By Simon Nare
Former senior National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) prosecutor Trish Matzke has described severe administrative failures, prolonged delays and poor record-keeping in the handling of apartheid-era crimes referred for investigation after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
Matzke, a former Special Director of Public Prosecutions, testified on Wednesday before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations Regarding Efforts or Attempts to Stop the Investigation or Prosecution of Truth and Reconciliation Commission Cases, known as the TRC Cases inquiry.
The inquiry is chaired by retired Constitutional Court Justice Sisi Khampepe.
Matzke said she first became involved in the management of the cases in October 2018, when she was unexpectedly asked to assist with reviewing and coordinating outstanding matters. She later provided strategic oversight following the NPA’s establishment of a dedicated TRC component in September 2021.
She told the commission there had initially been little clarity about her role or what she was expected to do. When she began examining the matters, she encountered cases that appeared to have remained with the NPA for between 10 and 15 years without a clear outcome or meaningful progress.
Matzke described the management and storage of the cases as haphazard, saying there was no comprehensive register, index or consolidated system through which officials could track the files and the progress made in each matter.
“A proper system is that your cases are referenced in a file with a reference number, with all the documents they’re in, and that you have an electronic or support system list of your cases with progress.
“It must be organised. Your documents must be together. You must have a proper docket, or at least a file with copies, and everything must be in one place. That is for me the system,” she said.
Matzke cited acute delays, the mismanagement of dockets and the poor filing and storage of important documents among the problems that characterised the NPA’s handling of the cases.
She described entering the office of an official and finding documents and case files stored in boxes without what she regarded as a proper filing or tracking system.
Changes in the NPA’s leadership also hampered the work, she said, leaving officials at times without a supervisor to whom they could report or from whom they could obtain clear instructions.
Matzke said she struggled to obtain clarity after then deputy national director of public prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba was suspended in October 2018. She attempted to arrange a meeting with Jiba at a coffee shop, but the meeting did not take place.
Matzke said she had intended to explain her concerns about the NPA’s failure to properly manage the TRC cases.
“I said that because when you start with the schedule and the cases, the little that I had, and most probably the cases that were handed over to the NPA 10 to 15, years ago, and then you see that a little progress was made, maybe in the investigations or a decision made.
“So that is what caused me as a prosecutor to say, well, we can’t have dockets or cases 10 to 15 or how many years in our position, and there was no outcome or progress. This was just my observation from outside of the TRC cases at that stage,” she told the commission.
Matzke said she no longer had the schedules she had worked with while at the NPA. She had requested access to her former NPA laptop after leaving the institution, but said the request was not entertained.
She also testified that the poor handling of the cases had left the families of apartheid-era victims without adequate information about investigations into the deaths and disappearances of their loved ones.
Matzke said she became increasingly aware of the difficulties faced by families seeking information after she began working directly with the TRC-related cases.
She expressed hope that the NPA had since improved its management of the cases.
“It’s unfortunate and I hope that the NPA is now on a better road,” she said.
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