Prosecutor Complains of Lack of Investigators Over Apartheid-Era Crimes

20 April 2006

Shaun Benton

A member of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) charged with prosecuting perpetrators of apartheid-era crimes under new guidelines recently released by the NPA today complained of a lack of good investigators.
"My kingdom for an investigator with a will [to determinedly and skillfully pursue an investigation]," said Torie Pretorius of the NPA, speaking in a panel discussion at a conference commemorating the 10th anniversary of the birth of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
Speaking at the conference, organized by the Institute For Justice and Reconciliation, Mr Pretorius said that his unit lacked the capacity to proceed with the prosecutions of several apartheid-era perpetrators who failed to receive amnesty - or who did not apply for amnesty - during the mandate of the TRC.
Sitting besides Yasmin Sooka, a leading human rights laywer and a former TRC commissioner, Mr Pretorius lamented the lack of determined, skilled investigators that could carry the process of prosecutions forward under the new guidelines for prosecutions released by the NPA in January.
He said the SA Police Service "must appoint a multidisciplinary team to handle these investigations", adding that prosecutions could only proceed if the NPA got the investigators.
His unit, however, is not the only one suffering from a shortage of capable investigators, which appear to be in short supply. Earlier this year, Willie Hofmeyr, head of the Special Investigating Unit set up to combat corruption in government, said that the biggest challenge facing his unit was a shortage of capable investigators.
Mr Pretorius later said that "civil society should remain vigilant" concerning the prosecutions of apartheid-era perpetrators of gross human rights violations, appearing to imply that private prosecutions by victims and their families of perpetrators of apartheid-era violence might go some way towards satisfying calls for justice.
A young black woman in the audience who stated that her sister became a victim of gross human rights violations - defined by the TRC as murder, torture, abduction of "severe ill-treatment" - told a small conference hall packed to capacity with about 300 people: "Now that what is in front of me is prosecutions, I'm going for it."
Earlier this year, a new policy on prosecutions of apartheid-era human rights offenders was unveiled in parliament giving wide-ranging discretion to the National Director of Public Prosecutions on whether or not to prosecute those who did not apply for - or who did not receive - amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
A legal advisor to the National Director of Public Prosecutions outlined the amended policy for dealing with the prosecution of perpetrators of gross human rights violations to parliament's Portfolio Committee on Justice and Development.
Gerhard Nel, a legal advisor to the NDPP, said that the amended policy followed a statement by President Thabo Mbeki in parliament on April 15, 2003, when the president made it clear that there would be no general amnesty for perpetrators of the violations, many thousands of which were uncovered by the TRC.
While around 300 cases were recommended to the NPA by the TRC, it is understood that the new guidelines on such prosecutions would whittle this figure down substantially.
A former TRC investigator told BuaNews that only around 280 former apartheid state security personnel applied for amnesty, leaving the door open for many prosecutions, especially of the more senior figures who were criticized by Ms Sooka today for not taking political responsibility for atrocities committed by footsoldiers.
The wide-ranging discretion given by the new policy to the head of prosecutions includes whether to prosecute an alleged perpetrator based on factors such as state of health, personal credibility, degree of remorse shown, sensitivity to restitution, commitment to reconciliation, renunciation and the "degree of indoctrination" to which the person was subjected.
Further or renewed traumatisation of victims is another factor guiding the policy, and whether a prosecution would support or undermine reconciliation and nation-building.
One of the cases identified for prosecution earlier but put on hold until the development of new guidelines was that of the alleged poisoner of Rev. Frank Chikane, the director-general in the presidency.
And the case of Wouter Basson, dubbed Dr Death by mainstream media during the TRC process for his links to apartheid's chemical and biological warfare programme, remains controversial as he has yet to be successfully prosecuted.
A panelist today called for the Namibian government to be persuaded to extradite him to that country for prosecution related to the atrocities committed during the liberation struggle there that he had been allegedly associated with.
Ms Sooka, who is the director of the Foundation for Human Rights of South Africa, said that more prosecutions should go ahead in accordance with the "normal discretion" of the NDPP.
The new guidelines issued by the NPA "confer a very wide discretion which is tantamount to the power that the amnesty committee [of the TRC] exercised," she said.

Source: BuaNews (Tshwane)

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