The widows of three of the men killed in the 1989 Motherwell car bombing have rejected Tuesday’s apology by former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt.
Nieuwoudt, who triggered the bomb, tendered the apology at the start of his second day of testimony in the rehearing in Port Elizabeth of his application for amnesty for the deed.
However, Doreen Mgoduka, wife of slain warrant officer Glen Mgoduka, said she did not accept it.
She asked why he did not make the apology at the time of the original amnesty hearing in 1997.
“He sees now if he misses this opportunity it’s jail for him,” she said. “My question is, if there had never been an opportunity of an amnesty, would he have made that apology?
“To me it seems he is being compelled by the Act [the Truth and Reconciliation Commission legislation] and that’s for his own personal interest and benefit.”
She also said that if she heard his testimony correctly, he had made his apology conditional, which he should not have done.
Asked if she was prepared to accept the apology, Mantobeko Mapipa, widow of Sergeant Desmond Mapipa, said “Not now” as she felt the apology was not genuine.
“He doesn’t feel bad, he is still feeling good about what he did. I am a Christian too; I can forgive him, but the way he is acting, he is still not open.”
Pearl Faku, widow of Sergeant Amos Faku, said Nieuwoudt had not shown any remorse and his apology was not genuine.
His apology came at the end of his evidence-in-chief at the rehearing in Port Elizabeth of his application for amnesty for the deaths of Warrant Officer Glen Mgoduka, Sergeants Amos Faku and Desmond Mpipa, and Xolile Sakati. — Sapa
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