Nomgcobo Jiba testifies before the Khampepe Commission at Sci-Bono Discovery Centre in Johannesburg on 1 April. (Photo: Fani Mahuntsi / Gallo Images) The former Deputy National Director of National Prosecutions (DNDPP) and later acting NDPP, advocate Nomgcobo Jiba, was implicated in the disappearance of the Cradock Four docket in a May 2021 affidavit by advocate Raymond Christopher Macadam, then head of the Priority Crimes Litigation Unit (PCLU) dealing with Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) matters.
In his statement, Macadam claimed that the docket dealing with the Cradock Four murders (Swartskop CR 13/07/1985) had disappeared from the offices of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) after being requested by Jiba’s personal assistant in 2013.
Scapegoated
On Wednesday, Jiba told the Khampepe Commission, which is investigating political interference in the prosecution of apartheid-era crimes recommended by the TRC, that she had not been able to find any memorandums requesting the docket and that she was being “scapegoated”.
“I never asked for the docket. I am quite upset by the allegation. I am aware of that part of the affidavit of Mr Macadam. It did not go unnoticed because one member of the Cradock Four families deposed to an affidavit which refers to the affidavit of Macadam,” she said.
Macadam’s affidavit was used by the family of Fort Calata, one of the Cradock Four — the others were maths teacher Matthew Goniwe and his fellow United Democratic Front activists Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhlauli — who were abducted, tortured and murdered by security police in 1985.
The TRC granted amnesty to former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock for defeating the ends of justice by trying to cover up the assassinations. Amnesty was, however, refused to Eric Taylor, Gerhardus Lotz, Nicolas Janse van Rensburg, Harold Snyman, Johan van Zyl and Hermanus Barend du Plessis for their parts in the murders, as they had failed to make a full disclosure to the TRC.
Jiba said she had written to advocate Torie Pretorius — the special director of the PCLU after the removal of its original head, advocate Anton Ackermann, at the insistence of ANC senior leadership — about these matters. In 2013, advocate Mxolisi Nxasana was appointed as the new NDPP, and Jiba, who had been acting NDPP since 2011, resumed her former role of DNDPP.
Macadam was subsequently removed from the PCLU by Nxasana and assigned to focus on foreign bribery cases.
“That is the first time I requested the dockets. If I wanted to request the dockets even then, I could have done so through my memorandum,” said Jiba.
Sensitive to cases
Jiba said the only memorandum she had penned had been one asking for the identities of those who had been denied amnesty for the murder of Goniwe. She said a decision had been taken that a list of TRC cases should be forwarded for evaluation and that she had “left it at that”.
“I was very sensitive to these cases,” she told the inquiry.
She said that had she wanted the Cradock Four docket, as the acting NDPP, she had a right to ask for it and would have included this request in her letter.
“You can see in the last paragraph I would have said, ‘Attach the docket’, but it does not do that. I only asked for clarification.” She added that no one had approached her to inform her that the docket had gone missing.
‘No political interference’
Jiba said she had never been put under political pressure to delay the prosecutions of TRC matters.
“At no stage did Dr [Silas] Ramaite [then acting NDPP] ever give me any report that they were experiencing challenges of political interference from anyone. Our minister [of justice], Jeff Radebe, was very supportive,” she said.
/file/attachments/orphans/ED_0143240_487320.jpg "Advocate Silas Ramaite during an interview for the position of National Director of Public Prosecutions on 14 November 2018. (Photo: Phill Magakoe / Gallo Images)<br>")
2004 moratorium on cases
Advocate Howard Varney, for the families, thanked Jiba for her cooperation and her attempts to find documentation to help the inquiry.
Varney said that 2010 had been a key period in the delays and asked Jiba whether she had played any role in TRC cases, first as DNDPP and then as acting NDPP during that period. She replied she had not.
She said reports that had been compiled for her predecessor, advocate Menzi Simelane, had been sent to the NPA about TRC cases.
Jiba told the inquiry that a file with memorandums and other documents about the matter existed, but that she could not find it at the NPA offices.
Varney said evidence of correspondence from Ramaite to Themi Nkadimeng, the sister of the abducted and murdered student Nokuthula Simelane, referred to a moratorium that had been in place from 2004. Asked if Jiba had been aware of this, she replied that she had not.
Ramaite has testified to the inquiry that the then justice minister, Bridget Mabandla, had placed a moratorium on TRC prosecutions pending decisions by an external body, the Amnesty Task Team, established by then president Thabo Mbeki.
Jiba denied ever removing documents from the NPA. DM