{"id":95755,"date":"2026-02-12T09:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T09:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thembi-simelane-takes-stand-as-first-witness-in-trc-case"},"modified":"2026-02-12T10:50:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T10:50:56","slug":"thembi-simelane-takes-stand-as-first-witness-in-trc-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thembi-simelane-takes-stand-as-first-witness-in-trc-case","title":{"rendered":"Thembi Simelane Takes Stand as First Witness in TRC Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The long-delayed Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) cases inquiry is set to the have the first witness testify on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The commission kicked off on Wednesday with opening addresses.<\/p>\n<p>It has been nine months since President Cyril Ramaphosa established the commission, but it has been riddled with administrative delays and several recusal applications.<\/p>\n<p>The TRC cases inquiry is investigating allegations of political interference and deliberate attempts to impede the prosecution of apartheid era crimes.<\/p>\n<p>The first witness to take the stand at the TRC cases inquiry is Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane.<\/p>\n<p>Simelane\u2019s sister, Nokuthula, disappeared in 1983 while on a mission for the African National Congress (ANC) in Eswatini.<\/p>\n<p>While two of the suspects that were charged for Simelane\u2019s murder have since died, two security branch police Willem Coetzee and Anton Pretorius still stand accused.<\/p>\n<p>But the case been significantly delayed by Coetzee\u2019s application regarding his fitness to stand trial.<\/p>\n<p>Over the years, Simelane has taken on several legal battles to force the state to prosecute the alleged perpetrators behind her sister\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n<p>This was during the tenure of former president Thabo Mbeki and while Bridget Mabandla was the Justice Minister.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. The long-delayed Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) cases inquiry is set to the have the first witness testify on Thursday. The commission kicked off on Wednesday with opening addresses. It has been nine months since President Cyril Ramaphosa established the commission, but it has been riddled with administrative delays and several recusal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":95754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-95755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Thembi Simelane Takes Stand as First Witness in TRC Case - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The long-delayed Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) cases inquiry is set to the have the first witness testify on ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thembi-simelane-takes-stand-as-first-witness-in-trc-case\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thembi Simelane Takes Stand as First Witness in TRC Case\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The long-delayed Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) cases inquiry is set to the have the first witness testify on ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thembi-simelane-takes-stand-as-first-witness-in-trc-case\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-12T09:15:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-12T10:50:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770880767.830521.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thembi-simelane-takes-stand-as-first-witness-in-trc-case#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thembi-simelane-takes-stand-as-first-witness-in-trc-case\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Thembi Simelane Takes Stand as First Witness in TRC Case\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-12T09:15:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-12T10:50:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thembi-simelane-takes-stand-as-first-witness-in-trc-case\"},\"wordCount\":217,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thembi-simelane-takes-stand-as-first-witness-in-trc-case#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770880767.830521.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thembi-simelane-takes-stand-as-first-witness-in-trc-case#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thembi-simelane-takes-stand-as-first-witness-in-trc-case\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thembi-simelane-takes-stand-as-first-witness-in-trc-case\",\"name\":\"Thembi Simelane Takes Stand as First Witness in TRC Case - 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