OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday
THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee says it can find no evidence that white policemen with black-smeared faces and balaclavas took part in the massacre of 45 ANC supporters in Boipatong in 1992, according to a report in Afrikaans daily Beeld.
This finding is made in the committee’s report which grants amnesty to 13 members of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), said the newspaper.
The finding contradicts the consistent insistence of the ANC and other parties that the police participated in the gruesome attack.
At least 45 ANC supporters were murdered on the night of 17 June 1992 in the East Rand township by a group of IFP members.
The commission says that many of the Boipatong victims testified that there were police vehicles in the area during the attack.
It was clear that there was total chaos in the township immediately after the attack, with police vehicles and ambulances all over the place and people who were anxiously searching for their next-of-kin.
“We believe that the evidence of victims about the presence of police vehicles at the time of the attack must be seen against this background. The presence of police shortly before and after the attack could easily have brought township residents to the conclusion that the attackers were accompanied by police,” Beeld quoted the report as saying.
The report says, however, that there are “strong indications” that the leaders of the attackers had information at their disposal about movements of police patrols and when it would be safe to attack.
“We need not speculate how they obtained this information. It is, however, sufficient to say that there is no credible evidence to indicate that there was a conspiracy between the leaders of the attack and the police.”
A legal representative for some of the 17 applicants, said amnesty for three of the applicants had been turned down because they had continually denied their part in the massacre. A fourth applicant was also unsuccessful because he never pitched up at the hearings.
One of those whose applications was turned down was Andries Nosinga, who was also the only one of the 17 who insisted that the police were present on that night, said Beeld.
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