Former South African (SA) President Thabo Mbeki has described the agreements reached between the African National Congress (ANC) party and the apartheid government during SA’s transition to democracy as a jigsaw puzzle, with every piece needing to be respected.
Mbeki made the remarks during his introductory statement at the Truth Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Cases Inquiry in Newtown, Johannesburg, on the 95th day of public hearings.
Using the analogy of a jigsaw puzzle, he said the various agreements formed part of a single framework that guided the country’s transition to democracy.
The pieces, he said, represented various issues including the agreed-upon sunset clauses, national reconciliation legislation and justice mechanisms through the TRC process.
“Some General Van der Merwe from the old order comes and says I have got a file on Mbeki, I am going to get him charged so the suggestion that Thabo Mbeki gets frightened and decides to change the policy on justice to save his own skin. I am saying it can’t happen because if you change the policy of justice, you collapse the whole construct. I am raising this issue of the way the ANC approached what it should do with the pieces in the jigsaw.”
—SABC—
