WHEN WILL NON-AMNESTY ANC-SACP MEMBERS BE PROSECUTED?
Abstract: ANC Selective Persecutions, ANC-SACP, Prosecution of former SA Security Forces Members, Selective Prosecutions, Foundation for Equality before the Law.
Henning van Aswegen
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission [TRC] was established in 1995 in terms of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, Act 34 of 1995. After the conclusion and disbandment of the TRC, the National Prosecuting Authority [NPA] began a process of criminal prosecutions against persons who were denied amnesty by the TRC. The NPA process was one-sided from the outset, as only members of South Africa’s former security forces were charged. At present, there is no indication of any intention to prosecute members and leaders of the ANC, SACP, and PAC who were denied amnesty.
Equality before the Law?
This week, the Foundation for Equality before the Law (SAFEL) has issued a stern warning to South Africa’s Directorate of Public Prosecutions not to lose sight of the prosecution of ANC cadres who were not granted immunity by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission [TRC]. The controversy follows the NPA’s continued prosecution of former security force members by subpoenaing State Security Council and President’s Council members as witnesses. Two former National Party cabinet ministers have also been subpoenaed as witnesses in court cases.
Parliamentarians and groups such as SAFEL have recently raised questions in the media as to why South Africa’s corruption government is pursuing TRC-related court cases against former apartheid government employees only, and not similar TRC cases against ANC and SACP members? The words ‘corruption government’ are juxtaposed here to ‘apartheid government’ to demonstrate the nomenclature and labelling used by the African National Congress in its motivation to pursue the current court cases. For example, ANC-SACP propagandists are determined to keep up the public narrative that they fought a “justifiable” and “clean” war in accordance with the Geneva Convention and Canterbury Rules against a white government guilty of the crime of apartheid.
If all cases referred to the NPA by the TRC are to be properly investigated and publicly prosecuted, then ANC-SACP members accused of gross violations of human rights would have to explain their violent bombing campaigns against civilians in bars and restaurants, their executions and rapes of suspected “apartheid spies”, and the atrocities committed in their training camps in Angola.
The fallacy of equality before the law
South Africa’s young democracy can ill afford the appearance of inequality before the law, especially from a political party that once loudly proclaimed a mantra of “justice and equality for all.” Democracy dies in darkness, and the ANC’s embarrassing attempt to selectively prosecute TRC cases reveals a contemptuous middle finger to the rule of law in South Africa.
- In December 2025 former parliamentarian Dr Pieter Mulder wrote an open letter to DIE BURGER newspaper, stating that the ANC’s Operation Vula was high treason and that those involved should have been punished accordingly. Operation Vula destroyed all trust and traces of a peaceful negotiation process, as agreed between the NP government and the ANC at the Groote Schuur Minute. “The ANC sat with egg on its face,” said Mulder in his letter, “yet the ANC arrogantly demanded that ANC members like Maharaj and Nyanda, who were arrested, be granted amnesty. Dedicated teams of prosecutors and investigators are now working tirelessly to bring selective, decades‑old cases to court. Each one was designed to illustrate that the ANC fought and suffered, to denigrate the former Security Forces, and by implication to subtly ascribe collective blame to the white community in general.
- A High Court has now ruled that the SAP Security Branch murdered Albert Luthuli. The Cradock Four inquest has been reopened for the third time in an attempt to pin culpability at the State Security Council [SRC] level. An inquest into the death of Griffiths Mxenge has been convened even though the murder was investigated, suspects were identified, arrested, charged, tried, and convicted. And we have seen a world first with former Lt. Col. Rorich charged with the “crime against humanity of apartheid” and released.”
Unresolved TRC Cases
President Cyril Ramaphosa established the TRC Cases Inquiry (the Kampepe Commission) a year ago to investigate allegations of political interference and deliberate attempts to impede the prosecution of both apartheid and revolutionary era crimes. Several public campaigns and legal battles are raging on the sidelines of the Kampepe Commission’s work, all focused on the issue of equality before the law.
South Africa’s new ANC government failed miserably to implement the TRC agreements that perpetrators and lawbreakers on both sides of the political divide ought to be prosecuted for the crimes they had committed. Gentlemen’s agreements are, however, useless in a court of law – hence the current accusations against the National Prosecuting Authority that they are only pursuing legal action against former government officials.
In their current attempts to diminish criticism and obfuscate the real purpose of their prosecutions, the NPA’s superficial strategy is to focus on, and then expediently publicise, “re-opened inquests” and selective prosecutions.
