Why are the families seeking justice for apartheid crimes being made to wait for Godot?

President Cyril Ramaphosa and his government have a very strange way of demonstrating their understanding and sympathy for the families of victims and the survivors of apartheid-era crimes who are seeking R167 million in damages in court.

They say the right-sounding words, and then do the opposite – delaying justice and potential healing for these families.

Instead of negotiating in good faith to settle the issue quicker with the families – or at least with those where the facts are well known – and, thereby help bring justice closer, Ramaphosa wants the families to wait a couple more years.

If justice delayed is justice denied, then this must be a case of justice deliberately denied by a government that purports to care, to be sympathetic, but does something else.

We all know how slow and costly our courts are and how even more time-consuming and useless commissions of inquiry can be. Yet Ramaphosa wants the families to wait for some commission to finish its job, make recommendations, etc. And that would be after several postponements and so on. Remember the Seriti Commission that ran in a shambolic start-stop fashion for years, costing us tens of billions of rand, only to deliver a report that belongs to this day in the rubbish bin?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but a true “government of the people” would find a better way of demonstrating its understanding and sympathy for the Calata group of families and survivors than make them wait for some commission to finish its job?

This is by no means to say that South Africa doesn’t need a commission to look into the possible political interference that led to the cases pointed out by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for further action being left to gather dust all of those years.

The analogy used in court this week, that the families are being made to “wait for Godot” fits very well in this situation. While Godot never arrived for those poor souls waiting for him by some tree, justice may one day come – but it may be too late for some of the families members involved.

However, this isn’t really new. Poor Mzansi has been waiting for years for this Godot oke who never shows up. Our dreams just keep being deferred.