Thabo Mbeki, who succeeded Nelson Mandela to become the second president of democratic South Africa, has entered a legal fray between the government and the families of victims of apartheid-era crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a bid to intervene in a court case between the state and 20 victims or representatives of families impacted by the murder, torture, and abductions meted out by apartheid security forces, Mbeki said he\u2019s being unfairly accused of stymieing their attempts to get justice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The applicants are seeking R167 million ($9.1 million) in damages and the establishment of a commission of inquiry into why those crimes have never been prosecuted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey have placed me at the centre of the political interference,\u201d Mbeki said in a more than 50-page submission that he filed with South Africa\u2019s High Court on Monday on behalf of himself and Brigitte Mabandla, who served as Mbeki\u2019s justice minister from 2004 to 2008. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis makes it that I am the principal target of the commission of inquiry that they seek.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawsuit is an attempt to resolve a decades-old dispute over the alleged failure of successive African National Congress-led administrations to pursue the cases after the country\u2019s Truth and Reconciliation Commission \u2014 set up by Mandela after his victory in the first all-race elections in 1994 \u2014 ended its work and handed them over to prosecuting authorities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It alleges that governments, including that led by Mbeki, deliberately frustrated attempts to move forward with prosecutions and suggests there may have been a deal with officials of the former apartheid government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mbeki denied there was a secret pact that would have spared himself and other ANC members from potential prosecution for activities during the anti-apartheid struggle. He added that he never interfered in the cases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThose allegations are highly defamatory and damaging,\u201d Mbeki said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMs Mabandla and I deny we, or the administration of which I was president, interfered with the National Prosecuting Authority\u2019s prosecution of TRC cases and committed unconstitutional, unlawful and criminal acts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other respondents in the case, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa\u2019s current leader, have said they won\u2019t oppose it and will seek to come to a\u00a0settlement. Substantial talks are yet to be held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When South Africa\u2019s TRC finished its work in the early 2000s, it recommended that about 300 cases be pursued. Since then, only a handful of prosecutions have occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Thabo Mbeki has entered a legal battle between the government and the families of victims of apartheid-era crimes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":788284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1850,853],"class_list":["post-818989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-bloomberg","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":818990,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818989\/revisions\/818990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}