Lizeka Mda
Forget Zama-Zama. These days, the easiest way to make quick money is to represent former security officers in their amnesty applications.
Several hundred applications have already been processed and more are to come. And the taxpayer, through the relevant government departments, is footing the legal bill for these applicants.
To date, the Department of Safety and Security has received 414 applications for funding since the amnesty process began. For the small percentage of accounts that have been certified, the department has already paid out R2 782 558.
From these accounts, it is clear that a select few law firms are cashing in. The Pretoria law firm of Wagener Muller & Du Plessis accounts for 142 of the 232 applications, while Van der Merwe & Bester of Port Elizabeth represents 22 of the 79 applications in the Eastern Cape.
Johan Wagener, who was a state attorney during the apartheid years, resigned his position to form his own law firm. He represents, among others, former minister of police Adriaan Vlok, and former police commissioner Johan van der Merwe, and has instructed advocate Louis Visser – nicknamed “Goud Visser” in legal circles for the frequency with which he pops up – in all these matters.
Francois van der Merwe, representing clients like Gideon Niewoudt, an applicant in five matters – Mkhuseli Jack, Steve Biko, the Pebco Three, Siphiwo Mthimkhulu and the Motherwell Four – is instructing advocate Kobus Booysen.
With constant postponements, the legal bill is escalating. Ben Minnaar, from the office of the state attorney, confirms that it is a problem that hearings are postponed so frequently. The truth commission is feeling the pinch as well, and there are those who feel that some lawyers for victims prolong matters unnecessarily.
“There was no justification for George Bizos to question Clive Derby-Lewis for three days,” said one.
The TRC has announced that the life of the amnesty committee will be extended by four months and its members increased from seven to 19, at an additional cost of about R43- million.
The lawyers for the applicants aren’t complaining. Another five weeks of Eastern Cape hearings can’t be bad for their bank balances.
A Soman, the director of legal services in the secretariat for safety and security, says time and time again where the department is involved in litigation, some law firms are favoured over the majority.
He says he is watching the rulings of the amnesty committee with a keen eye and will see to it that the forfeiture clause, in which applicants who are denied amnesty pay back its legal costs, is enforced.
In practically all the hearings that have taken place so far, lawyers for the victims have opposed the applications on the basis that there is no full disclosure of the truth, a condition for granting amnesty.
One assumes that having anticipated that the Department of Safety and Security would pay close attention to the forfeiture clause, the applicants and their lawyers would have seen the wisdom of investing the money paid by the department in high-yield ventures.
Which goes to show that apartheid, a crime against humanity, not only pays, but pays handsomely.