Victims’ families are suing the South African government for damages during the apartheid era

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and his administration are being sued by 25 survivors and relatives of victims of political crimes committed during the apartheid era for allegedly failing to adequately investigate these crimes and provide justice.

According to the case filed at the High Court in the capital Pretoria on Monday and relayed by the Foundation for Human Rights, an NGO that supports the families, on Thursday, the group is requesting damages of around 167 million rand ($9 million).

In addition, they are requesting an order for Ramaphosa to form a commission to investigate the “political interference that resulted in the suppression of several hundred serious crimes arising from South Africa’s past,” the applicants said in a statement.

According to a representative for Ramaphosa, the president has never meddled in the affairs of law enforcement or ordered them not to bring charges related to the apartheid era, and his legal team will react appropriately to the court documents.

After decades of imposing systematic racial segregation under a white minority administration, South Africa transitioned to a multiracial democracy in 1994.

Since then, the African National Congress (ANC) has held control, but after losing its majority in a national election last year, it was had to cede some of its authority to smaller parties.

The case’s first claimant is Lukhanyo Calata, the son of Fort Calata, one of the four “Cradock Four” anti-apartheid campaigners who were assassinated in 1985.

According to the statement, numerous important individuals connected to the murders have passed away, but no one has been charged in connection with the case, and a third inquest is scheduled to begin this year.

“Justice delayed in this manner has ensured that justice is permanently denied to our families,” Calata stated.

The other petitioners include the relatives of other anti-apartheid activists who were slain or went missing, as well as two survivors of the 1993 Highgate Massacre, in which five people were shot dead by a group of masked men at a hotel bar.

In 1996, South Africa established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to assist in exposing apartheid-era human rights abuses.

The TRC sent state prosecutors a list of several hundred instances for additional inquiry when it concluded in 2002, but many of them were never followed up on.

Odette Geldenhuys, an attorney for the applicants, stated, “The suppression of post-TRC accountability efforts has led to the loss of witnesses, perpetrators, and evidence, making prosecutions impossible in most cases and denying survivors and victims’ families rights to justice, truth, and closure.”

“Constitutional damages” are the type of compensation sought and granted when a court determines that the state has violated constitutional rights.

$1 is equivalent to 18.5640 rand.