The death this week of former Security Branch cop Joao Rodrigues who was finally charged with the murder of Ahmed Timol was a sobering reminder about the unfinished business of apartheid, and the restlessness of its ghosts. Time is slowly taking away the chance of justice for the families of those who died at hands of members of the former South African security services … because many of the alleged perpetrators are passing on beforethey can be held to account.
Time is slowly taking away the chance of justice for the families of those who died at hands of members of the former South African security services … because many of the alleged perpetrators are passing on beforeApart from Timol, there are other cases where the likelihood of closure for families is vanishing.
All of these unresolved cases are the business which the Truth and Reconciliation Commission never got to, or left unfinished. A process that was meant to bring healing through revealing the truth and then, hopefully, reconciliation never achieved its goal. In allowing such a lapse of time – between alleged perpetrators being prosecuted after they refused to go through the amnesty process – our prosecution authorities have also been complicit in this failure to exhume the truth of the past.