On February 5, 2019, ten of the commissioners who served on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) wrote a letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa, calling for a Commission of Inquiry to investigate alleged political interference in the workings of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). In their letter they state, “Post the TRC, the story of post-apartheid justice in South Africa is a shameful story of terrible neglect. Both the SAPS [South Africa Police Service] and the NPA colluded with political forces to ensure the deliberate suppression of the bulk of apartheid era cases.”
The cases to which they refer are the more than 300 cases of gross violations of human rights that remained unresolved when the TRC hearings drew to a close in 1998. The alleged perpetrators implicated in these cases either did not receive amnesty at the TRC or did not come forward to testify at the Commission, and thus were liable for investigation and prosecution. In 2001 the TRC’s Amnesty Committee completed its work, and in 2003, when the final report of the TRC was submitted to the government, these cases were handed to the NPA for investigation and prosecution. However, since that time, investigations have been stalled and obstructed.
The TRC was not a judicial body, but it was intended as part of the process of restoring the rule of law in the aftermath of apartheid. It was never intended as a mechanism to allow widescale impunity. In their letter, the former TRC Commissioners argue that “the failure to investigate and prosecute those who were not amnestied represents a deep betrayal of all those who participated in good faith in the TRC process. It completely undermines the very basis of South Africa’s historic transition. The failure stands as a betrayal of victims who have been waiting for the criminal justice process to take its course and has added considerably to their trauma. Indeed, the policy or approach to allow perpetrators to escape justice adds insult to the suffering endured by victims. Above all, the failure stands as a betrayal of all South Africans who embraced the spirit of truth and reconciliation in order to move beyond the bitterness of the past. The failure is wholly inconsistent with the spirit and purpose of South Africa’s constitutional and statutory design in dealing with crimes of the past.”
Political interference and corruption
In May 2025, as a result of the advocacy of the family members of activists who were killed, the South African Foundation for Human Rights, and the lawyers supporting them, President Ramaphosa announced that a Commission of Inquiry into the reasons for the inordinate delays would be set up. The Commission was tasked with investigating “whether, why, and to what extent and by whom, efforts or attempts were made to influence or pressure members of the South African Police Service or the National Prosecuting Authority to stop investigating or prosecuting TRC cases” and “whether any members of the South African Police Service or the National Prosecuting Authority improperly colluded with such attempts to influence or pressure them”. Chaired by retired Constitutional Court Judge Sisi Khampepe, it began its hearings on the 11th of February 2026.
During the first month of hearings the Commission has heard evidence from family members of activists who were murdered by the Security Police during apartheid, as well as from numerous individuals who held senior positions in the NPA and who were tasked with investigating those responsible for their deaths, including Bulelani Ngcuka, the first National Director for Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Silas Ramaite, who took up the position as Acting NDPP after Ngcuka resigned in 2004, and Vusi Pikoli, who was appointed the NDPP in 2005.
Ngcuka related how he took a decision to centralise investigations into the TRC cases through the NPA and to have them classified as priority crimes. He appointed Anton Ackermann, who was known to be a principled advocate, as the Special Director of Public Prosecution at the Priority Crimes Litigation Unit (PCLU) in 2003. Ngcuka stated that during his tenure as NDPP there was no political interference in the work of the NPA in investigating the TRC cases, and if there had been he would have refused to comply with such instructions. Ngcuka’s investigation into ANC leader and future President Jacob Zuma’s involvement in the corruption relating to the infamous Arms Deal triggered a virulent campaign against him that led to his resignation from the NPA.
In his testimony, Ramaite claimed that in 2004 he was instructed to halt investigations into the TRC cases by the then Minister of Justice, Brigitte Mabandla. He was informed that the cases would be handled outside of the NPA by the Amnesty Task Team, the forum set up by President Thabo Mbeki to ensure that decisions regarding the cases would be made in consultation with government ministers. He stated that he “could have, and should have, refused the request”.
