The NPA is unable to reveal how many investigations into apartheid-era crimes are still ongoing.
|||Johannesburg - The NPA is unable to reveal how many investigations into apartheid-era crimes are still ongoing, the Sunday Times reports.
National Prosecuting Authority spokeswoman Bulelwa Makeke said 350 cases were handed to it after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission disbanded.
However, she told the newspaper that since there was no proper data-capture system at the time, it was not possible to provide accurate information on the number of cases investigated.
In 2003, the priorities crime litigation unit took over the investigation of TRC cases from the human rights violations unit.
Makeke said the “small number” of cases investigated by this unit had been carried out upon specific requests.
The only successful prosecution was in 2007, when apartheid-era law and order minister Adrian Vlok and four police officials received suspended sentences for the attempted murder of Reverend Frank Chikane.
Former TRC commissioner Yasmin Sooka told the Sunday Times the failure to follow up on TRC cases was a “shocking insult to our democracy and the rule of law in South Africa”.
“We can see the effect of this impunity in the ongoing police brutality, because no one is being held accountable. Killers continue to walk about in South Africa without being held accountable.” - Sapa