Mabandla ordered NPA to stop TRC prosecutions: Ramaite

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Cases Inquiry has heard that former Justice Minister Bridgitte Mabandla instructed the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to stop the prosecution of all TRC Cases in November 2004.

This was the account of Former National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Silas Ramaite to the Inquiry on its eighth day of public hearings in Newton, Johannesburg.

Ramaite says that Mabandla’s intervention was prompted by the NPA’s imminent arrest of three accused in the 1999 attempted murder of anti-apartheid activist Rev Frank Chikane.

He says that she said that there was to be a moratorium on the prosecution of all cases pending the development of prosecutorial guidelines by a forum of government Director Generals.

Ramaite told Evidence Leader Advocate Vas Soni that he expressed his concern to the Minister regarding the interference with the prosecutorial independence of the NPA.

He says that he instructed the NPA’s Priority Crimes Litigation Unit to then halt the arrest and prosecution of the accused in TRC cases based on Mabanda’s instruction.

The accused in the Chikane matter included former Law and Order Minister Adriaan Vlok, the former police chief Johan van der Merwe and three others.

Ramaite says, “I raised a concern with her and that’s what I recall telling her that we already have prosecution policies that was actually developed and agreed upon by the National Director of Public Prosecutions together with the Directors of Public Prosecutions as envisaged in Section 179 of the Constitution, and in my view, the prosecution directives, the policy directives that we had, were sufficient to cater for all conceivable cases.”

Soni asked, “What was the minister’s reaction to that? “

Ramaite responded, “Well, she said you must not proceed until these guidelines are finalised.”

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