OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday
FORMER Umkhonto we Sizwe commander and current foreign affairs official Robert McBride, former Vlakplaas police commander Eugene de Kock and rightwing leader Piet Skiet Rudolph have been given amnesty for various attacks committed during the apartheid era.
McBride and ANC special operations senior commander Aboobaker Ismail were given amnesty for their part in the 1986 bombing of Durbans beachfront Magoos Bar and Why Not Restaurant, which killed three people.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee also granted amnesty to Ernest Pule, Lester Dumakude, Johannes Molefe, Zahrah Narkedian, Edward Pierce, Marcell Andrews and Matthew Lecordier.
McBride and Ismael had applied for amnesty for planting a car bomb in front of the two bars, which were apparently frequented by apartheid security force personnel.
The bomb killed civilians Julie van der Linde, Marchelle Gerrard and Angelique Pattenden. Seventy-three civilians were injured. Seventy-one victims of the attacks were referred to the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee for consideration.
De Kock was given amnesty for an attack on an alleged transit house for anti-apartheid activists in Botswana in December 1988. Marthinus Ras, Johan Tait, Wilhelm Bellingan, Johan Hoffmann, Lawrence Haton, Nicholaas Vermeulen, Simon Radebe and Willem Nortje were also granted amnesty for the attack.
The TRC’s amnesty committee found that the applicants had made a full disclosure and that their actions were motivated by political considerations.
In the attack, Vlakplaas operatives destroyed a house in a village over the South African border. Two men were killed and Tawana Molema’s home was destroyed after explosives placed on a wall were set off.
The TRC also granted amnesty to rightwing leader Rudolph for an attack on the British Embassy in Pretoria, incitement to attack the ANC, and for distributing a video recording encouraging the overthrow of the government in 1990.
Four Durban security police were refused amnesty for their role in the abduction, unlawful detention and death of political activist Ntombikayise Kubeka in 1987.
Hendrik Botha, Johannes du Preez, Casper van der Westhuizen and Lawrence Wasserman were further refused amnesty for their disposal of Khubeka’s body and defeating the ends of justice.