No political interference in apartheid-era cases – prosecutor

The National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) head of legal affairs, Advoc­ate Mthunzi Mhaga, has denied any polit­ical inter­fer­ence in the hand­ling of apartheid-era killings, telling the Khampepe Com­mis­sion all pro­sec­u­tions he was involved in were guided strictly by evid­ence. Mhaga said on Fri­day he had never exper­i­enced or wit­nessed any attempt by politi­cians or offi­cials to influ­ence pro­sec­utorial decisions dur­ing his career, reports the Daily Dispatch. ‘Throughout my career within the NPA, I have never been approached by any polit­ical office-bearer, exec­ut­ive mem­ber, or any per­son act­ing on their behalf, who sought to influ­ence, dir­ect, or inter­fere with the con­duct of any pro­sec­u­tion, invest­ig­a­tion, or pro­sec­utorial decision with which I was involved. Nor have I wit­nessed any such inter­fer­ence dir­ec­ted at my col­leagues within the units in which I served,’ he said. ‘All decisions per­tain­ing to the insti­tu­tion, con­tinu­ation, or with­drawal of pro­sec­u­tions in mat­ters that came before me were taken strictly on the mer­its of the evid­ence and in accord­ance with applic­able legal prin­ciples, guided by the NPA’s pro­sec­u­tion policy and dir­ect­ives. I, accord­ingly, state under oath that I have no know­ledge of any polit­ical inter­fer­ence within the NPA dur­ing any period of my employ­ment.’ The judi­cial com­mis­sion, chaired by retired Con­sti­tu­tional Court Judge Sisi Khampepe, is prob­ing whether attempts were made to block or delay invest­ig­a­tions and pro­sec­u­tions of apartheid-era crimes referred by the ruth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Pres­id­ent Cyril Ram­a­phosa estab­lished the inquiry in May 2025 fol­low­ing a court applic­a­tion by fam­il­ies of vic­tims who alleged that some apartheid-era cases had been delib­er­ately stalled. Mhaga, who served as a senior pro­sec­utor at the Eastern Cape High Court (Mthatha) between 1999 and 2006, later joined the NPA’s Pri­or­ity Crimes Lit­ig­a­tion Unit in Pre­toria, where he worked on TRC-related cases and helped estab­lish the TRC Task Team.

Mhaga told the com­mis­sion that the main obstacle in pro­sec­ut­ing these mat­ters was not inter­fer­ence, but a lack of invest­ig­at­ive capa­city. ‘In the absence of any formal arrange­ment with the SAPS, I would approach detect­ives with whom I had worked while pro­sec­ut­ing in the East­ern Cape, request­ing their assist­ance in cases that fell within their regions,’ he said. Des­pite the estab­lish­ment of the TRC Task Team in 2006, Mhaga said pro­gress slowed sig­ni­fic­antly between 2007 and mid-2009, reports the Daily Dispatch. Fin­an­cial con­straints also con­trib­uted to delays, he said. Dur­ing his testi­mony, Mhaga referred to sev­eral high ­pro­file cases he pro­sec­uted, includ­ing the killing of Umk­honto we Sizwe oper­at­ive Sthembele Zokhwe in Ngqa­makhwe in 1987, the 1985 murder of stu­dent leader Bathandwa Ndondo in Cala, and the Highg­ate Hotel mas­sacre in 1993, where five people were killed. He also handled the murder of three under­ground MK oper­at­ives – Zon­wabele Mayapi, Gift Mgibe and Zolile San­goni – who were killed by ‘askaris’ work­ing with then Transkei secur­ity police in Mthatha in 1988, as well as a rob­bery and murder case involving a police officer at the Wil­low­vale police sta­tion. Mhaga was called to testify after being described as an ‘implic­ated’ wit­ness by the com­mis­sion, an alleg­a­tion he rejec­ted. However, he told the inquiry that he could find no evid­ence link­ing him to any attempt to delay or sup­press TRC cases. Chief evid­ence leader Advoc­ate Ish­mael Semenya later apo­lo­gised, con­ced­ing that refer­ring to Mhaga as an implic­ated wit­ness had been incor­rect and ‘regret­table’.