Convicted apartheid killer Eugene de Kock will probably apply for a presidential pardon next week, his lawyer said on Thursday.
The announcement follows President Thabo Mbeki’s controversial decision at the weekend to pardon 33 people, mostly members of liberation movements, for crimes including murder and robbery.
However De Kock’s lawyer, Schalk Hugo, said the timing of his client’s application had nothing to do with the pardon of the 33.
”We’ve said that all along (that we intend to apply for pardon). We were going to do that in any event,” he said. ”Hopefully we’ll be able to launch that thing next week.”
Hugo declined to comment on whether he thought De Kock’s chances of success would be improved by the weekend decision.
In 1996 the Pretoria High Court gave the former Vlakplaas security police commander two life sentences plus 212 years in prison on 89 criminal charges, including fraud, conspiracy to murder and murder.
He received amnesty on some of the counts, but not on the two life sentences.
He told an amnesty hearing two years ago that if he was released, he believed he could make a contribution ”to prevent any of this from happening again”.
He would like to make himself available to the legal government of a ”black state” outside South Africa to help with the training of people to free their areas from landmines and to assist with the rebuilding of, and agriculture in, those areas.
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 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (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.
President Thabo Mbeki told journalists at Tuynhuys on Wednesday morning that the pardoned 33, reportedly mostly African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress members, had been petitioning the government for ”some years”.
Mbeki said they had been pardoned because of their involvement in the South African freedom struggle. However, Netshitenzhe emphasised that their release was an administrative act and not in terms of any policy decision.
”Any prisoner in a similar position has the right to make such representations which would be assessed on merit,” Netshitenzhe said.
In a written reply to a parliamentary question released on Thursday, Justice Minister Penuell Maduna said he had been approached for a general amnesty by representatives of the Afrikaner Eenheidsbeweging and the Conservative Party, and foresaw that these discussions might continue.
He said the question of justification for a general amnesty was not one that could be lightly dealt with.
”In the final instance, general amnesty in the sense of amnesty which would cover both convicted persons and persons still to be charged, would be a matter that can only be sanctioned by legislation.
”In other words, it will be for Parliament to decide on the issue, if and when such legislation is introduced.” – Sapa