Eighty nine fully investigated criminal dockets, ready for prosecution of highly placed ANC-SACP suspects were handed over to the National Prosecuting Authority by General Johan van den Merwe on the orders of former President FW de Klerk, after De Klerk ordered to not to proceed with the cases in court. Apart from feigning incredulity and bewildered disbelief, the question has to be asked of the NPA: where are those dockets, and what are their current status?
Summary
In a recent leader article in Nongqai Magazine, I wrote that the ANC-SACP’s selective prosecution policy has compromised the principles of participatory justice, equality, and transparency. How can South Africans have any faith in the NPA and the principle of equality before the law, when selective prosecutions in all its ugly manifestations are there for all to see?
The African National Congress and the NPA are going to great lengths to avoid a proper and lasting resolution to the unfinished business of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The question remains: WHY?
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Henning van Aswegen
That’s an excellent question.
I can think of two or three of probably many reasons, all of which relate to internal ANC SACP dynamics.
1. They cannot afford a proper, just and lasting solution to the unfinished business of the TRC because that would require, inter alia, investigation and prosecution of former MK cadres for gross violations of human rights. The inevitable political backlash which would follow would seriously further damage the ANC’s image and support in its traditional constituency. Nevertheless political pressure from within their own constituency to deal with unfinished matters such as that of Nokuthula Simelana, could also not be ignored any longer. When a current ANC cabinet minister testify’s publicly that families, who fought on the side of the ANC against apartheid, feel betrayed by the decades long failure by the ANC to properly finish the TRC process, even a minimally astute politician should realise the danger in that, particularly at a time when support for the ANC has dwindled to historic lows.
2. Faced with this catch 22 situation the ANC SACP embarked on the sort of smoke and mirror propaganda illusion at which they are so good. They re-opened inquests and prosecuted some former security branch members and sought to do this with maximum publicity, in order to reinforce the only narrative the ANC has left. We fought for your liberation and suffered brutally doing so and we are now dealing with the unfinished TRC business. So vote ANC.
3. They hoped that this belated tactic would be enough. But then the unexpected happened, which has the potential to disrupt the carefully orchestrated propaganda spin on the finishing of the unfinished TRC business. Not only did President Ramaphosa respond to the victim’s families political and legal pressure by appointing a judicial commission to investigate why the TRC process was left unfinished, but he also appointed Judge Khampepe who has much TRC and NPA experience to chair the commission.
The fact that both former president’s Mbeki and Zuma and 4 former Cabinet ministers have made multiple legal challenges to Judge Khampepe’s position as chairman of the commission indicates a deep level of concern about what the findings of the commission could be.
A further question which should be asked is, whether reason for the ANC’s failure to deal properly with the unfinished business of the TRC is not perhaps connected to a political schism in the ANC SACP between those who come from the different historical internal and external wings of the ANC and who may have different opinions on how best to put the issue to bed?
Vir my bly dit ‘n kwessie ten voordeel van diégene wat nou al so lank in die huidige bestel ingegrawe is en die geldelike en moreel politieke hoë grond voordeel in oormaat geniet, dat solank daar nie grondige optrede teen hulle kan wees nie, hul dade bedek moet en kan bly.
Geagte Leser
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Kyk gerus hier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyvmZNIGF1I
“Met die Waarheid- en Versoeningskommissie kon persone vir hul optrede vir amnestie aansoek doen. Tydens die 1992-1993 werksamhede van die WVK het die Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag in opdrag van die HSAW, twee senior SAW offisiere na kommandemente gestuur om lede oor die WVK in te lig. Ons het die WVK se werkswyse uitgespel, en ook verduidelik dat dat Hoofde van SAW verantwoordelikheid vir wettige optrede aanvaar het. Daarby dat senior lede van die SAW nie amnestie vir buitelandse optrede nie kom kry nie. Een van die redes was dat so min SAW lede by WVK opgedaag het. Daar was selfs SAW-lede wat by die ANC aangesluit het, en hul eie vertolkings en menings oor militêre aangeleenthede en optrede aan die WVK voorgehou het. Ons sien dat Genl. Joffel van der Westhuizen aangekla word oor die woorde: ‘permanent uit gemeenskap verwyder.’ Die WVK en die NPA beweer nou dat hierdie woorde doodmaak beteken, maar dit is bloot nie waar nie. Byvoorbeeld, Winnie Mandela is ook uit gemeenskap verwyder en na Brandfort verskuif.” – Senior SAW offisier.