South Africa apartheid survivors sue for justice

Apartheid-era survivors and families of victims are suing President Cyril Ramaphosa and his government for failing to deliver justice.

The case, filed in Pretoria High Court, accuses the government of neglecting investigations and prosecutions for apartheid-era atrocities.

Applicants include survivors of the Highgate Hotel Massacre, Neville Beling and Karl Weber, alongside families of the Cradock Four victims.

The Cradock Four, anti-apartheid activists, were abducted and murdered by South African security forces in June 1985.

Lukhanyo Calata, son of Fort Calata, one of the Cradock Four, criticized successive governments for ignoring Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) recommendations.

The TRC had urged prosecutions for apartheid crimes, including forced disappearances and murders, but little action followed.

Apartheid, South Africa’s system of racial segregation from 1948 to 1994, oppressed the non-white majority through discriminatory policies.

The oppressive system ended with the 1994 multiracial election, ushering in Nelson Mandela’s democratic African National Congress (ANC) government.

Activists argue that justice remains elusive for apartheid-era crimes, tarnishing hopes for true reconciliation in post-apartheid South Africa.

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