Former South African president Thabo Mbeki has rejected claims that he secretly met former apartheid-era military and police generals to block prosecutions over human rights abuses. Testifying before the Khampepe Commission of Inquiry into delays in prosecuting Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) cases, Mbeki said the generals contacted him in 1996 seeking a meeting with the African National Congress about applications for amnesty.
Mbeki said he believed former president FW de Klerk and his cabinet should submit applications as well. He told the commission that the ANC later sought collective amnesty for some of its leaders in an effort to persuade the apartheid-era leadership to follow suit, although the courts subsequently overturned that move.
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He also insisted that his administration had never instructed the National Prosecuting Authority to stop or bury investigations, saying responsibility for prosecutions rested with the NPA. Mbeki defended a 2003 speech to Parliament and subsequent arrangements concerning pardon applications, arguing that they were intended to promote truth-telling—not provide blanket immunity to those implicated in apartheid-era crimes.
