MONDAY 6.30PM
THE trial of former state president PW Botha, in the dock for refusing to respond to a subpoena from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was adjourned until August 17. Judgment is expected on August 18.
At the resumption of the trial on Monday after a few days’ ajournment, the state prosecutor, Bruce Morrison, called his final witness, Martin Coetzee, executive secretary of the TRC’s amnesty committee. Coetzee testified that of the 7060 amnesty applications received by the TRC, 346 were submitted by people who claimed to be members or former members of the security forces. Their amnesty applications related to 2500 incidents of gross human rights violations, he said.
Botha’s senior counsel, Lappe Laubscher, argued that the 346 amnesty applicants represented a tiny percentage of the total security forces. Earlier in the trial he had argued that the human rights violations were the fault of “a few bad apples” in the security forces, rather than a systemic attitude within the forces. The “bad apples” argument was rejected by the TRC chairman, Bishop Desmond Tutu.
Botha was astonished, lawyer Ernst Penzhorn said on Monday, that Tutu has called for an apology from him (Botha) without first reading his submission to the TRC. Botha would not respond, Penzhorn said, since he considered the request premature.