Former President Mbeki said he’s being unfairly accused of stymieing efforts by families of victims of apartheid-era crimes to get justice.
Image: Masi Losi
THABO Mbeki, who succeeded Nelson Mandela to become the second president of democratic South Africa, has entered a legal fray between the government and the families of victims of apartheid-era crimes.
In a bid to intervene in a court case between the state and 20 victims or representatives of families impacted by the murder, torture and abductions meted out by apartheid security forces, Mbeki said he’s being unfairly accused of stymieing their attempts to get justice. The applicants are seeking R167 million in damages and the establishment of a commission of inquiry into why those crimes have never been prosecuted.
“They have placed me at the center of the political interference,” Mbeki said in a more than 50-page submission that he filed with South Africa’s High Court on Monday on behalf of himself and Brigitte Mabandla, who served as Mbeki’s justice minister from 2004 to 2008. “This makes it that I am the principal target of the commission of inquiry that they seek.”
The lawsuit is an attempt to resolve a decades-old dispute over the alleged failure of successive African National Congress-led administrations to pursue the cases after the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission - set up by Mandela after his victory in the first all-race elections in 1994 - ended its work and handed them over to prosecuting authorities.
It alleges that governments, including that led by Mbeki, deliberately frustrated attempts to move forward with prosecutions and suggests there may have been a deal with officials of the former apartheid government.
Mbeki denied there was a secret pact that would have spared himself and other ANC members from potential prosecution for activities during the anti-apartheid struggle. He added that he never interfered in the cases.
“Those allegations are highly defamatory and damaging,” Mbeki said. “Ms. Mabandla and I deny we, or the administration of which I was president, interfered with the National Prosecuting Authority’s prosecution of TRC cases and committed unconstitutional, unlawful and criminal acts.”
Other respondents in the case including President Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s current leader, have said they won’t oppose it and will seek to come to a settlement. Substantial talks are yet to be held.
South Africa’s TRC recommended that about 300 cases be pursued when it finished its work in the early 2000s. There have only been a handful of prosecutions since.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE