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Vlok: 'NPA not one-sided'
30/07/2007 18:58 - (SA)
Pretoria - The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) cannot be blamed of being one-sided in the prosecution of people accused of crimes during the apartheid era, Spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi said on Monday.
He said the NPA had only just started with prosecutions of those who were involved in crimes in the apartheid era and who did not ask or receive amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). He added that more prosecutions might follow.
"You don't know whom we might be prosecuting tomorrow, we have just started with the prosecutions, and it's thus unfortunate that people blame us of being one-sided," Lesufi said.
He was reacting to an earlier report in which a man who lost his wife and two children in a landmine attack by the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) in 1985 said he wanted the African National Congress leaders who ordered the operation to be prosecuted.
'Ceased in favour of reconciliation'
Dirk van Eck said his purpose was not revenge, but that he wanted the NPA to rethink the planned prosecutions of Apartheid-era police minister Adriaan Vlok, ex-police chief Johann van der Merwe and three former high ranking police officials.
"We are busy rebuilding our country and we are well on our way, but this action where people are selectively being prosecuted undermines the whole country, it creates a situation where there is mistrust between the population," he said.
Van Eck, assisted by the legal team of the civil rights initiative AfriForum, sent a letter to the NPA asking that all political prosecutions based on events of the past be ceased in favour of reconciliation.
The letter also said if the NPA continued prosecution, then ANC leaders who had not been granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission should also be prosecuted.
Lesufi could not confirm whether the NPA had received the letter.
15 well-known ANC leaders
"Any person has the right to ask for an investigation, but the information we receive must be tested by a prosecutor to see if there is a case or not," he said.
Van Eck and his son Erick, who was two-years-old at the time, survived the 1985 landmine blast in which his wife, two children and three other people died.
The men who planted the landmine - Mthetheleli Zephania Mncube, Mzondeleli Euclid Nondula and Jabulani Sydney Mbuli - were granted amnesty for their action by the TRC.
The TRC found that the operation was sanctioned by the ANC.
Van Eck said it was the leaders and not the foot soldiers that he wanted prosecuted.
Afriforum's Kallie Kriel said there were 15 well-known ANC leaders who were responsible for giving permission for this and other actions at the time.
He refused to name them, saying they would wait for the NPA decision before taking further action.
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