Victims of apartheid-era violations urge Mbeki and ex-minister to await TRC commission
Former president Thabo Mbeki and ex-Justice minister Brigitte Mabandla want to intervene in the case brought by survivors and families of victims of apartheid-era atrocities, who are demanding answers on why cases referred to the NPA and the police by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission were never pursued.
Image: DIRCO
Former president Thabo Mbeki and former Justice minister Brigitte Mabandla must wait for the commission of inquiry into the failure to prosecute cases referred by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to set the record straight.
This is the response by the families of victims and survivors of apartheid-era crimes to Mbeki and Mabandla's application to intervene in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, is an application challenging the government's conduct in unlawfully refraining and/or obstructing the investigation and/or prosecution of apartheid-era cases referred by the TRC to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Additionally, the families and survivors of apartheid-era gross human rights violations also want the high court to declare that the conduct amounting to unlawfully abandoning or undermining these cases violated their rights to equality, dignity, and the right to life and bodily integrity as enshrined in the Constitution.
In the application, the families and survivors have asked the high court to declare the state's failure to prosecute the cases inconsistent with the country's constitutional values and the rule of law as enshrined in the Constitution.
According to the families and survivors, unlawfully refraining and/or obstructing the investigation and/or prosecution of apartheid-era cases referred by the TRC is inconsistent with South Africa's international law obligations and the principles, values and obligations arising from the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, read with the postscript to the 1993 interim Constitution.
They also complain that the government's conduct was in breach of the duties and obligations contained in the Constitution, the NPA Act, and the SA Police Service Act to investigate and prosecute serious crime, and not to interfere with the legal duties of prosecutors and law enforcement officers.
In response to Mbeki and Mabandla's application to intervene, Lukhanyo Calata, the son of the late Fort Calata who, along with Matthew Goniwe, Sicelo Mhlauli, and Sparrow Mkonto, became known posthumously as the Cradock Four, the former president and erstwhile minister have no direct and substantial interest in the main application, given that no relief is sought against them in their personal capacities.
'The relief they seek is against the current President (Cyril Ramaphosa) and the Minister of Justice (Mmamoloko Kubayi), both of whom have been cited as respondents in the main application,' Calata stated.
The Cradock Four were abducted, tortured, murdered, and their bodies burned by the Security Branch of the apartheid-era SA Police on June 27, 1985.
Calata said if Mbeki and Mabandla wish to set the record straight, the commission of inquiry established by Ramaphosa is the appropriate forum.
'It is that body which will have the power to investigate allegations and make findings. The president has already undertaken to establish the aforesaid commission by the end of May,' he explained.
Mbeki and Mabandla had expressed their unhappiness with serious allegations of unconstitutional, unlawful, and criminal conduct against them, which they believe are highly defamatory and damaging to their dignity and reputations, and indicated that their character is beyond all price.
Calata stated that this was not the first time that Mbeki attempted to intervene in proceedings in which he felt aspersions had been cast upon his character and that in an earlier matter also dealing with claims of political interference, the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed his application on the grounds that negative findings or disparagement do not constitute a direct or substantial interest to intervene.
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