Bid to access apartheid-era secret military documents
THE continuing legal battle for the right to gain access to apartheid-era records held by the Department of Defence and Military Veterans is this week back in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg.
Lawyers for Human Rights is taking on the plight of the non-profit organisation Open Secrets in a bid for these documents to be made available.
This is an almost 10-year-long fight which relates to information that was requested about the policies and practices of the apartheid government during the height of apartheid-era international arms sanctions busting.
The 95 folders sought contain information concerning dozens of secret apartheid-era military procurement projects as well as visits and liaisons with people and organisations in countries such as Argentina, China, France, Israel, Paraguay, Portugal, Switzerland, Taiwan and the US.
The organisation said these were clearly of enormous public importance for understanding South Africa’s violent past. These records were and are still needed by organisations such as Open Secrets to piece together the story of what happened, why and who was accountable.
According to Lawyers for Human Rights, the importance of this material is central to the truth telling and exposing of hidden histories, as Open Secrets has shown in the book Apartheid Guns and Money.
This fight for access to apartheid-era records started in 2013 when the South African History Archive Trust requested access to various documents which are in the possession of the department.
Between 2015 and 2016, the department furnished some declassified records, but informed the trust that it had taken a decision to exclude other records.
This request was undertaken in consultation with Open Secrets, a civil society organisation focused on investigating the links between economic crime and human rights abuse.
Following several attempts at engaging with the department in order to access these records, Lawyers for Human Rights turned to the court to try to force the department to furnish the refused records.
The application was first heard in January last year, and the trust obtained a court order for the department to provide it with the records.
Lawyers for Human Rights said it attempted for six months to enforce the court order and get the records from the department. However, the department applied to have the court order rescinded (overturned).
The trust was, meanwhile, dissolved and therefore could no longer oppose the department’s rescission application. As a result, in November last year, it notified the department that Open Secrets, its long-time partner on these requests, would replace it in the court case.
The department then launched an application to oppose the substitution on the basis that the requirements for substitution were not met and that if it were to be allowed, the department would be prejudiced.