KHAMPEPE COMMISSION: Mbeki denies secret deals with apartheid-era generals, blames NPA for TRC prosecution delays

At the Khampepe Commission, Thabo Mbeki rejects claims of political interference, explaining the ANC’s amnesty bid and distinguishing presidential pardons from prosecution decisions.

Former president Thabo Mbeki has told the Khampepe Commission of Inquiry into delayed Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) prosecutions that the only occasion he met former apartheid military and police generals was when they had approached the ANC, stating they would not apply for amnesty if then president FW de Klerk and his cabinet did not do so as well.

On the first day of his much-anticipated appearance, the former president denied any secret meetings and testified that former generals approached him in 1996, while the TRC was in progress, to request a meeting with the ANC committee tasked with amnesty applications.

In response to this “grievance” of the former generals, Mbeki said the ANC had offered to approach De Klerk and his leadership colleagues to persuade them to appear.

In the meantime, “to create moral leverage and lead by example, the ANC leadership decided to apply for collective amnesty for its own political leadership”, he told the panel.

Mbeki said the ANC leadership at the time had handpicked members who approached the TRC to apply for amnesty.

This had been done, he said, “taking into account individuals who would have been in relevant leadership positions during the period in question. None of them had committed any specific act of gross human rights violations as required by the TRC Act,” he noted.

Mbeki said he had been one of the “Group of 37”, as it came to be known, and while at first the TRC had granted amnesty to the group, this was later overturned by the courts.

“This put an end to the ANC’s attempt to set an example for the apartheid cabinet. Had our application succeeded, it would have given us the moral authority to call on the apartheid cabinet to do likewise,” Mbeki recalled.

With regard to allegations of later executive interference, Mbeki said that he had been “President of the Republic of South Africa and not prosecutor”.

It was expected, he said, that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) would deal with post-TRC prosecutions.

Led by advocate Ngwako Maenetje, Mbeki told the commission that his speech to Parliament in April 2003 had made it clear that he was dealing with matters not dealt with by the TRC and this had not been an attempt at political interference.

“The establishment within the NPA of a specialised prosecutorial capacity capable of pursuing these matters is difficult to reconcile with the suggestion that my purpose shortly hereafter was to signal that those cases should be suppressed,” he said.

The unit was established in March that year, and advocate Anton Ackermann was appointed to head it, he said, adding that “selective” quoting from his speech was “disingenuous and misleading”.