Ramaphosa slammed for bid to remove TRC judge

The commission tasked with investigating whether the ANC government blocked the prosecution of apartheid-era killers has slammed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s self-admitted efforts to force its chairperson, Sisi Khampepe, to step down as ‘illegal’ and ‘unconstitutional’. In an affidavit filed at the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg), Ishmael Semenya SC – the chief evidence leader in the inquiry into why more than 300 criminal cases identified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) after the end of apartheid were never prosecuted or only pursued decades later – said it appeared that ‘the President believes that the chairperson of the inquiry (Khampepe) should have yielded to an illegal executive instruction to resign her appointment’. ‘I am advised that it was correct for Justice Khampepe to refuse to follow the executive instructions to resign her appointment,’ he added. News24 reports that Semenya was responding to an explanatory affidavit filed by Ramaphosa in response to legal efforts by his predecessors as President, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, to force Khampepe to step down. Netwerk24 reports that Semenya says in the commission’s opposing papers the application is aimed at undermining the work of the commission. He also objects to Khampepe being cited as a respondent. The Supreme Court Act stipulates that no litigation may be instituted against a judge without prior permission. Semenya says the application ought to fail on that ground alone. The application is an attempt to stall accountability, he added. The commission seeks a punitive costs order against the applicants.

Ramaphosa says he had asked Khampepe to step down over the ‘controversy’ surrounding her appointment as chairperson of the inquiry – and is not opposing Zuma and Mbeki’s court bids to force her recusal, reports News24. In papers filed in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg), Ramaphosa claims he ‘was unaware’ that Khampepe had served on the TRC Amnesty Committee when he appointed her to investigate why more than 300 cases identified by the TRC had not been prosecuted. This was despite Khampepe’s role in the TRC having been repeatedly publicised throughout her long career. ‘Had I been aware of these allegations at the time that I appointed Justice Khampepe as chair of the commission, I would not have appointed her,’ the President stated. ‘That is because I would have sought to avoid potential public criticism of the commission, or the inquiry, or a review attack on the appointment of Justice Khampepe as chair, arising out of those allegations.’ He added that he had requested Justice Minister Mmamaloko Kubayi to approach Khampepe to ask that she ‘consider standing down as chair’. ‘She was asked that, in light of the controversy over her appointment and the damage to the public image of the commission. I am informed that she declined to step down. Consequently, she remains the chair until removed by court... I have no objection to the court ordering the removal of the chairperson.’

Among other things, Zuma and Mbeki raised the fact that Khampepe served on the TRC panel that refused their applications for amnesty from prosecution (as members of the ANC) in their court applications for her recusal. Ramaphosa further noted that Zuma and Mbeki had pointed out that, as a member of the TRC’s Amnesty Committee, Khamepe had ‘refused the killers of Richard and Irene Motasi amnesty’. Those family members had litigated to force Ramaphosa to institute a commission of inquiry into why the alleged killers were never prosecuted and were now actively involved in the commission, as are the families of the murdered Cradock Four and Pebco Three activists. Khampepe was also part of the process that denied amnesty to those alleged killers, Ramaphosa said. According to News24, Zuma and Mbeki are also unhappy that Khamepe served as a Deputy National Director of Prosecutions and allegedly played a role in the Human Rights Investigation Unit, established by then National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka to advise him on how to handle the cases referred to the NPA by the TRC. Ramaphosa remains adamant that his hands are tied regarding Khamepe’s appointment, stating that ‘the law prohibits me from playing any further role in her appointment or removal’. He said: ‘Since her appointment, Justice Khampepe has not informed me of her prior involvement at the TRC or NPA.’

Second News24 report

First News24 report

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