Simon Nare
Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has questioned former National Director of Public Prosecutions head Advocate Shamila Batohi’s memo that admitted to political interference which led to the stalling of the investigations and prosecution of Truth and Reconciliation Commission cases.
Testifying before the Khampepe Commission probing the handling of the TRC cases on Friday, Kubayi questioned Batohi’s memo, which had been submitted to the commission, saying it had not been signed off by then justice minister Ronald Lamola as should have been the case.
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Batohi’s memo, which admitted to political interference and calling for the acceptance of responsibility, was directed to Lamola but Kubayi testified that there was no record of it in the department.
The minister said it was standard procedure that such a document would have the minister’s signature. Furthermore, she testified that the memo was not in the records of the department but rather on the records of the National Prosecuting Authority.
Kubayi said therefore she could not comment on the document or agree with Batohi’s admission to political interference. She pointed out that when she was deployed to the portfolio, Batohi was still serving as NPA head.
“In my briefing, this matter was never brought to my attention. And part of the discussion (that) has been with the team around the matters of inquest, around the matters of TRC prosecutions, there is no memo, there is no briefing, there is not even a letter from the former NDPP (Batohi) to Minister Kubai in relation to the matter,” she testified.
She added that when she arrived in the portfolio, she would have expected Batohi to “jump at the opportunity” and brief her about the challenges the NPA was experiencing with TRC cases, but this did not happen.
“If I was in that position where I believe something has happened, and you have a new principal, I would jump on the opportunity to brief that principal to say, ‘Hey, we’ve been having this problem, therefore help us to unlock it’.”
Batohi in the document in the possession of the commission stated: “The consequences of the wilful blocking of TRC investigations at a critical time and for a protected period must be accepted and responsibility taken.”
Batohi said the interference was one of the “greatest impediments to being able to do justice to the cases” and that the NPA had in its possession documentary evidence to prove political interference.
Kubayi denied that there was any political interference during her tenure as justice minister and testified that she had received a progress report on cases from Batohi on 3 March, 2025, which she said provided a positive picture of the work that was being done.
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The minister added that the report was encouraging and given that the public was not being updated about the cases, she encouraged the department to make the positives public “because even myself I had limited knowledge of the work that has been done by the department and NPA in this regard”.
“I have never made any effort nor attempted to stop the investigations or prosecution of TRC cases. I respect the NPA’s independence while I fulfil my oversight role as Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development in terms of Section 179(6) of the Constitution,” she said.
Kubayi said when she joined the department, she attended to several issues that were linked to the TRC cases. These included reparations of apartheid-crime victims, the inquest backlogs, providing houses to the victims, as well as funding education for the children of the victims.
One of the cases she had to deal with was a request for an inquest into the assassination of former South African Communist Party general secretary Chris Hani.
“When I looked at the number of inquest commissioners, if you look at it, I’ve signed off a number of inquests…so there was no warrant out to say things are not moving because things were moving.
“I was receiving requests for inquests. I was receiving updates of what is being investigated and how far the investigation is, and in all the cases, as you can see, quite a number of inquests started under my journey….”
The minister said the government had established the commission to make a determination of what caused the delays and that Batohi should be called to explain what she meant in the memo.
