OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Tuesday
FORMER anti-apartheid cleric and now director-general in the Presidency, Reverend Frank Chikane, says he wants those responsible for him being at death’s door four times to admit it and apologise.
Speaking outside the Pretoria High Court after testifying in the trial of apartheid chemical warfare expert Dr Wouter Basson, Chikane said he had forgiven his tormentors, but “until the perpetrator says ‘I am sorry and I want to change and live a different life,’ he becomes a prisoner forever, even if I have forgiven him. So my forgiveness does not liberate the perpetrator.”
The charges against Basson include one of conspiracy to murder Chikane.
The State alleges that Chikane’s clothes were laced with poison while he was en-route to Namibia in April 1989. He was the general-secretary of the South African Council of Churches at the time.
While in Namibia on SACC business, he became ill, Chikane testified. His symptoms included nausea, respiratory problems, abdominal pain, vomiting, muscular pains and trembling.
The doctors did not know what was wrong with him. “They just battled to keep me alive. I was in a mess. My whole system was falling apart. I had pain everywhere.”
After resting at the house of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Dr Desmond Tutu for 10 days, he flew to the United States. Chikane’s wife studied there and he and other anti-apartheid activists were scheduled to meet President George Bush to ensure that loans to the South African government were not rescheduled.
He took the same bag of clothes with him that he had in Namibia. On his first day in the US, he became very ill with the same symptoms.
Chikane was transferred to the training hospital of the University of Wisconsin, where his case baffled doctors.
He recovered and was discharged, but only a day later he was back in hospital in immense pain. Two or three days later he recovered and was discharged.
For his own safety he was moved into the house of the university’s president. But two days later he was again in hospital. He thought he would not survive, Chikane said.
Dr Daniel Smith, a specialist who was responsible for Chikane in the Wisconsin Hospital, testified Chikane’s symptoms were best explained by organophosphate poisoning.