NPA UPDATE ON CRADOCK 4 MATTER
The death of Mr Barend Du Plessis, the only remaining member of the Port Elizabeth Security Branch unit that abducted and killed the Cradock 4, is a setback in our collective quest to ensure justice for apartheid-era crimes
The matter was revived by the NPA in 2021 after the original case docket was lost and a new one reconstructed. It was allocated to a dedicated team of Eastern Cape Division advocates, who guide the investigation, working with the dedicated members of the Directorate of Priority Crimes Investigations (DPCI).
At that stage several suspects implicated in the murder of the Cradock 4 had died, and only the elderly Mr Barend Du Plessis was alive. However, there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him for the matter as the only evidence available was his testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). This evidence is not admissible against him and any other person in a criminal trial and therefore no decision to prosecute him could be made in the circumstances.
Despite NPA’s commitment and focused efforts to make progress on the case, the investigation process to gather more evidence faced unforeseen challenges and took longer than anticipated. TRC cases are uniquely complicated due to challenges relating to evidence collection.
Despite these challenges, the NPA had several meetings with the families of the deceased and their legal representatives to keep them updated on progress and share frank updates on challenges in evidence collection. In a virtual meeting on 5 October 2022, the NPA informed the families of the deceased and legal representatives of the families that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute anyone at that time.
The legal representatives of the families requested an opportunity to give further opinions, to have further consultation with the families and to be afforded time to make representations on the matter. On 2 March 2023 the legal representatives reverted to the NPA with further analysis of evidence of the TRC, which partially agreed with the inadmissibility of the TRC amnesty evidence.
Ultimately, the investigations did not yield sufficient, relevant and admissible evidence to proceed with a prosecution against anyone. In line with commitments made by the NPA leadership, prosecutors did everything possible to obtain the required evidence in order to bring the matter to trial.
The DPP from the Eastern Cape Division has made a decision on the matter but still needs to communicate this decision to the deceased families and their legal representatives.
We are committed to ensuring finality of the matter so that families can find some closure on this long outstanding matter. The frustration from the families of the deceased, and the nation at large is understandable. Unfortunately, the lack of admissible evidence to date has prevented the NPA from reaching a speedier resolution to this priority matter. We are disappointed at the lack of accountability for TRC crimes and frustrated by our inability to proceed due to lack of evidence, largely due to the time lapse. In this case death of the last suspect robbed the families of an opportunity to get justice.
