The Pandora’s box of apartheid atrocities was cracked open in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Monday, unearthing trauma mingled with the promise of justice and closure for families of liberation victims.
The National Prosecuting Authority reopened inquests into the deaths of ANC leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Chief Albert Luthuli and human rights lawyer Griffiths Mxenge after the then justice minister Ronald Lamola acceded to its recommendations in May last year.
An inquest into Luthuli’s death held in 1967 found the cause was a fractured skull after he was said to be hit by a train near Gledhow station on the KZN north coast. There was criminal culpability on the part of South African Railways and anyone else.
Mxenge was stabbed 45 times and his throat slit in Umlazi in November 1981, and an inquest into his death on July 15 1982 couldn’t find his killers. But nine years later, a confession surfaced from Almond Nofemela, who in 1997, together with David Tshikalange and Dirk Coetzee, were found guilty of his murder.
They were granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) before they could be sentenced by the high court sitting in Durban, which stalled trial proceedings and didn’t bring closure or justice to their family.
The ANC immediately lauded the NPA’s decision to reopen the inquests into the deaths of the martyrs of the liberation movement who paid the ultimate price for defending the oppressed and exposing apartheid atrocities. They said the inquest represents a “long-overdue step towards truth, justice and accountability”.
This is slightly ironic considering the swirling accusations of political interference, clandestine talks and “pacts of forgetting” which granted immunity for perpetrators of apartheid crimes post-TRC hearings.
A report compiled by advocates Dumisa Ntsebeza SC, a former TRC commissioner, and Sha’ista Kazee made substantive claims that the Thabo Mbeki administration had interfered in the prosecution of apartheid cases.
The investigation was commissioned by the NPA to determine whether the unit’s structure was effective for investigating and concluding 133 outstanding TRC-related cases linked to apartheid-era crimes.
They found the NPA was plagued by challenges from internal processes, lack of political will, the lapsing of time and co-operation with the police, and recommended a commission of inquiry investigate the extent of, and rationale behind, the political interference with the NPA between 2003 and 2017.
Former NPA head Vusi Pikoli, who was very vocal about the suppression of TRC-related cases, and subsequently run out of office, was on the money when he said such an inquiry “all depends on political will on the part of the government”.
The reality is that such an inquiry could implicate ministers and senior officials — essentially the government taking itself to court — which is as likely as Elon Musk opening a Tesla plant in South Africa.
Mbeki’s denials of government interference in March last year were, of course, vehement and expected.
But the families of victims and survivors of apartheid-era crimes weren’t accepting the political spin and in January brought charges, suing President Cyril Ramaphosa's administration “to seek justice” with fresh calls for an inquiry.
The lawsuit, filed in the Pretoria high court, claims the government failed to adequately investigate and prosecute apartheid-era political crimes after the TRC process.
The applicants, including survivors of the Highgate Hotel Massacre and family members of the Cradock Four, are seeking R167m in damages — not for personal benefit — and calling for the establishment of an independent commission of inquiry to investigate possible political interference that has hindered the prosecution of apartheid-era crimes.
In February 2019, several former TRC commissioners called on Ramaphosa to apologise to apartheid-era victims and appoint an inquiry. He did not respond.
Now the presidency is said to have begun negotiations with the families who feel a “fundamental betrayal [was] committed by the post-apartheid state against families and victims connected to apartheid-era crimes”.
The reopening of the inquests and parallel court action therefore begs the question: will the political interference of government, ministers and officials finally be revealed?
While it is very late in the day and in many cases perpetrators have died, while others claim they are too old or unfit to stand trial, the victims and their families deserve justice and closure.
For opinion and analysis consideration, email Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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