'I wanted to tell truth'
2007-08-17 14:17
Pretoria - Apartheid-era securocrats claimed on Friday they had always been prepared to disclose the truth about attempts to murder Reverend Frank Chikane 18 years ago.
"After the commencement of the Truth and Reconciliation process and the amnesty trials, we were prepared to apply for amnesty in this case," former police minister Adriaan Vlok and four others said. This after being sentenced by the Pretoria High Court for the attack on the former SA Council of Churches secretary-general.
"However, as is clearly revealed in the plea agreement, we were only in possession of limited information and, as the SA Defence Force emphatically refused to take part in the process, there was no conceivable way in which we were able to reveal all the facts."
An application for amnesty would therefore have been unsuccessful, they said.
Indemnity for some deeds
They nonetheless tried, but the national director of prosecutions rejected their applications that contained full disclosures, they said.
"We also received indemnity ... for certain deeds committed with a political objective in the conflict of the past," they said.
It included attempted murder in cases in which a dangerous wound was not inflicted, which they understood was applicable in the Chikane case.
"The National Prosecution Authority (NPA), however, also rejected the indemnity."
The five further claimed that they could have approached the Supreme Court to review the decision of the NPA.
"Hard experience, however, taught us that the NPA would have probably appealed against any ruling of the Supreme Court and would most probably have taken the matter to the Constitutional Court as a last resort."
They said it would have cost them up to R2m in legal fees, which they could not afford.
The statement further pointed out that the plea agreement made mention of an order that certain activists were, in exceptional circumstances, to be eliminated and that this order "came from above".
The statement read that Vlok and Van der Merwe presumed that the order to kill Chikane had been given by former president PW Botha, but they never received confirmation of their presumption.
"With the exception of the attempt on the life of Rev Chikane, no other person was killed or injured as a result of this order," read the statement.
Polygraph tests had confirms this, it added.
"This incident emphasises the fact that political leaders and persons in positions of authority are largely protected from prosecution, whilst the foot soldier finds himself in a vulnerable position."
- SAPA