Ngcuka fails to avoid cross-examination at TRC Cases Inquiry

Lawyers for former National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP)  Bulelani Ngcuka have failed to avoid cross-examination of their client at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Cases Inquiry taking place in Newton, Johannesburg.
They argued that a directive given by Chairperson Justice Sisi Khampepe, allowing counsel for the victims of families to question him, did not comply with the Inquiry’s rules.
This is due to the fact that Ngcuka did not implicate anyone in his witness statement, and the families had relied on Rule 3.4, which speaks to implicated persons being allowed to cross-examine witnesses.
Ngcuka served as head of the NPA between 1998 and 2004.
Advocate Rafik Bhana addressed the inquiry on Ngcuka’s behalf: “It is not that there is anything that we wish to shield Adv. Ngcuka from, but the issue is a critical one of vires and powers of the commission to direct a cross-examination in circumstances where there is no meeting of the jurisdictional requirements, and the rule and we all know that in commissions the right of cross-examination is a very limited one. It is not even an automatic one; it is a privilege that you and the commissioners give a party, but to qualify for that  privilege, those requirements must be met.”
VIDEO | TRC Cases Inquiry on March 2, 2026:

www.sabcnews.com, https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/ngcuka-fails-to-avoid-cross-examination-at-trc-cases-inquiry/