By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former President Thabo Mbeki has denied he interfered in the prosecution of apartheid-era crimes that were referred to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
This comes after court affidavits by former National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Vusi Pikoli and NPA officials stated that interference from Mbeki’s government had resulted in the NPA ending TRC investigations into apartheid crimes that denied offenders amnesty.
Mbeki, who was President between 1999 and 2008, said his executive had not stopped prosecutors from pursuing the TRC cases. Instead, he countered, if investigations were stopped, it was done so by decision of the NPA.
Last month, the NPA released a report by Dumisa Ntsebeza SC, who it commissioned to review the structures and effectiveness of its TRC component, effective since 2021, after findings in the 2019 Rodrigues judgment that there was political interference in the work of the TRC prosecutions team between 2003 and 2017.
In his report, Ntsebeza recommended the NPA establish an independent commission of inquiry to determine whether individuals holding senior political office and positions between 2003 and 2017 acted improperly to dissuade, interfere, hinder or obstruct the investigation and/or prosecution of cases the TRC referred to the NPA in 2003.
Mbeki was insistent there was no executive interference, despite a 2021 Supreme Court of Appeal judgment which found, on the strength of uncontested submissions by Pikoli, that the NPA “investigations into the TRC cases were stopped as a result of an executive decision” which amounted to “interference with the NPA”.
“I repeat, no such interference took place. If the investigations Pikoli referred to were stopped, they were stopped by the NPA and not at the behest of the government as alleged by the advocate,” Mbeki said.
There was no record of a single instance when the NPA stopped investigating and prosecuting a case on account of “executive interference” — at least not during the period 1999 to 2008.
He further called on the NPA to stop “propagating falsehoods” and to apologise for not investigating the TRC cases.
Mbeki also hit back at Pikoli saying the former NDPP has never approached him to discuss any interference in the NPA.
He said Pikoli portrayed himself as an “independent and principled NDPP who defied an ‘all too powerful’ President Mbeki, who was supposedly hell-bent on stopping him from investigating and arresting the late former National Commissioner of Police, Jackie Selebi”.
“The question arises, what happened to his cherished independence and commitment to principle when he acquiesced to ‘members of the executive’ on the TRC cases?”
Mbeki said no minister of justice during those years was authorised to instruct any NDPP to act in one way or another.