ISTANBUL

Apartheid-era crime survivors and families have sued President Cyril Ramaphosa and his government in the Pretoria High Court, seeking damages for the “gross failure” of investigation and prosecution over apartheid crimes.

The survivors of the Highgate Hotel Massacre, Neville Beling and Karl Weber, as well as the families of the Cradock Four, are among the several applicants of the case filed on Jan. 20, according to the statement released by the Foundation for Human Rights on Thursday.

The Cradock Four were a group of four anti-Apartheid activists who were abducted and murdered by South African security police in June 1985.

Lukhanyo Calata, the son of Fort Calata who was one of the Cradock Four, said that successive governments, starting with President Thabo Mbeki’s administration, failed to act on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's (TRC) recommendations to prosecute apartheid-era crimes, including forced disappearances and murders of anti-apartheid activists.

Apartheid was a system of racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 to 1994, where the white minority oppressed the non-white majority through discriminatory laws.

South Africa ended decades of apartheid rule in 1994 with its first multiracial election, which saw the governing African National Congress (ANC) party, led by Nelson Mandela, emerge victorious and establish a democratic government.