Mpshe concedes 2005 NPA guidelines were unconstitutional

Former Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Mokotedi Mpshe has conceded that Head of the Priority Crimes Litigation Unit, Anton Ackermann, was correct in his view that the amended National Prosecution Authority (NPA) prosecution guidelines passed in 2005 were unconstitutional. The guidelines originating from an inter-departmental Task Team of Director Generals, expanded the criteria for prosecuting apartheid-era perpetrators of human rights abuses. @TRC_inquiry TRC Cases Inquiry: Hearing Day 101 Thursday 29/10/2026 TRC Cases Inquiry Youtube Page: https://t.co/upT0TpiE9X — TRC_inquiry (@TRC_inquiry) October 29, 2026 Ackermann had rejected them as a way of granting back door amnesty to those who had not applied to the original TRC. Mpshe relieved Ackermann soon after his appointment to the role in September 2007, saying he was protecting him from stakeholders who did not want him to head the unit. He was being cross examined at the TRC Cases Inquiry in Johannesburg on his earlier evidence. Mpshe went on to defend the guidelines in court when they were challenged by the families of victims of apartheid era to have them struck down. The court subsequently found they were unlawful. “When I went through them myself then I realised that he may have had some merit on his attitude towards the guidelines and that is again stated in the case that was launched in the high court and that is why I say in hindsight because I was there when the guidelines were formulated and accepted by Parliament. At that stage one did not actually go deeper into them to understand what they meant until when they were challenged in court and I go his attitude towards them.” RELATED VIDEO | TRC Cases Inquiry | Eugene de Kock blames NPA for failure to prosecute