Four apartheid killers were indicted on charges of murder and kidnapping last week. But why has it taken democratic South Africa so long to move on these murderers, asks Jacques Pauw.
In 2003, more than 400 investigation dockets pertaining to the so-called "TRC-cases" landed on the desk of a special director of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), senior advocate Anton Ackermann.
On receipt of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report in that year, then-President Thabo Mbeki announced that the prosecution of perpetrators who had refused to apply for amnesty or whose applications were rejected must be left to the NPA as part of the "normal legal process".