The South African Presidency has been accused of deliberately hiding a suspected controversial report on the Zimbabwe security forces role in last year's deadly post-election violence.
President Jacob Zuma's office has rejected numerous requests for the report, which was compiled last year by retired army generals, to be made public. The Presidency has made claims that former President Thabo Mbeki, who appointed the army generals to undertake the investigation, never received a written report. Instead, the then SADC appointed mediator in the crisis apparently only received oral feedback from the retired generals.
The Southern African Centre for Survivors of Torture, the South African Litigation Centre and the official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, recently invoked the 'Promotion of Access to Information Act' to force the President's Office to release the report. The groups insist that the report paints a 'devastating' picture of state-sponsored violence, which apparently shifted Mbeki's perceptions on the situation in Zimbabwe.
"The report is believed to have been hard-hitting and instrumental in the evolution of subsequent negotiations leading to the September Global Political Agreement," they said in a combined statement.
But former Presidency Director-General Frank Chikane has since denied that the former generals appointed by Mbeki made any written report to the former leader, or were given any documents for the purpose of compiling the report.
The Presidency's claims have been met with anger and disbelief by the non-governmental organisations that have supported the application for access to the report. Director of the South African History Archive (SAHA), Piers Pigou, on Friday said the Presidency is lying and is 'setting itself up to be questioned.' He said the details in the report are crucial to prompt the transformation of Zimbabwe's military, and prevent future abuses.
This is not the first time that the South African government has refused to publicise reports related to the crisis in Zimbabwe. In 2002, then President Mbeki appointed Judge Sisi Khampepe and current Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke to observe the Presidential election in Zimbabwe, but their report has never been released. More recently, the government asked the Constitutional Court not to publicly release a secret 60-page report containing correspondence between the South African and Zimbabwean governments. The request was made during a legal bid to prove that the Presidency did not abandon South African farmers during Zimbabwe's land grab.
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Nonsense, South Africa is not hiding ANYTHING. SW Radio you just full of soar grapes. Let's not forget, it was Radio Rwanda radio that called for the brutal murder of a million Tutsi. Never trust a radio 10,000 miles away from Zimbabwe make claims they cannot prove.
PLEASE GET SW RADIO OFF THIS BLOG. KEEP THEM IN THEIR BASEMENT STUDIO IN LONDON, UK
OOPS i think it is SOUR GRAPES THE OTHER WAYROUND !!!
All africa.com u are doing a great job getting the news from ALL SOURCES WHO ARE SOME OF THESE PEOPLE TO TELL U TO GET CERTAIN SOURCES OFF THE BLOG U HAVE MADE IT INTERESTING IF THEY CANNOT STAND THE HEAT THEY KNOW WHAT TODO!!!
Everybody is so sick and tired of the never ending Zimbabwe saga. J.Z should finalize the problem simply by releasing the report and lobbying the UN, AU and SADC to haul the Junta to the Haig. Use the KISS concept
Looks like Jacob Zuma-into-action has just stalled. now that he is the president he doesn't want to do the job of taking Bob to task. Before the SA election he said he was going to take Bob to task, now he's the president, he gets his houseboy to sweep it under the carpet. Maybe if that mound gets too high he might just trip up on it and fall flat on his face. Why are they hiding the report? maybe they helped Bob and don't want to be implicated.
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