/ 19 October 1998

Lady Grey attacker gets amnesty

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday 8.30pm.

THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Monday granted amnesty to former Azanian People’s Liberation Army cadre Steven Dolo for his role an attack on the Lady Grey police station in January 1992.

Dolo was previously jailed for the attempted murder of eight people. In passing judgment, the amnesty committee said Dolo hailed from Katlehong and was a complete stranger in the eastern Cape area where the acts were carried out. ”It is quite clear he had no personal motive or reason for coming to the Sterkspruit area, where he was deployed by his superiors to carry out the acts…”

”Although the applicant was at all material times receiving orders from Happy [Mpahlele], who used him to pursue what appears to have been the political agenda of Apla and the Pan Africanist Congress, he acted voluntarily and has no regrets about having been involved in the said activities.”

In his testimony before the TRC in April, Dolo told the TRC he carried out the attack with Raymond [”Happy”] Mpahlele, Apla’s director of operations, and another Apla cadre identified only as Vuyisile.