POLITICAL interference was to blame for the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA’s) failure to prosecute apartheid-era political murders, torture and disappearances, former national director of public prosecutions Vusi Pikoli said on Thursday.
The almost total dearth of prosecutions for apartheid-era crimes continues to rankle.
Fundamental to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC’s) process — which many accepted reluctantly, even bitterly — was the idea that those who did not apply for, or did not receive, amnesty would face the might of the law.
Mr Pikoli’s affidavit was filed in support of a court case from the family of Nokuthula Simelane, an Umkhonto weSizwe operative who in 1983 was abducted by the security branch and brutally tortured for five weeks on a farm in the North West.
Her body has never been found. She was 23 years old at the time.
While amnesty was granted to some of Ms Simelane’s torturers, it was refused to others. But no prosecutions followed.
Her family wants the Pretoria High Court to force the NPA — which has had her docket for nearly 14 years — to make a decision: either send Ms Simelane’s case for a judicial inquest or decide, one way or another, on a prosecution.
In an affidavit, Ms Simelane’s sister, Thembisile Nkadimeng, said her family knew who had abducted, tortured and murdered Ms Simelane.
"They were meant to face justice or appear before judicial inquest. More than 30 years have passed since Nokuthula’s disappearance, but neither has happened. We cannot bury her and we can find no peace."
Mr Pikoli — national director of public prosecutions between 2005 and 2008 — said: "I confirm that there was political interference that effectively barred or delayed the investigation and possible prosecution of the cases recommended for prosecution by the TRC."
He said he believed his pursuing apartheid-era perpetrators was one of the reasons he was suspended by former president Thabo Mbeki. Mr Pikoli was later dismissed by Mr Mbeki’s successor, Kgalema Motlanthe.
Former head of the Priority Crimes Litigation Unit Anton Ackermann SC said 400 TRC-related dockets were transferred to his office in 2003. Over the next three years, his team had identified 37 cases for further investigation or prosecution, including Ms Simelane’s, he said.
But Mr Pikoli said over the course of 2006, following an NPA decision to prosecute the attempted murder of Frank Chikane, he was called to a number of meetings with senior government ministers. At one of them, "it became clear that there was a fear that cases like the Chikane matter could open the door to prosecutions of African National Congress members", said Mr Pikoli.
He said towards the end of 2006 it became clear to him "powerful elements within government structures were determined to impose their will on my prosecutorial decisions".
He said he had sent former justice minister Brigitte Mabandla a "detailed memorandum", in which he concluded there had been "improper interference in relation to the TRC cases".
The memorandum has been confidentially attached to Ms Nkadimeng’s court papers but will be made public only if the court orders it.
"The political interference or meddling that I have set out in this affidavit is deeply offensive to the rule of law and any notion of independent prosecutions under the constitution. It explains why the TRC cases have not been pursued," said Mr Pikoli.
The NPA said it was unable to comment at this stage.
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