In a searing indictment of South Africa's post-apartheid leadership, top prosecutor Anton Ackermann detailed a systematic, state-sanctioned campaign to bury Truth and Reconciliation Commission cases, placing former president Thabo Mbeki at the centre of a 'Machiavellian' effort to guarantee impunity for apartheid-era perpetrators.

Prosecutor Anton Ackermann, who is recovering from a recent heart attack, testified virtually from Cape Town at the Khampepe inquiry into Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) prosecution delays on Wednesday, telling commissioners that the seeds for decades-long delays were sown by former president Thabo Mbeki in a "landmark" speech he delivered on 15 April 2003.

While during the first half of the speech, Ackermann said, Mbeki had "masterfully asserted that there would be no general amnesty and that the NPA would continue its duty to prosecute", later, in the same speech, he created the subsequent "means" to achieve his goals - specifically the 2005 amendments to the prosecuting policy - effectively creating a "backdoor amnesty".

Ackermann, the first head of the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA's) Priority Crimes Litigation Unit (PCLU), said that while Mbeki had maintained the public persona of a "statesman" and "intellectual leader", his administration had worked behind the scenes to orchestrate a "deeply unlawful" moratorium on TRC prosecutions.

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This interference, Ackermann said, was driven by a desperate search for a "political solution" to protect security forces from facing the law.

'Forgiveness cannot be demanded'

In a statement to the inquiry, Ackermann said it was important to note...