Sooka testifies Mbeki and Zuma impugned TRC work through pardons process

A former commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has testified that the process of the commission in the 1990s was made a mockery by the presidents who were tasked with implementing its recommendations.

Yasmin Sooka testified at an inquiry into TRC cases on Tuesday. She gave details of the events that followed after the commission ended its work in 2003 and handed over a report to former President Thabo Mbeki.

Sooka testified about steps that she believes were taken by former Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma to impugn the work of the TRC commission.

One of the events that she recalled is Mbeki’s special political pardons process, where perpetrators of apartheid-era crimes who had not been granted amnesty would be pardoned.

"We supported an application to interdict President Mbeki from using the pardons process, and thankfully, in April 2009, Judge Seriti granted an interdict preventing the president from using his presidential pardon discretion," Sooka said.

Sooka believes Zuma, who became Mbeki’s successor, was also complicit in the pardons process—particularly in an appeal brought by Ryan Alberts, who was a member of the AWB.

"Interestingly, in this application, he was joined by President Zuma," she noted. "It does make you think about the role of these presidents."

Sooka also testified that Mbeki’s pardon process excluded victims and civil rights groups who wanted to weigh in.

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