Vlok on pardons list

2009-06-08 07:47

Philda Essop

Cape Town – Various right wingers who committed “serious racist violent crimes” are among those who are recommended for a presidential pardon along with former law and order minister Adriaan Vlok.

A list of 121 names of inmates and others who have been recommended by the Pardons Reference Group for presidential pardons, was released to the public on Friday.

This list was given to former president Kgalema Motlanthe in March. However, an interdict granted by the North Gauteng High Court in April prevented the president from enacting the pardons.

A special dispensation regarding presidential pardons was established by former president Thabo Mbeki, designed to handle any “unfinished business” of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

The Pardons Reference Group is a multi-party committee, with Tertius Delport as its chair.

Victims

According to a press release by the Civil Society Coalition, which includes the Khulumani support group, the list was known to the applicants, but the victims never had access to the list.

One of the applicants, Ryan Albutt, applied directly to the Constitutional Court last week for leave to appeal against the interim interdict.

The list with the 121 names was attached to Albutt’s court documents as an addendum. According to the press release, Albutt is a member of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) who was found guilty of participating in an attack in Kuruman in 1995 in which one person died and 200 were injured.

Other names on the list apparently include those who were responsible for the Christmas Eve bombing in Worcester in 1996, which killed five people and seriously injured 67 people.

“It appears as if the Reference Group was not strict enough in determining whether the applicants had committed perjury in their applications, which renders the entire process highly suspicious and totally inadequate,” reads the release.

- Die Burger