Former Acting National Police Commissioner Timothy Williams says he declined an invitation from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to send a South African Police Service (SAPS) representative to an Interdepartmental Task Team (ITT) working on TRC cases because the body’s mandate was unclear.
The ITT had been established in late 2006 with the aim of expediting the investigations and prosecution of TRC Cases.
Williams, who succeeded national commissioner Jackie Selebi, was testifying on Day 65 of the TRC Cases Inquiry in Newtown, Johannesburg on Tuesday.
He says he told the then acting National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Mokotedi Mpshe, that SAPS attendance would be useless until the impasse on the role other departments were to play in deciding on the prosecution of cases was clarified.
“The director generals themselves had not met before February 2007 and this was now in 2008. They had not met for more than a year and there had been an impasse at that time. There was a lack of understanding or common understanding between the NDPP at that time because by then, Bikuli was at the NDPP and the national commissioner about their role as a committee and I was basically bringing to his attention that it serves no purpose for the ITT to meet without guidance of the DGs.”
TRC Cases Inquiry proceedings in the stream below:
