutions of apartheid-era crimes.
The landmark move, which survivors and families of those who were killed have demanded for more than 20 years, will address allegations of “improper influence in delaying or hindering” investigations that have been levelled against post-apartheid governments led by the ANC, the presidency said in a statement.
The ANC was at the forefront of the battle against the system of white minority rule and led South Africa to democracy when apartheid ended in 1994. But ANC-led governments since then have been criticised for prioritising national reconciliation over justice for victims.
Ramaphosa’s announcement of a judicial commission of inquiry came after 25 survivors and relatives of victims of apartheid-era crimes launched a court case against his government in January seeking damages.
They alleged that successive South African governments since the late 1990s failed to properly investigate unresolved killings, disappearances and other crimes during apartheid, despite recommendations made by the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
The new inquiry was part of a settlement agreement in the January court case, Ramaphosa’s office said.
“President Ramaphosa appreciates the anguish and frustration of the families of victims, who have fought for so many years for justice,” it said.
The TRC was set up in 1996 by then-president Nelson Mandela and was chaired by fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.
Its mission was to expose and record apartheid-era crimes and give some of those responsible an opportunity to confess their role, including members of the apartheid government’s state security forces who were implicated in many killings. Some were granted amnesty from prosecution but thousands were denied it and others didn’t come forward.
One of the most prominent unresolved cases is that of the Cradock Four, a group of black anti-apartheid activists who were abducted and murdered by security forces in 1985. Their bodies were burned and officers were suspected of torturing them.
Six former police officers appeared before the commission in 1999 over the murders of Fort Calata, Matthew Goniwe, Sicelo Mhlauli and Sparrow Mkonto, but none of them were granted amnesty.
No one has been prosecuted for the killings and the circumstances of the deaths have never been fully revealed. They are among the thousands of crimes during apartheid where victims and families still haven’t seen justice.
Lukhanyo Calata, son of Fort, is part of the group that took the current South African government to court in January.
He said that successive South African governments since the administration of president Thabo Mbeki from 1999 to 2008 had failed to act on the TRC’s recommendations and had denied victims and their families justice.
He and other relatives claim that government ministers intervened to prevent the investigation and prosecution of crimes.
While the majority of the victims of apartheid-era crimes were black, whites have also sought justice decades later. The joint case against the government included Neville Beling and Karl Weber, survivors of the Highgate Hotel Massacre, where five white people were killed by gunmen who burst into a bar in 1993.
A new inquest into those shootings began earlier this year in an effort to shed light on who the killers were.
A separate inquest into what happened to the Cradock Four is due to start in June, 40 years after they were killed. — Associated Press