Politicians stopped apartheid prosecutions – Pikoli

Political interference by senior ANC Ministers was to blame for the NPA’s failure to prosecute apartheid-era political murders, torture and disappearances, according to former National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli. A Business Day report notes that fundamental to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC’s) process was the idea that those who did not apply for, or did not receive, amnesty would face the law. Pikoli’s affidavit was filed in support of a case launched by the family of Nokuthula Simelane (23), an Umkhonto weSizwe operative, who, in 1983, was abducted by the security branch and tortured for five weeks. Her body has never been found. While amnesty was granted to some of Simelane’s torturers, it was refused to others. Her family wants the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to force the NPA to make a decision: either send Simelane’s case for a judicial inquest or decide, one way or another, on a prosecution. Pikoli said: ‘I confirm that there was political interference that effectively barred or delayed the investigation and possible prosecution of the cases recommended for prosecution by the TRC.’ He said he believed his pursuing apartheid-era perpetrators was one of the reasons he was suspended by former President Thabo Mbeki. According to Business Day, Pikoli said, following an NPA decision to prosecute the attempted murder of Frank Chikane, he was called to a number of meetings with senior Ministers, and at one of them, ‘it became clear that there was a fear that cases like the Chikane matter could open the door to prosecutions of ANC members'.

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