“Since the national public prosecutor appeared before you there was an undertaking that resources would be ring-fenced from the budget,” Ganief Hendricks of Al Jama-ah said.
“We want to know whether resources have been ring-fenced because we do not want advocate De Kock to come and tell us there is no money because we’re only dealing with 10% of the cases and there are still another 900 cases to address.
“They [NPA] can't decide [that] because witnesses have died their inquests won’t be opened. They can’t just shut the door on families. They are not God.”
Hendricks referred to Chief Albert Luthuli, who was allegedly struck by a train and died.
“The Luthuli family was told by the Hawks who showed them the docket that there was no evidence to take the case forward. That is wrong. Because if the family members had the chance to state their case, even if they were the only witnesses left, do you know how much relief that will bring to the family, that their story was told?”
MPs slam NPA over 'dragging' TRC prosecutions
MPs have lashed out at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for the slow pace of prosecuting cases stemming from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that probed apartheid-era human rights abuses and other crimes between 1996 and 2003.
Deputy national director of of public prosecutions Rodney de Kock told the justice portfolio committee the NPA is probing 129 cases for possible prosecution arising from TRC proceedings.
The NPA was presenting a progress report on TRC prosecutions.
“We have achieved increased engagements with the families/stakeholders. Following internal communication from the NDPP, each division submitted names and contact details of families and representatives to the national office. This is updated in monthly reports where regular reporting to families is encouraged,” De Kock said.
MPs said the NPA was not moving with the necessary speed or doing enough.
“Since the national public prosecutor appeared before you there was an undertaking that resources would be ring-fenced from the budget,” Ganief Hendricks of Al Jama-ah said.
“We want to know whether resources have been ring-fenced because we do not want advocate De Kock to come and tell us there is no money because we’re only dealing with 10% of the cases and there are still another 900 cases to address.
“They [NPA] can't decide [that] because witnesses have died their inquests won’t be opened. They can’t just shut the door on families. They are not God.”
Hendricks referred to Chief Albert Luthuli, who was allegedly struck by a train and died.
“The Luthuli family was told by the Hawks who showed them the docket that there was no evidence to take the case forward. That is wrong. Because if the family members had the chance to state their case, even if they were the only witnesses left, do you know how much relief that will bring to the family, that their story was told?”
Hendricks suggested pensions of members of the apartheid police special branch who committed apartheid crimes be forfeited.
He also raised concern that R1.8bn meant for victims of human rights abuses during apartheid remained unspent.
“There are no plans to disburse the money. There are no strategies to guarantee the money's not going to be looted. And there are no policies to give the new head of the TRC unit the capacity to manage units,” he said.
The ANC's Xola Nqola agreed the NPA should treat TRC cases as urgent.
“The longer these matters drag [on] the less the chances of acquiring sufficient evidence for prosecution,” Nqola said.
De Kock said: “We have experts that will reconstruct scenes for us, we will look at post-mortem reports and other experts to examine this evidence and they will then become witnesses in the courts, so there are various techniques we are using to present evidence in court.”
He added that funds to employ more prosecutors to deal with apartheid crimes had been secured from National Treasury.
It could take between three and five years to resolve TRC-related cases.
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