Former president FW De Klerk ”knew nothing” about the attempt on Frank Chikane’s life, according to one of the accused in the case, General Johann van der Merwe, Beeld reported on Monday.
Media reports said that former law and order minister Adriaan Vlok and Van der Merwe were angry at having to bear the blame for crimes committed in the apartheid era and were pointing a finger at De Klerk.
Van der Merwe, who was the commissioner of police at the time, reacted vehemently to the allegation on Sunday, according to Beeld.
”I distance myself totally from the [Sunday Times] report, specifically about my pointing fingers at De Klerk. He knew absolutely nothing about it.”
Vlok and Van der Merwe are to be charged with the attempted murder of Reverend Frank Chikane, who is currently the director general in the Presidency. It is alleged that they tried to poison him.
Pik Botha, who was the minister of foreign affairs in De Klerk’s Cabinet, also rejected the claims.
”No Cabinet in which I served knew of such plans,” he said.
Advocate Anton Ackermann of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), who is in charge of prosecuting Vlok and Van der Merwe, refused to be drawn on Sunday on the question of a possible plea bargain.
But Beeld has heard from informed sources that arrangements for a plea bargain are well under way.
‘Simply not true’
Dave Steward, executive director of the FW de Klerk Foundation, told the Mail & Guardian last week that it was very unlikely De Klerk would be implicated.
”It’s simply not true,” he said. ”De Klerk spent a great deal of his presidency investigating these very allegations through commissions such as the Goldstone Commission.”
Stewart said the TRC had access to all the Cabinet and security council briefings of the old regime and, despite being intent ”on nailing FW”, they were not able to do so.
”We do not have the slightest concern when this goes to trial next month,” he said.
De Klerk had been the state president for two months when the assassination attempt on Chikane took place. He apologised for apartheid to the TRC, but insisted top leaders were unaware of the criminal activities of security policemen such as Eugene de Kock and Gideon Niewoudt.
The M&G understands that in terms of a plea bargain neither Van der Merwe nor Vlok will serve prison terms, and that in return they have agreed to cooperate fully with the NPA in its investigations of apartheid crimes. – Sapa