After his appointment as NDPP in 2005, Pikoli sought to work with the task team, but by 2007, it was clear that this was impossible. In a secret memorandum sent to Mabandla, Pikoli wrote: “I have now reached a point where I honestly believe that there is improper interference with my work and that I am hindered and/or obstructed from carrying out my functions on this particular matter. Legally I have reached a dead end. It would appear that there is a general expectation on the part of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, SAPS and NIA [National Intelligence Agency] that there will be no prosecutions and that I must play along. My conscience and oath of office that I took, does not allow that.”
Pikoli was suspended by Mbeki that same year. It emerged that the NPA was planning to charge the National Commissioner of the South African Police, Jackie Selebi, for corruption, and it was for this reason, as well as his refusal to back down on the prosecution of the TRC cases, that Pikoli was suspended, and ultimately fired from his position in 2009. Political intervention in the NPA was not limited to preventing the prosecution of the TRC cases, but occurred against the backdrop of rising corruption and political in-fighting in South Africa. However, according to the testimony of both Pikoli and Ackermann, threats levelled by General Johan van der Merwe, the National Commissioner of Police prior to 1994, and the organisation he founded to defend apartheid-era police officers, Equality Before the Law, played a determining part in blocking investigations.
Former presidents interfere, again
A long-circulating rumour that van der Merwe had evidence that would indict 37 leaders of the African National Congress (ANC), among them President Mbeki, for crimes committed during apartheid, in particular the landmine campaign launched in 1985, was invoked to prevent the prosecution of former Security Branch officers. Although the NPA issued a statement that there was insufficient evidence to bring a case against the ANC leaders, the threat remained and had considerable force. The ANC leaders were aware that the former Security Branch members were adept at fabricating evidence. They were also aware that these men who had committed terrible atrocities during apartheid and who had lied about the nature and extent of their crimes at the TRC, would stop at nothing to avoid being prosecuted themselves. As shown in an application to the Constitutional Court filed on 20 January 2025 by 23 South Africans and the Foundation for Human Rights who represents survivors and families, there is strong evidence that the former members of the Security Branch and high ranking apartheid Generals sought to prevent the prosecution of the TRC cases and that they attempted to coerce ANC officials into a secret agreement to effectively provide amnesty after the end of the TRC.
The success of the Commission of Inquiry depends in large part on the co-operation of those who are alleged to be implicated in preventing the TRC cases from being prosecuted. Thus far the work of the Commission has been marred by the failure on the part of government agencies, including the South African Police Service and the Department of Justice, as well as former and current heads of state, ministers of justice and other leaders, to provide affidavits or present evidence, or to indicate that they are willing to participate in the hearings. Former Presidents Mbeki and Zuma have also sought to derail the Commission by calling for the recusal of Justice Khampepe. They claim that because she served as a TRC Commissioner and was part of the amnesty hearings, she should not have been appointed to chair the inquiry. Although Khampepe was appointed by Ramaphosa, he has not opposed attempts to have her removed from her position, arguing that he wishes to ensure that the Commission is not brought into disrepute.
The Inquiry continues until the end of May 2026, and the Commissioners are expected to deliver their report at the end of July. It remains to be seen whether the Commission will cast new light on how and why investigations into the TRC cases have been suppressed, or whether, like the many other inquiries previously carried out to investigate state complicity, such as the Marikana Commission of Inquiry into the massacre that took place at Lonmin Platinum Mine in South Africa in 2012, will ultimately fail to hold anyone to account.
Kylie Thomas is a Senior Lecturer in the School of History and at the Radical Humanities Laboratory at University College Cork, Ireland, and Guest Researcher at NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam. She writes about violence during and after apartheid, photography and resistance, and queer and anti-racist activism in South Africa. She holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and is the author of Impossible Mourning: HIV/AIDS and Visuality after apartheid and Afterimages of Apartheid: Photography and Resistance (2025).
