WEDNESDAY, 12.30PM:
WESTERN Cape attorney-general Frank Kahn said on Wednesday that he will prosecute former apartheid president PW Botha for disobeying a subpoena to testify before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Botha has ignored three subpoenas to appear before the commission, which wants to question him about the activities of the erstwhile State Security Council, the apartheid government’s highest security body in during the state of emergency of the late 1980s, of which Botha was chairman.
The press conference at which Kahn made the announcement is ongoing, and it is not clear at this stage what charges will be laid against Botha.
Although the charge, or charges, are liklety to be relatively minor, Kahn’s decision represents a major victory for the TRC. The commission faces a credibility problem over Botha’s continued refusal to appear before it, with favoritism toward former white leaders being alleged.
Botha has called the Truth Commission a ”circus” and a witch hunt against apartheid leaders and repeatedly said he will not testify. Earlier, Botha’s lawyers had delivered 1 700 pages of documents in which the former president denied knowledge of killings, torture or bombings carried out by security forces.
President Nelson Mandela has warned Botha that no one is above the law, not even the 81-year-old former president of apartheid South Africa.
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