Attempts by former presidents Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki to get retired Constitutional Court Justice Sisi Khampepe to recuse herself from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission cases inquiry will not be opposed by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Image: Itumeleng English / Independent Newspapers
Families of victims linked to unresolved cases from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) have questioned President Cyril Ramaphosa over the appointment of retired judge Sisi Khampepe to chair the inquiry into stalled TRC prosecutions.
The families say they are struggling to understand how Khampepe could have been appointed without what they describe as a proper background check.
The issue arose after former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma requested that Khampepe recuse herself from the commission of inquiry. In his legal submissions, Ramaphosa did not oppose the relief sought by the two former presidents and argued that no due diligence had been conducted regarding Khampepe’s previous roles.
Ramaphosa acknowledged that if he had known she had previously served as a commissioner at the TRC and as Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions at the National Prosecuting Authority, he would not have appointed her.
Speaking during a media briefing on Sunday, Hlekani Rikhotso said it was surprising that Ramaphosa now appeared to support the nullification of the commission he had established.
“How do you appoint someone without checking their background?” Rikhotso asked.
“If the commission is nullified, it will simply be pushed down our throats. The commission was almost finished. How do we restart the process now?”
Nomonde Calata also criticised the government’s handling of the matter, saying the families felt ignored despite waiting decades for answers.
She said the commission had given them a chance to finally hear the truth about what happened to their loved ones, only for that opportunity to now be threatened.
“This government does not see us as human beings,” Calata said. “They decide for themselves and by themselves. The findings of the TRC were handed to them in 2003 and nothing happened. Now that we are finally here with Justice Khampepe, they are trying to do the same again.”
“We will not allow them to trample on us. We will not allow them to stop the commission of Justice Khampepe.”
The Khampepe Commission, formally known as the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations Regarding Efforts to Stop the Investigation or Prosecution of TRC Cases, is investigating why several apartheid-era crimes recommended for prosecution by the TRC were never pursued.
The commission was established by Ramaphosa in May 2025 following litigation brought by victims’ families and the Foundation for Human Rights. Its mandate is to determine whether political interference or other actions led to the suspension or abandonment of investigations and prosecutions linked to TRC cases.
Public hearings began in late 2025.
However, Mbeki and Zuma later challenged Khampepe’s impartiality, arguing that her past positions could compromise her ability to lead the inquiry. Khampepe dismissed those objections in January 2026, but the matter has since moved into further legal proceedings. Ramaphosa has indicated that he will comply with any court order requiring her removal.
Calata went further, accusing Mbeki of halting prosecutions during his time in office and suggesting that Ramaphosa now appeared to be following the same path.
“If the Minister of Justice can call the national director of public prosecutions to stop arrests, then the question is who is above her, because she cannot make that decision on her own,” Calata said.
“The same thing seems to be happening again, with the current president telling the minister to tell Justice Khampepe to stop. These people must not take us for granted. We lost husbands, sisters and sons. We are tired. We want the truth and we want justice.”
Calata also accused Ramaphosa of hypocrisy, referring to remarks he made while attending the funeral of American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson.
“President Ramaphosa spoke about dignity and justice at Jesse Jackson’s funeral, but here at home he is not practising the same,” she said.
Thembi Simelane also called for the commission to be allowed to continue its work. She emphasised that the families themselves had not appointed Khampepe.
“We find it telling that the inquiry was established by the government, yet now the same government is distancing itself from it,” she said.
Simelane further accused the government and the National Prosecuting Authority of delaying progress in TRC-related cases for years. She said she had to compel the state to pursue charges more than three decades after the crimes were committed.
“We have lost many witnesses over the years,” she said. “It feels like a legal ploy. I have lost two perpetrators and family members who were supposed to testify. Since the TRC, we have largely been on our own, and we still want to know why there has been such a long delay.”
karabo.ngoepe@inl.co.za