‘Last hope’ for justice and closure for TRC cases families – pressure mounts on ex-presidents

Retired Justice Sisi Khampepe, the chair of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the alleged suppression of Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) cases recommended for further processing. Former Presidents Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki have sought her recusal, something the affected families describe as attempts to derail the commission. Pressure is mounting for former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma to come forward and divulge what they know and explain their actions, or omissions, regarding cases of human rights abuses recommended for further action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission during their tenures.

Closing his evidence-in-chief on Monday before the Khampepe Commission of Inquiry, television journalist Lukhanyo Calata made an impassioned plea to the commission to “help us close what has been a very difficult chapter in our lives”, saying “for 41 years we’ve been with this thing”. “I wish to appeal to you – not just on behalf of my direct family and the families of the Cradock Four – but on behalf of all of the other families that I represent directly as I sit here … This inquiry is perhaps the last hope for us. “I wish to appeal to you to help us … like for real, help us … not the lip service that we’ve received from politicians over the years, but help us,” said Calata.

His father, Fort Calata, was part of a group of political activists in Cradock, in the Eastern Cape, who were murdered by apartheid security operatives in 1985. The families of the Cradock Four – Calata’s and those of Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhlauli – are part of the larger group of over two families suing the state for damages in a separate case. Calata told the commission that he and some of the families have come to accept that “we will not see justice in the true essence of what justice is”, but appealed for information that will enable them to find closure.

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This is because many of the suspects, witnesses as well as members of some of the affected families have been getting old and dying over the years. “But help us at least to gain knowledge and understanding, and to understand who the people were that denied us that justice for my father. Because maybe we can then use that information and we can say ‘siyayivala – we close it here, because the Khampepe Commission has given us the answers that we needed.

So today we can now close this matter’.” Lukhanyo Calata, son of one of the Cradock Four activists killed by the apartheid government’s agents in 1985, Fort Calata. He says the Khampepe Commission of Inquiry is the “last hope” for the families of the victims of the apartheid-era human rights violations made to wait for years in vain for justice or closure.

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