A veteran advocate has told an inquiry that apartheid-era generals tried to halt investigations into past atrocities by threatening to expose senior ANC figures. The testimony came at the Khampepe Commission examining delays in Truth and Reconciliation Commission prosecutions.
Dumisa Ntsebeza, a former TRC commissioner now aged 76, described a 1996 or 1997 meeting in a Johannesburg hotel where Major General Pieter Hendrik Groenewald and colleagues warned him against digging too deeply into security force crimes. They claimed dossiers existed that compromised senior ANC officials and that an agreement had been reached to avoid pursuing apartheid-era cases.
Ntsebeza, accompanied by the late investigator Wilson Magadla, said he responded that he took instructions only from TRC chair Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He later reported the encounter to Tutu and vice-chair Alex Boraine, who supported his approach.
The testimony also referenced a 2021 statement from the FW de Klerk Foundation that appeared to confirm an informal pact between ANC leaders and former government operatives to suspend prosecutions. Ntsebeza described the lack of progress on TRC cases as an unforgivable failure that treated victims' families as second-class citizens.
The Department of Justice and National Prosecuting Authority have denied political interference. The commission continues to hear evidence.
