South Africa's controversial Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) faces its most serious crisis yet; one which has the capacity to undermine its credibility at home and abroad. The crisis revolves around suspicions that the head of its investigation unit, Mr Dumisa Ntsebeza, may have provided the getaway car for Azanian People's Liberation Army combatants who attacked a tavern in Cape Town in December 1993, killing four people and wounding five.
The allegations, originally recorded in a police file, have been given renewed relevance by identification of Mr Ntsebeza as the driver of the getaway car by a key witness in last week's amnesty hearing of the three imprisoned combatants.
The TRC will hold a special meeting today to discuss the charges against the head of its investigation unit. Mr Ntsebeza has insisted that he is the victim of a police disinformation campaign, the original investigation having been carried out by police officers during the last months of the white minority government.
Mr Bennet Sibaya, the man who identified Mr Ntsebeza, is a gardener from one of Cape Town's black townships; he is suspected by Mr Ntsebeza's legal advisers of having been paid by police to implicate the TRC man in the attack.
According to evidence heard during the amnesty hearing, Mr Sibaya earns 480 rand a month but showed an estate agent a bank statement indicating that he had nearly 500,000 rand in his account.
But relatives of the victims of the attack on the tavern have criticised the treatment of Mr Sibaya during the amnesty hearing, accusing one of the judges of ridiculing his testimony.
To prove he has a good memory and would have had no trouble in memorising the registration number of the getaway vehicle - which was allegedly that of Mr Ntsebeza's car - Mr Sibaya told the amnesty hearing he could remember the price of a sheep he bought decades ago, to which Judge Hassen Mall remarked that Mr Sibaya could no doubt remember the name of the sheep as well.
In a letter released to the media, 10 relatives of the victims express disillusionment with the amnesty process, describing it as "simply part of the political solution whereby perpetrators of human rights will be granted amnesty as a reward for their loyalty to their master".
That appears to be a reference to the absence of Mr Ntsebeza's name in statements to the amnesty committee from the insurgents convicted of the attack. The letter goes on to specifically cite Judge Mall's response to Mr Sibaya as a reason for concern. Judge Mall has since apologised for the remark.