WEDNESDAY, 6.00PM:
THE trial of former state president PW Botha adjourned on Wednesday afternoon after calling only one witness, Truth and Reconciliation Commission executive secretary Paul van Zyl.
Van Zyl said the reasons for the TRC wanting Botha to appear before it in person were that it would be able to include better evidence, get immediate responses to questions, and assess Botha’s demeanour. Collecting information to written correspondence would have been ineffective and time-consuming, he said.
WEDNESDAY, 8.30AM:
PW BOTHA stands trial on Wednesday morning, after a night of negotiations failed to reach settlement. ”He’s blown it,” said Truth Commission lawyer Jeremy Gauntlett, announcing on Wednesday morning that no deal had been struck.
Botha announced that he was going home to bed at 7.30pm on Tuesday night, leaving his own lawyers uncertain about whether he would agree to testify before the TRC (see below). Earlier, President Nelson Mandela phoned Botha to persuade him to testify in the interests of national reconciliation. But Botha appears to have put personal pride ahead of his lawyers’ advice.
WEDNESDAY, 11.00AM:
TRC spokesman John Allen said on Wednesday morning that even though the deadline had expired for agreement between Botha and the TRC, commission chairman Archbishop Desmond Tutu has not closed the door on negotiations.
Meanwhile, prosecutor Bruce Morrison said he wants the trial to get under way immediately. After missing the deadline for agreement set by Western Cape attorney-general Frank Kahn, Botha’s lawyers requested an hour’s postponement of the start of the trial. By 10.30am, the trial had not yet begun.
Morrison said he intends to call TRC executive secretary Paul van Zyl as the first witness and will spend ”some time” questioning him. Morrison added he will also be obliged to call Tutu as a witness.
WEDNESDAY, 4.15PM:
Speaking shortly after Botha’s trial finally got under way in the George Regional Court, Tutu said: ”I’m very deeply distressed because … yesterday we were [close to] an agreement.” He said lawyers for Botha and the TRC had put together a statement which had found general acceptance except for one or two small amendments.
”We went to bed thinking a deal was on the cards. It has not turned out that way at all. This morning our counsel said that Mr Botha basically broke off any discussions, and the case is going ahead.”
Tutu said he had since spoken to Botha, who was adamant he is prepared to talk only to Tutu himself, or President Nelson Mandela, and not to appear at a TRC hearing.