Simon Nare
Former Deputy Justice Minister John Jeffery has acknowledged that a broader “political judgment” may have delayed prosecutions during the TRC amnesty process, but denied that the ANC or its government had decided to prevent apartheid-era cases from proceeding.
“Yes, I think there was a political, in my sense, there was a political decision in the first 10 years of not going for having the TRC process, not going for prosecutions,” Jeffery said.
Testifying before the inquiry into the handling of TRC cases on Friday, Jeffery said it had been difficult to run criminal prosecutions at the same time as the commission was considering amnesty applications relating to the same offences.
He told the inquiry, chaired by retired Constitutional Court justice Sisi Khampepe, that the political situation during the country’s transition was volatile and that there may have been a view that prosecutions should be deferred.
Jeffery was being
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