TRC Inquiry | Apartheid-era security officials concealed campaign against activists: Sooka

Former Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Commissioner, Yasmin Sooka, has accused former apartheid-era security officials of deliberately concealing the truth about a covert campaign to eliminate anti-apartheid activists, saying their continued silence has denied victims’ families the justice and accountability they were promised.

Testifying before the TRC Cases Inquiry in Johannesburg on Thursday, Sooka said political pardon applications submitted by former Police Minister, Adriaan Flok, former Police Commissioner, Johan van der Merwe, and other former security officials failed to provide full disclosure of apartheid-era crimes.

Sooka testified that while the applicants admitted involvement in the attempted poisoning of Reverend, Frank Chikane, they refused to identify those who authorised the operation, members of the covert unit involved or other anti-apartheid activists who had allegedly been targeted.

She maintained that granting political pardons without full disclosure would have undermined the principles of truth and accountability that underpinned South Africa’s transition to democracy.

Sooka also revealed that she met Chikane in 2012 and urged him to publicly oppose political pardons unless perpetrators made full discloser about apartheid-era crimes.

She said  his intervention could have pressured those responsible for his attempted poisoning to identify who authorised the operation and expose other state-sanctioned attacks that remain unresolved.

She told the Inquiry that Chikane ultimately chose not to take that public position.

Her testimony comes a day after former SAPS Divisional Commissioner, Johan de Beer, rejected allegations that he interfered in investigations into apartheid-era crimes, insisting his role was limited to clarifying institutional responsibilities.

Meanwhile, former TRC Investigation Unit member, Piers Pigou, began his testimony telling the Inquiry, that understanding why apartheid-era prosecutions stalled requires examining how the TRC itself operated.

Pigou said the Commission’s investigative decisions, institutional dynamics and strategies influenced what happened after the TRC concluded, making it impossible to separate post-TRC failures from the Commission’s own work.

Pigou’s testimony follows Sooka’s evidence that attempts to pardon apartheid-era perpetrators without requiring full disclosure weakened accountability and prevented many victims’ families from learning the full truth about crimes committed during apartheid.

Sooka is expected to return to the Inquiry after legal representatives indicated they intend applying to cross-examine her.

Written by: Lebohang Ndashe