Suzman Foundation joins apartheid litigation as amicus curiae

THE Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) has been allowed to join the ongoing litigation regarding the government's failure to prosecute apartheid-era crimes.

- MANYANE MANYANE

This, after the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, admitted the foundation as amicus curiae, or friend of the court, in the case that was brought by families of the victims who were killed and disappeared during the apartheid years.

The families filed the court application earlier this year, seeking constitutional damages for political interference and suppression of the cases from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

The families want the government to pay R165 million for constitutional damage and for President Cyril Ramaphosa to establish a commission of inquiry into political interference, which halted the investigations and prosecutions of the perpetrators.

The litigation is also supported by the Foundation for Human Rights as co-applicants.

The TRC was set up in 1996.