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In an October letter to the Black Lawyers Association, the ruling party made a special appeal to the organization to make legal knowledge available to help families who have had difficulties initiating private proceedings.
FILE: ANC Under Secretary General Jessie Duarte. Image: EWN.
JOHANNESBURG – The African National Congress (ANC) on Friday defended its decision to seek help from the Black Lawyers Association (BLA) in the form of pro-bono work to prosecute the crimes of the apartheid era.
In a letter sent to the body in October, the ruling party made a special appeal to the organization to make available legal expertise to help families who have had difficulty instituting private prosecutions.
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Despite the fact that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) held hearings during the dawn of the country’s democracy, many families continued to seek justice for their murdered loved ones.
ANC undersecretary general Jessie Duarte said there were more than 300 cases related to apartheid-era crimes, which had yet to be resolved.
Duarte explained that the party made the decision to enlist the support of “progressive” lawyers after the affected families expressed their struggle to take the cases to court, mainly due to the decrease in finances, since they had to take advantage of their own pockets.
“And even if 25 years have passed, those families still feel the pain and have the right to be assisted. And it is on that basis that we agreed to set up a technical team, ”he said.
The ANC is working with the Foundation for Human Rights, among other activists.
Duarte also emphasized that his intervention was not an accusation to the work of the National Prosecutor’s Office (NPA). He said they would also reach out to academia to request archival material, which could help with cases.
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