Late Prosecution in South Africa

South AfricaSouth Africa’s peaceful transitionTransition from apartheidapartheid to democracy is rightly regarded as a transitional justiceTransitional Justice success story. While the amnestyamnesty component of the transitional mechanisms was highly contentious, it was nevertheless accepted for pragmatic reasons. It was widely understood that prosecutions of apartheid-era perpetrators would resume for those who either failed to apply for amnesty or were unsuccessful in their amnesty applications to the Truth and Reconciliation CommissionReconciliation Commission (TRC). However, between 2003 and 2017, a political decision was made to bring an end to prosecutions of human rights violationshuman rights violations perpetrated under the apartheid regime. This much-criticised de facto amnesty, which stood in direct conflict with the amnesty compromise of the 1990s, was struck down by South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal in 2021, but whether the country’s criminal justice system has indeed been recommitted to the quest to end impunity for the crimes of the apartheid era is yet to be seen.