TRC Final Report

Volume 1

Chapter 11

Part OtherDepts

Subsection 11

The South African National Defence Force

86 The Commission met with the Ministry of Defence to facilitate communication between the Defence Force and the Commission and to establish a nodal point for this purpose. It was agreed that all requests would be directed through this nodal point. The Commission, nevertheless, retained its right to proceed by way of executing a search warrant if it decided that such a step was appropriate.

87 The nodal point structure never operated smoothly, and a measure of suspicion and mistrust dogged the relationship between the Commission and the SANDF. Ultimately, these difficulties were communicated to the Ministry, and alternative arrangements were made.

National Intelligence Agency

88 A meeting was held with the Deputy Minister for Intelligence and senior members of the NIA, the South African Secret Services and the National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee. In consequence of this, a nodal point to facilitate communication between the NIA and the Commission was established.

89 In the light of the general assistance that the NIA offered to the Commission, liaison was handled jointly by the director of research and the director of investigations. This communication took place at a national level, and very little contact occurred regionally.

90 In respect of certain information held by the NIA, it was necessary to restrict access to persons who had been granted an appropriate security clearance or classification. Members of the national office of the Investigation Unit and members of the Research Department were appointed for this purpose. Their function was to evaluate the material in order to determine whether it was relevant to the Commission's work.

91 The question of security clearances generated considerable tensions within the Investigation Unit and indeed in the Commission as a whole, and a clear system was never implemented.

Attorneys-General

92 In terms of the Act, the Commission was required to conduct its activities with due regard to the interests of the administration of justice. This injunction presented unique challenges to the Commission in view of the fact that attorneys-general were active in the investigation and prosecution of matters which clearly fell within the mandate of the Commission.

93 In particular, the establishment of a Special Investigation Unit prior to the establishment of the Commission, under the direction and auspices of Dr Jan D’Oliviera, Attorney-General of Gauteng, necessitated communication between it and the Commission’s Investigation Unit. Tensions emerged in respect of what was perceived as interference in investigative work, a lack of co-operation regarding information or dockets available and a perceived slow progress in investigations. Most of the problems were experienced over the many matters being investigated by both the Commission and the D’Oliviera unit.

94 Communication channels were also established with other attorneys-general and regional units were encouraged to establish contact with offices in their areas. Essentially, these channels were established to enable regional units to obtain access to material to assist with the corroboration work being conducted in the regions and to enable consultation to occur in respect of the conduct of investigative inquiries in terms of section 29 of the Commission’s founding Act.

Other institutions and organisations

95 The Investigation Unit established sound relations with the Investigative Task Unit in KwaZulu-Natal. A procedure for obtaining access to information held by the Investigative Task Unit was established, and numerous meetings were held to facilitate proper co-ordination of activities.

96 Relations were also maintained with numerous NGOs, human rights organisations and political parties with the purpose of obtaining access to information both to facilitate corroboration work and as part of an information-gathering strategy.