Victims urge Mbeki and ex-minister to wait for TRC inquiry

FORMER president Thabo Mbeki and former Justice minister Brigitte Mabandla must wait for the commission of inquiry into the failure to prosecute cases referred by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to set the record straight.

- LOYISO SIDIMBA

This is the response by the families of victims and survivors of apartheid-era crimes to Mbeki and Mabandla’s application to intervene in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, is an application challenging the government' conduct in unlawfully refraining and/or obstructing the investigation and/or prosecution of apartheid-era cases referred by the TRC to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

Additionally, the families and survivors of apartheid-era gross human rights violations also want the high court to declare that the conduct amounting to unlawfully abandoning or undermining these cases violated their rights to equality, dignity, and the right to life and bodily integrity as enshrined in the Constitution.

In the application, the families and survivors have asked the high court to declare the state's failure to prosecute the cases inconsistent with the country's constitutional values and the rule of law as enshrined in the Constitution.