The Pan Africanist Congress on Friday presented documents to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development requesting the release of members of its former military wing, the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army (Apla).
These are soldiers who were arrested for their role in the anti-apartheid struggle, the PAC said.
”Apla and Umkhonto weSizwe [MK, the African National Congress’s military wing] members received a raw deal from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as most of the victims of the apartheid struggle are behind bars but perpetrators such as Wouter Basson are walking free,” said PAC president Motsoko Pheko.
In a letter presented to the department by the PAC on Friday, the party states that the principle established at the Nuremburg International Tribunal at the end of World War II would distinguish between those who fought a crime against humanity and those who perpetrated it.
Pheko said this principle was not observed.
The letter further states that former Apla fighters had to find their own legal representation while perpetrators of apartheid crime were represented and their legal fees paid by the state.
The letter cited former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock as an example, saying the state paid his court bill, which was more than R6-million, while former Apla members had to find money for lawyers to represent them or go to prison undefended.
Pheko said some Apla members had been given ”barbaric sentences”.
Solomon Malidoana received three consecutive death sentences, while Petros Tshabalala was given two death sentences plus 32 years.
Vonti Moti was sentenced to death plus 155 years.
”Not even under Hendrik Verwoerd were such sentences imposed, except in the case of PAC member Isaac Mthimunye.
”He was sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island plus 10 years in 1963,” Pheko said.
Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla was unable to meet the PAC delegation, the South African Press Association was told.
The continued incarceration of Apla and MK cadres goes against international human right conventions as some of them are still on death row, although the practice has been ended in South Africa, Pheko said. — Sapa