Pressure is mounting on President Thabo Mbeki to explain the criteria he used to pardon 33 prisoners in the Eastern Cape at the weekend.
The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) said on Thursday Mbeki’s decision to pardon the 33, some of whom were denied amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, needed to be ”seriously and strongly challenged”.
And Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon earlier on Thursday said there appeared to glaring inconsistencies in Mbeki’s decision to pardon them.
Leon called on Mbeki to ”come clean” at a press briefing in Cape Town. Mbeki should define the criteria he used in determining who should be pardoned, he said.
The IJR said in a statement: ”Questions abound. By what criteria were these people released? Why them and not others? Who are they? Why were they refused amnesty? For what are they now pardoned?
”A pertinent question needs to be asked: ‘Why are perpetrators who were denied amnesty apparently favoured over victims still awaiting reparations?”’
Mbeki pardoned the 33 Eastern Cape convicts at the weekend — all of them said to members of the Pan Africanist Congress and the African National Congress.
Some of the crimes committed by the prisoners included murder and robbery, and Mbeki said the group was pardoned on the ground that they fought against apartheid in South Africa.
The IJR said not disclosing the criteria would lead to suspicion, and suspicion would undermine reconciliation.
”What the present crisis highlights is not the failure of the commission — imperfect as it may have been — but the need for government to provide a comprehensive policy on reparations and amnesty as a matter of urgency,” the Cape Town-based organisation said.
It said the major objective of the TRC was to establish the truth and reconciliation as a basis for nation building.
”The two are inherently linked. This makes any attempt, such as that by (Justice) Minister (Penuell) Maduna, to reduce the commission?s work to reconciliation alone counterproductive to a carefully honed balance entrenched in the nation?s Constitution,” said the organisation.
Meanwhile, the SABC reported that Maduna said there would be no general amnesty for right-wingers serving jail terms. The public broadcaster said Maduna made the statement very clear at the closing session of the 31st African Commission on Human and People’s Rights in Pretoria on Thursday.
The minister’s words followed speculation that amnesty for right-wingers was also on the cards.
Most political parties have criticised the government for what they are calling ”one-sided” pardons that only benefit members of the ANC and the PAC. Maduna said the group was released after applying for individual pardons and that the Constitution supported Mbeki’s decision to pardon them.
”I need to underline we are not starting any process of general amnesty, because as you know — general amnesty has all sorts of implications.
”And indeed there was a reason why we didn’t go that route and we went the TRC route in the first place,” he was quoted as saying. Maduna said anybody was free to petition the Head of State and make a proper motivation as to why they should be pardoned.
On Wednesday the government announced that in the next few months it would discuss a general amnesty for prisoners convicted of crimes that might be politically motivated.
Speaking in Cape Town after the fortnightly Cabinet meeting, government representative Joel Netshitenzhe said the matter would arise when the final report of the TRC was released in June or July.
”It (general amnesty) will be part of the discussion, taking into account all kinds of matters,” Netshitenzhe said. – Sapa