FRIDAY, 2.00PM:
The entire national leadership of the African National Congress from 1961 to 1994, barring President Nelson Mandela, is to apply to the truth commission for amnesty, party representative Ronnie Mamoepa confirmed today.
The ANC’s military and political leadership structures will publicly accept responsibility for the actions of operatives in the field. The party will submit a comprehensive list of all its operations since 1961, with operatives giving details of their individual actions in their own amnesty applications. Leaders not directly involved in military operations will seek amnesty for the period they served on national structures. The only possible is exception is Mandela, who has remained above party political involvement with the commission.
ANC structures whose leaders will apply for amnesty include Umkhonto we Sizwe’s high command, its exiled military command, revolutionary council, political military council and MK military headquarters.
The amnesty application comes about as a result of the ANC’s national executive committee sub-committee on truth and reconciliation, chaired by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, making a recommendation that past and present members of the NEC and various command structures of MK should apply for amnesty, in line with the decision of the NEC to adopt the principle of collective responsibility for all acts conducted within the broad parameters of ANC policy against the apartheid regime. The application should encourage all ANC/MK members who served under these structures previously to apply for amnesty, Mamoepa said.