South Africa President Cyril Ramafosa has announced a judicial investigation into the allegations of political intervention in the pursuit of crimes from the Apartheid era.
The announcement comes three decades after the end of the rule of the white minority – and after a group of survivors and relatives of the victims, they submitted to the Ramafosa government because of the perceived lack of justice.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established in 1996, revealed the Apartheid era atrocities as murder and torture, but few of these cases progressed to a lawsuit.
By announcing the new investigation, a presidential statement says Ramafosa is “definitely to establish the real facts and the question to finality.”
The investigation is the result of settlement discussions in the case of the Supreme Court, filed by 25 families and survivors.
The group, which is suing the government for a $ 9 million damage ($ 6.8 million), says that crimes of the Apartheid era had never been properly studied by the governments that came after the racist system.
The plaintiffs include a son of Fort Kalata, who, among a group of activists against Apartheid, who became known as the Cradock Four, was burned and killed by the security forces in 1985.S
Their murder of the four men has caused outrage across the country and six ex -former police officers eventually admitted their participation in TRC. They were denied the amnesty by the committee, but were never taken to court. Since then, the six officers have died.
For years, critics have claimed that the post -Partheid leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) has made a secret deal with the former white minority leadership government to prevent prosecution. Anc denied this.
On Wednesday, the Presidency acknowledged that “charges of incorrect influence in delay or prevent the investigation and the prosecution of the crimes of the Apartheid era continue from previous administrations.”
The head of the investigation, along with his schedule, will soon be announced.