Oral arguments in Semenya’s TRC Inquiry recusal battle to be heard
Oral arguments for the recusal of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Cases Inquiry Chief Evidence leader, Adv Ishmael Semenya, will be heard in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
Last month, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the Justice Department objected to Semenya’s role at the commission, which Justice Sisi Khampepe chairs.
This resulted in an adjournment.
The inquiry is probing the two-decade delay in prosecutions in cases stemming from the commission’s hearings.
Counsel for the NPA, Adv Makhosi Gwala says, “The NPA is unsettled by the fact that that very policy is the policy that is said to have brought about the interference, the so-called interference in the prosecution of the apartheid crimes. That policy is central to these proceedings.”
Gwala says, “Now, you’ve got our colleague Advocate Semenya having advised on that policy and having given opinions on that policy. It then appears to us as the NPA that it is inappropriate that he should sit in the proceedings.”