WATCH | No politician interfered with my TRC prosecutions work, says Abrahams

The president or justice minister did not interfere with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) mandate to investigate the apartheid-era crimes.

This is according to former National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) boss Shaun Abrahams, who told the TRC cases inquiry that no politician, including the president or justice minister, ever interfered in his work while he was leading the prosecuting authority.

This was despite major frustrations over budget cuts and resource shortages, he said.

Abrahams was testifying before the inquiry, which is investigating whether political interference, failures within the NPA or internal resistance delayed prosecutions.

Reading from a memorandum he submitted to then justice minister Michael Masutha in 2015, Abrahams said he personally initiated the report to update the minister on the status of unresolved TRC matters and the challenges facing prosecutors.

“The purpose of this memo was not initiated by the minister. This memorandum was submitted to the minister at my instance as the National Director of Public Prosecutions to specifically inform the minister of the status of TRC cases,” he said.

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Abrahams said the memo detailed several unresolved cases, including the Cradock Four murders, the disappearance of Nokuthula Simelane, the Heidelberg Tavern massacre, the St James Church massacre and the murder of Dr Neil Aggett.

Simelane is the sister to human settlements minister Thembi Simelane-Nkadimeng.

Abrahams also told the inquiry that many cases struggled because evidence had disappeared, witnesses had died, and police investigations had either stalled or been poorly handled.

“In the Highgate Tavern and St James Church cases, the DPCI (Hawks) claimed that the police dockets and court records could not be located, although it had now been established that for many years the relevant material was in fact in the possession of the DPCI,” he said.

Abrahams said delays between 2003 and 2011 severely damaged the chances of successful prosecutions.

“The failure for the matters to be investigated from 2003 until 2011 has prevented prosecutions from being instituted in cases that could have resulted in convictions. This is because by the time the cases were eventually investigated, the suspects and the witnesses were already deceased,” he said.

“I got to a stage as national director where I felt there was a deliberate attempt to [strangle] the NPA financially, not to fulfil its mandate,” he said.

Abrahams said he even approached the National Treasury through the justice minister to request more funding, but no additional support was provided.

Despite this, he insisted no member of the executive attempted to influence prosecutorial decisions.

“Bluntly put, the minister never tried to interfere in my work at any point in time. Nobody tried to interfere in my work at any point in time. Not the president, not the minister of justice, not the deputy president, not any minister,” he said.

However, he added that the lack of investigative powers and resources within the priority crimes litigation unit made prosecuting apartheid-era crimes extremely difficult.

“If the priority crimes litigation unit had the resources and powers that the investigating directorate has now within the NPA, it would fast-track prosecutions significantly in respect of such issues,” he said.