THURSDAY, 5.15PM:
FORMER state president PW Botha was itching for his trial to continue on Thursday afternoon, but it has been postponed to June 1 to allow his lawyers time to examine additional documents presented by the prosecution.
Botha said: “This case was set for four days. Come let’s go on.” He told advocate Piet de Jager who had called for the postponement: “I’m the one standing here, not you.” De Jager took Botha by the arm and tried to march him out of the courtroom, saying “I’m the one who is trying to help you.”
Botha, who is being tried for ignoring a Truth and Reconciliation Commission subpoena to testify about the State Security Council he chaired in the 1980s, said in a statement that he found it “unacceptable” that the case has been delayed because of unsubstantiated allegations having been made.
The allegations in question were made by TRC executive secretary Paul van Zyl, whose testimony suggested Botha ordered or condoned torture and assassination as SSC chair.
His lawyer, Ernst Penzhorn, said that Botha did not want Van Zyl’s testimony left hanging without cross-examination.
Penzhorn effectively ruled out any deal with the TRC allowing Botha to escape trial: “I think it is Mr Botha’s wish that the case continue.”
THURSDAY, 4.00PM:
A LIST of the high-profile activists and politicians that the apartheid government considered to be a threat, compiled by the State Security Council, was revealed on Thursday during the trial of former president PW Botha. Botha is being prosecuted for ignoring a Truth and Reconciliation Commission subpoena to answer questions about the SSC.
TRC executive secretary Paul van Zyl, explaining why Botha should testify, told the George Regional Court that the list, compiled in July 1986, was circulated to former defence force chief Jannie Geldenhuys and former National Intelligence Services head Niel Barnard.
Among those the report suggested should be “restricted” but not detained, were Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, then-United Democratic Front leader Allan Boesak and current Justice Miinister Dullah Omar, then also a leading figure in the UDF.
Stratcom, the SSC’s covert operations arm, was to “deal” with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Alex Boraine, now chairman and deputy chairman respectively of the TRC; Cyril Ramaphosa, then general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers; Catholic leader Dennis Hurley; and opposition parliamentarian Frederick van Zyl Slabbert.
Investigations were recommended for Gill Marcus, now deputy finance minister; Charles Nupen; Mary Burton, then of the Black Sash; NUM president James Motlatsi; Sydney Mufamadi, now safety and security minister; banned activist Helen Joseph; and lawyers Geoff Budlender, Halton Cheadle, Fink Haysom, Sydney Kentridge, Arthur Chaskalson — now President of the Constitutional Court — and George Bizos.
Van Zyl said that more than 2000 people have testified to the TRC that they were tortured by police between 1980 and 1989, and the TRC wants to know whether torture was state policy, whether it was deliberately increased under the 1986 state of emergency, and whether any steps to prevent it existed.