NPA probing deaths of 38 in apartheid-era detention
National prosecutions head Shamila Batohi says the NPA will reinvestigate the deaths of 38 people at the hands of apartheid-era police.
Batohi briefed Parliament’s justice committee on Wednesday on progress in processing Truth and Reconciliation Commission prosecutions.
Last week Justice Minister Ronald Lamola asked the Western Cape judge president to designate a judge to reopen the inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist Imam Abdullah Haron.
Haron died in police detention in September 1969 after he was in solitary conferment for 122 days.
Batohi told MPs the families of those who died in detention deserve justice.
"You will recall in recent times these cases, there were families of detainees that had died, who had means and were able to get lawyers appointed and try to push these cases.
“What we have done is reopened all these cases. We are looking at all these matters and even in cases where families cannot afford this. We are now looking at all the deaths in detention and we have reopened 38 investigations in that regard."
