TRC ROULETTE : Declassified document shows ANC were favourable to offering indemnity to apartheid-era crimes.
Minutes reveal former apartheid president FW De Klerk told his final Cabinet meeting that an agreement with Nelson Mandela and the ANC on indemnity for apartheid crimes was reached 48 hours before the 1994 election — igniting accountability questions.
A recently declassified document reveals that the apartheid-era governing ANC was in favor of offering indemnity to crimes committed during the era. Former President FW de Klerk announced this "agreement" in a 48-hour special Cabinet meeting just before South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994. The agreement, aimed at "national reconciliation," allowed the ANC to avoid prosecution for politically motivated crimes.
This information has raised questions about whether the ANC's leadership was involved in a secret political settlement or deal. The declassification of these minutes sheds light on early discussions surrounding a potential "Pact of Forgetting" and raises concerns about political interference in the process of accountability for apartheid-era crimes.
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