NPA must apologise for not processing TRC cases — Mbeki

Former president Thabo Mbeki says during the years he was in government he and his executive never interfered in the work of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).  

“The executive never prevented the prosecutors from pursuing the cases referred to the NPA by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC),” Mbeki's office said. 

Last month, the NPA released a report by Dumisa Ntsebeza SC, who it commissioned to review the structures and effectiveness of its TRC component, effective since 2021, after findings in the 2019 Rodrigues judgment that there was political interference in the work of the TRC prosecutions team between 2003 and 2017. 

In his report, Ntsebeza recommended the NPA establish an independent commission of inquiry to determine whether individuals holding senior political office and positions between 2003 and 2017 acted improperly to dissuade, interfere, hinder or obstruct the investigation and/or prosecution of cases the TRC referred to the NPA in 2003.

Mbeki was insistent there was no executive interference, despite a 2021 Supreme Court of Appeal judgment which found, on the strength of uncontested submissions by former national director of public prosecutions (NDPP) advocate Vusi Pikoli, that the NPA “investigations into the TRC cases were stopped as a result of an executive decision” which amounted to “interference with the NPA”. 

“I repeat, no such interference took place. If the investigations Pikoli referred to were stopped, they were stopped by the NPA and not at the behest of the government as alleged by the advocate,” Mbeki said. 

There was no record of a single instance when the NPA stopped investigating and prosecuting a case on account of “executive interference” — at least not during the period 1999 to 2008. 

He said there were questions the NPA must answer honestly. 

“Who in the executive instructed the NPA not to do its work? Will the NPA publish this 'instruction' which, presumably, will be in its archives? Why did the NPA accept and respect what would have patently been an illegal instruction?” 

Mbeki said Pikoli, who allegedly buckled under pressure of “executive interference” concerning the TRC cases, earned a lot of respect by portraying himself as an independent and principled NDPP who defied an “all too powerful” Mbeki who was supposedly hell-bent on stopping him from investigating and arresting the late former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi. 

“The question arises, what happened to his cherished independence and commitment to principle when he acquiesced to 'members of the executive' on the TRC cases?” 

Mbeki said no minister of justice during those years was authorised to instruct any NDPP to act in one way or another.  

“No NDPP, including Pikoli, approached me to complain that he/she had been instructed by a minister or any other official to violate the independence of the NPA as prescribed by the constitution.” 

Mbeki’s office said the NPA must demonstrate integrity by apologising for not processing the TRC cases. 

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