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Zuma warns against 'witch-hunt'
06/08/2007 10:14 - (SA)
Johannesburg - A perceived "witch-hunt" against specific people involved in apartheid atrocities could revive "problems", African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma warned on Sunday.
The challenge to the country, its leadership and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was to get to the truth, but at the same time ensure there was reconciliation, he said.
Zuma was speaking at the unveiling outside Durban on Sunday of a tombstone honouring United Democratic Front and ANC activists who died in political violence.
His warning came as the Azanian People's Organisation (Azapo) called for the prosecution of "apartheid assassins" who were "absolved" by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
In a statement, Azapo demanded the prosecution of the killers of Black People's Convention vice-president Mthuli ka Shezi, SA Students' Movement president Okgopotse Tiro, and Zimele Trust administrator Mapetla Mohapi.
Pursuing justice
It also demanded justice for struggle hero Steve Biko, who founded the South African Students' Organisation.
"Azapo was not surprised that the (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) failed to mete justice to the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity.
"The National Prosecuting Authority must now take the mantle and pursue justice," it said.
Calls for the prosecutions of both apartheid leaders and freedom fighters have swelled in the past month since the NPA announced that it intended prosecuting former Law and Order Minister Adriaan Vlok, ex-police chief Johann van der Merwe and three former high ranking police officials.
They were to appear in court over a plot to kill director-general in the Presidency Frank Chikane.
It was while Chikane was secretary-general of the SA Council of Churches in 1989 that his underwear was lined with a poison which attacked his nervous system.
Starting prosecutions
At the time, NPA spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi said it had only just started with prosecutions of those who were involved in crimes in the apartheid era and who did not ask for or receive amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
Singled-out in a call for prosecution was former State President F W De Klerk, but the NPA said he was not being investigated for crimes committed during the apartheid era.
De Klerk himself denied ever condoning apartheid era murders or other gross violations of human rights. "I have not only a clear conscience, I am not guilty of any crime whatsoever," he said.
Azapo, however, reiterated the demand for his prosecution, maintaining that as "the head link in the apartheid chain of command", there was no way he could not have "directed nor been aware of apartheid crimes".
The Presidency has rejected suggestions that growing polarisation around the decision to prosecute Vlok ran the risk of undoing the process of reconciliation.
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