OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 5.00pm.
FORMER President FW de Klerk has accused the Mail & Guardian of attempting to “smear” him and the New National Party on the eve of next Wednesday’s election, by revealing records which suggest he participated in a decision to have activist Matthew Goniwe murdered in 1984.
Friday, 5.00pm:
THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee is to consider reopening hearings into the murder of activist Matthew Goniwe after new evidence his death was ordered by the apartheid government.
The Mail & Guardian on Friday published the first proof, minutes of a 1984 State Security Council at which Goniwe was ordered to be “removed”, that the National Party cabinet of PW Botha directly ordered the murders of activists.
Barend du Plessis, then minister of black education, told the meeting — at which former state president PW Botha, former president FW de Klerk, former minister of foreign affairs Pik Botha and Freedom Front leader General Constand Viljoen were present — that it would be good if Goniwe was “removed”.
The amnesty committee’s executive secretary Martin Coetzee said on Friday that it would consider the minutes after they were forward to it by George Bizos, SC, acting for the families of the Cradock Four victims. Du Plessis, now a successful businessman said “never meant or even remotely suggested that a person may have been killed, ” according to reports.
“Even if I did (use the Afrikaans word ‘verwyder’ or removed), the simple fact is… that taking Mr Goniwe from a school in Cradock to a school elsewhere certainly would not have been welcomed by him.
“In other words, if a person doesn’t do something voluntarily, you ‘verwyder’ him,” Du Plessis said.
However, Du Plessis told the M&G’s Mungo Soggot this week: “I have no recollection whatsoever”.
Du Plessis claims he wanted to “redeploy” Goniwe, who was a teacher, because of Cradock’s political climate.
Asked why President Botha and the cabinet would discuss the transfer of an unemployed teacher at a security meeting, De Klerk said from London: “Many things which shouldn’t take place at the security council took place. It was security related because Goniwe was regarded by the security people as a security problem. Those are the facts and I am sure if you phone Barend he will tell you the same.”
None of the men present at the security council 1984 meeting have applied for amnesty, which means they could now all be exposed to prosecution for, at the very least, being party to a conspiracy to murder.
Goniwe and Fort Calata were stabbed, mutilated and then burnt to death near Cradock in the Eastern Cape. Two of their colleagues — Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhauli — were also killed during the hit, on June 27 1985.
The committee, meanwhile, has not made a decision on who whether amnesty should be granted to six men who have claimed responsibility for the Cradock Four’s murders.
But General Nico van Rensburg, Major Herman du Plessis, Captain Izak van Zyl, Lieutenant Eric Taylor, Sergeant Gerhardus Lotz and Colonel Harold Snyman claim they do not know who ordered the killings.
Bizos is opposing their amnesty attempt as he says they have not made a full disclosure.