The Pretoria High Court will on July 28 hear an application by former President Thabo Mbeki and former Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla, as they seek to intervene in the constitutional damages litigation brought by 25 survivors and families of victims who were forcibly disappeared or killed during apartheid.

The families, and the Foundation for Human Rights (FHR), filed a court application against President Cyril Ramaphosa and the government in January, seeking R167-million in constitutional damages for what they say is government’s “gross failure” to adequately investigate and prosecute apartheid-era political crimes following the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Former National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli and National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) officials had stated that interference from Mbeki’s government resulted in the NPA ending TRC investigations into apartheid crimes that denied offenders amnesty.

Mbeki and Mabandla are seeking leave to intervene on the basis that they have a direct and substantial interest in the proceedings.

They deny that political interference stopped the TRC cases and claim that the application is defamatory.

“However, the families oppose their intervention, arguing that it is not possible to intervene simply to rebut adverse allegations. They point out that the relief they seek is not directed against Mbeki or Mbandla but against the State; and if they feel they have been defamed they have recourse through normal legal remedies,” said the FHR.

In April, the FHR said its attorneys had filed a notice of intention to oppose Mbeki and Mabandla’s court intervention against constitutional damages, in an application relating to TRC cases.

The foundation explained that the families assert that the application can be decided without the need to make findings in respect of individual role-players, which will be the task of the commission of inquiry established last month by Ramaphosa, although it is yet to commence its work.