GOOD Party MP Brett Herron has slammed Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola’s responses to his parliamentary questions on Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) cases that were handled by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Herron took issue that the NPA was yet to complete the identification of perpetrators of apartheid-era crimes as recommended by the TRC.
He noted with concern that the NPA was only aware of about half of the 300 cases the TRC recommended for further investigation.
Herron made the statement after he received written responses from Lamola when he enquired about the number of the 137 TRC cases under investigation that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation and the NPA had identified potential suspects who were still alive and may potentially be prosecuted, among other things.
In his response, the minister said there were eight cases which were on the criminal court roll where suspects were being prosecuted for multiple offences emanating from TRC matters.
There were also two others that were pending as indictments were being prepared to charge suspects who are still alive.
Lamola indicated the NPA was not in possession of a definitive list of cases that were transferred from the TRC, and that the identification of additional matters from recommendations made in the final TRC report was an ongoing process.
“Currently the total number of identified cases is 158. Twenty-one matters have been finalised,” he said in his response.
He added that 137 matters were still under investigation.
However, Herron said 30 years after apartheid and 21 years after publication of the final TRC report, the NPA was yet to complete the task of identifying apartheid-era operatives who committed heinous crimes for which they should have been prosecuted.
He noted that Lamola said the NPA continued to engage the report and it was “an ongoing process”.
“The TRC Act provided that where amnesty was not applied for or was not granted, those who failed to get amnesty would be prosecuted.”
Herron also said it has been widely reported over the past 10 years that the TRC recommended approximately 300 cases for further investigation.
This figure was repeated in the recent opinion by advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza into the NPA’s handling of TRC cases, he said.
“If the TRC referred 300 cases to the NPA but, according to Lamola, 21 years later, the NPA is only aware of about half of them, it speaks to a monumental abandonment of post-apartheid justice.
“It means that many perpetrators of barbarism in defence of apartheid will never be brought to justice, and that family members of their victims will never have the opportunity of closure,” Herron added.
Cape Times