Vigilantes convicted for mob killings, and a former Ciskei strongman and a bantustan headman are among the 33 Eastern Cape prisoners pardoned by President Thabo Mbeki on Monday, the Daily Dispatch reported on Tuesday.
The released prisoners were mostly African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) members who were pardoned after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) refused them amnesty. Most failed to satisfy the TRC’s conditions for amnesty, including having a political motive for their offences.
The Justice Ministry on Tuesday maintained its refusal to release the names, saying that doing so could jeopardise the safety of those released.
According to the Eastern Cape daily, the 33 include former Ciskei strongman Kwane Sebe and a Ciskei headman. Sebe was released on parole in 1999 after serving nine years of a 21-year sentence.
The son of former Ciskei president Lennox Sebe, he was the head of the Ciskei Police Elite Unit. He was convicted of bombing properties belonging to a former colleague.
Alfred Mahayiya, a headman in Ciskei in the 1990s, was refused amnesty for murdering Nomutile Gangqa and attempting to kill Champion Gangqa and Nozinzo Gangqa.
Those from the PAC’s armed wing Apla are Dumisani Ncamazana; Zama Thutha; Luvuyo Kulman; Patrick Hadebe; Mabandla Mavundla; Mncedisi Siko; and Pakamile Cishe.
Ncamazana was jailed for 16 years for three unsuccessful attacks during 1994 and was later charged with killing three followers of the Baha’i religion in Mdantsane in March 1994. He did receive amnesty for some offences. He escaped from Middledrift Prison in 1996 but was later re-arrested.
Thutha and Kulman were refused amnesty by the TRC for the August 1993 killing in the former-Transkei of Elliot farmer Michael Meyers and his daughter Donne.
Hadebe was granted amnesty for possession of weapons, but was refused amnesty for unspecified murders due to lack of information.
Twelve other recipients of President Thabo Mbeki’s pardon were members of the ANC-aligned Mdantsane Residents Association convicted of murdering four gangsters who were beaten and set alight in a mob justice attack in the NU1 section of Mdantsane in February 1987.
The 12 are Bonakele Jwambi, Luyanda Kana, Mzwabantu Katsikatsi, Mseki Mbusi, Bonakele Petros, Xolile Edgar Nkukwana, Mandlenkosi Jakavu, Mbuyiselo Klaas, Monwabisi Kana, Mabongo Jamela, Thando Kana and Soyiso Zuzani.
They had lost an amnesty bid because their actions had been motivated by revenge, not politics.
The other is Monwabisi Eric Khundulu, who applied for amnesty for killing Cradock farmers Matheus and Jeanette Palvie in February 1987.
Khundulu was granted amnesty for Mr Palvie’s killing but refused amnesty for Mrs Palvie’s killing, housebreaking and robbery.
Basayi Nxaleko Maqoko and Zwelenkosi Mjo were serving prison terms for the killing of Joseph Sebatana and his wife Jan Nomkhango Fuzani in January 1986 near Madakeni.
The TRC had denied them amnesty after failing to find a political motivation for their deeds.
The other released prisoners — MC Skoti, SP Mpambani, MG Sokoyi, NL Zibonda, W Faku, S Fanayo, X. Faku, A Resha and M Mafa — are not listed as having applied for amnesty.
Justice representative Paul Setsetse said on Tuesday he saw no reason why the amnesties had become ”such an issue”.
”Prisoners are released daily by a parole board, on the discretion of Correctional Services or on completion of sentences and their names are not published. So we see no reason why these (the 33 prisoners) should be an issue,” he said.
Meanwhile the Afrikaner Eenheidsbewiging (AEB) proposed in Parliament on Tuesday that Mbeki publicly motivate his decision to pardon the 33 prisoners and the criteria he used.
AEB leader Cassie Aucamp said the fact the released prisoners were only those affiliated to the ANC and PAC contradicted the Justice Ministry’s claim that the amnesties had nothing to do with politics.
He said there were prisoners belonging to other parties such as the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and Afrikaner organisations who were still serving lengthy prison terms for violence and other atrocities. He said that it would be good for Mbeki to consider pardoning them as well.
”The president needs to urgently ensure that this is not a selective political exercise whereby political affiliation is a determining factor,” he said.
But Setsetse later dismissed this, saying amnesty applications were handled by civil servants without any consideration of an applicant’s political status.
Meanwhile the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has condemned the amnesties as ”condoning acts of serious criminality by spilling onto the streets of South Africa, dozens of murderers and robbers who have possibly served a mere fraction of their sentences”.
DA leader Tony Leon said on Tuesday that by pardoning convicted criminals — most of whom were ANC and PAC members who were refused amnesty by the TRC — and ”an extraordinary reluctance” by Mbeki’s office to explain its actions, Mbeki appeared to be assuming the powers of a judge or of the properly constituted TRC amnesty committee in order to let off members of his party.
”If this is the case, then it constitutes a very serious abuse of power and cries out for full disclosure and a proper explanation.
”Pardoning prisoners who have had their applications for amnesty denied by the very generous TRC amnesty provisions borders on contempt for the justice system and shows an utter disregard for the legal process and the rights of crime-ravaged South Africans,” Leon said.
”The principles under the amnesty provisions were very clear. If a criminal act was not deemed to be politically motivated and failed to pass muster before the TRC, then the perpetrator remained in jail for a very long time,” he said. – Sapa