By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has extended the deadline for the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) cases to 18 December 2026.
The commission is investigating alleged interference in the investigation and prosecution of apartheid-era crimes.
In May 2025, Ramaphosa signed a proclamation for a judicial commission of inquiry chaired by retired Constitutional Court Judge Sisi Khampepe, assisted by retired Northern Cape Judge President Frans Diale Kgomo and Adv Andrea Gabriel SC.
The original Terms of Reference of the Commission provided that the Commission would complete its work within a period of 180 days from the date of the Proclamation and submit its report to the President within 60 days after the date on which the Commission completed its work.
Ramaphosa has recognised that the Commission started its work late, that there are outstanding documentary responses; that there will be applications for cross-examination and that the Commission will be in recess from mid-December 2025 to early January 2026.
The President has accordingly amended the Terms of Reference to provide that the Commission must complete its work on 29 May 2026 and submit its report by 31 July 2026.
It will now continue its work until 18 December this year.
This extension comes after Justice Khampepe, recently requested more time to complete its investigations and finalise its work.
Ramaphosa says the extension will aid the Commission to complete its work without any further delay and to provide the country with a full account of the circumstances that gave rise to the establishment of the Commission.
The report, compiled by advocates Dumisa Ntsebeza SC, a former TRC commissioner, and Sha’ista Kazee, recommended that a commission of inquiry investigate the extent of, and rationale behind, the political interference with the NPA between 2003 and 2017.
Advocate Vusi Pikoli, former head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), has told the Commission that former SAPS national commissioner Jackie Selebi used former President Thabo Mbeki as a “scarecrow” to obstruct the work of the NPA.
Pikoli, who appeared before the panel in March, returned to the commission to face cross-examination by various legal representatives from the Department of Justice (DOJ), the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the South African Police Service (SAPS) about alleged political interference in the delaying of TRC prosecutions.
Responding to questions about the nature of this interference, Pikoli pointed to his own suspension in 2007 and the subsequent charges he had faced at the Ginwala Commission into his fitness to hold office as “the ultimate proof of political interference”.
His suspension, he said, had sent a “chilling message” to future national directors of public prosecution (NDPPs), as one of the charges he had faced at the Ginwala inquiry was over his insistence on pursuing TRC prosecutions.
On day 41 of the inquiry on 8 May, Pikoli also identified the SAPS’ refusal to provide investigative capacity to the Priority Crimes Litigation Unit (PCLU) as a central method of obstruction.
Anton Ackerman previously told the commission that he had viewed then president Mbeki’s establishment of an Amnesty Task Team made up of representatives of the new ANC government and lingering old-guard officials, as offering a “back door” amnesty to high-profile perpetrators who had not applied for amnesty.
While Pikoli and Ackermann both acknowledged that few cases were prosecuted, they emphasised different reasons for this failure.
Ackermann had highlighted institutional challenges, specifically a “lack of investigative capacity” and difficulties in convening a multi-departmental committee.
Pikoli agreed that the lack of investigators had been a “central factor”, but claimed “political interference” and deliberate obstruction by other state organs, such as the police and the Ministry of Justice, had contributed to the obstruction of work.
The prosecution of former Minister of Police, Adriaan Vlok and SAP head General Johan van der Merwe for the attempted poisoning of Reverend Frank Chikane in 1981 had served as a “test case” and “low hanging fruit”.
The matter was ready for trial without further investigation, said Pikoli. This had later resulted in a plea bargain by the two former officials.
Pikoli confirmed that he had been prepared to support efforts to achieve accountability concerning the murder of student Nokuthula Simelane, whose family, alongside many others, fought for this commission.
Similar to the Simelane matter, Pikoli identified the murder of Ahmed Timol and the kidnapping and assassination of the Cradock Four by security police as other cases he had supported in the families’ pursuit of justice.
Ntsebeza, now 76, set out to the panel how apartheid generals had tried to stop him from “digging too deep” into past atrocities by security personnel.
Ntsebeza, who was appointed as a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) commissioner by President Nelson Mandela in 1994, had been summoned in 1996 or 1997, he said, to a meeting in one of the 672 hotel rooms in the “prestigious” 22-storey Johannesburg Sun and Towers in the CBD.
Ntsebeza described the suppression of TRC cases as a “terrible stain” on South Africa’s history and concluded that families were entitled to this independent commission of inquiry, not just as a matter of law, but as a “moral imperative”.
The Department of Justice, the National Prosecuting Authority, as well as former presidents Mbeki and Jacob Zuma have denied that any political interference took place.