SA Presidency accused of hiding Zim violence report

30 May, 2009 in South Africa, Zimbabwe

source: SW Radio Africa
By Alex Bell
29 May 2009

The South African Presidency has been accused of deliberately hiding a suspected controversial report on the Zimbabwe security forces role in last year’s deadly post-election violence.

President Jacob Zuma’s office has rejected numerous requests for the report, which was compiled last year by retired army generals, to be made public. The Presidency has made claims that former President Thabo Mbeki, who appointed the army generals to undertake the investigation, never received a written report. Instead, the then SADC appointed mediator in the crisis apparently only received oral feedback from the retired generals.

The Southern African Centre for Survivors of Torture, the South African Litigation Centre and the official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, recently invoked the ‘Promotion of Access to Information Act’ to force the President’s Office to release the report. The groups insist that the report paints a ‘devastating’ picture of state-sponsored violence, which apparently shifted Mbeki’s perceptions on [continue reading]

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