Special Report Transcript Episode 73, Section 6, Time 45:52

On Monday the Truth Commission had an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis. Shortly afterwards the Commission held a press conference. // It was decided that we would enable Mr. Ntsebeza to speak to the full Commission which he did. We then asked him, in terms of the Act, to recuse himself so that the discussion could take place openly and freely. He did this. We had the full discussion; we made the decisions that the Archbishop has already outlined and these were conveyed to Mr. Ntsebeza who has accepted that. // We make clear our faith in our colleague, Dumisa Ntsebeza. Members of the Commission have worked very closely with him for nearly two years in situations of great pressure and sometimes crisis and we all believe implicitly in his integrity. This must not be construed however as representing a judgement on the facts in the current matter. The full Commission did not have all the evidence before it and even if it did, it quite clearly cannot be a judge in its own cause. To affirm our faith in the integrity of our own processes we are absolutely committed to the integrity of our processes as laid down by Parliament in the Act which governs our activities and we believe the Amnesty Committee’s actions have reflected that commitment. To ask the Minister of Justice and the President as a matter of extreme urgency and in the interest of the credibility and integrity of the Commission we appoint a top-level independent inquiry from outside the ranks of the Commission to prove not only the allegations against Mr. Ntsebeza, but the whole handling of the matter, from the outside both by the police and by the Commission. Such an investigation should be completed by the end of this month.

Notes: Alex Boraine at press conference; Archbishop Tutu

References: there are no references for this transcript