The South African Cabinet has rejected as ”baseless” suggestions the state is waging a witch-hunt against former members of the apartheid-era government.
Briefing the media after Cabinet’s fortnightly meeting in Pretoria on Wednesday, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said the meeting had noted the process by the National Prosecuting Authority to prosecute members of the apartheid government.
The Cabinet repeated that the process was in line with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) recommendation that all outstanding cases be investigated and the law take its course.
”Any suggestion that the state is waging a witch-hunt against any individual is rejected as baseless,” Maseko said.
It had been made very clear at the time of the TRC hearings that those who did not participate were opening themselves up for future investigation and possible prosecution.
”This is not a witch-hunt, but at the same time it is absolutely essential for us a country to make sure that those who committed atrocities are investigated.”
This was especially so for the victims of the atrocities, who had to know that those who committed them, and did not comply with the agreed TRC process, would face the full force of the law.
”If we leave a lot of these atrocities unattended, chances are that, in fact, they could lead to many different problems in the future.
”It is better to investigate all of these atrocities now, and put that part of our history behind us as soon as possible.
”We will not solve these problems by simply slipping them under the table,” Maseko said.
Forgiveness
Last month it was reported that apartheid-era minister of law and order Adriaan Vlok and former police chief Johann van der Merwe will be charged with attempted murder.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi said that papers had been filed with the Pretoria High Court.
The charges relate to an alleged plot to kill Frank Chikane, at present Director General in the Presidency. Chikane was secretary general of the South African Council of Churches when his underwear was lined with a poison that attacked his nervous system in 1989.
Vlok and Van der Merwe were meant to stand trial in the Pretoria High Court in 2004 after failing to apply for amnesty at the TRC, but the NPA reversed its decision to prosecute them.
Last September, Vlok asked for Chikane’s forgiveness and washed his feet.
President Thabo Mbeki thereafter lauded Vlok’s gesture and said that South Africans should learn to listen more closely to each other across the boundaries of apartheid.
Confidence
Meanwhile, Afrikaans church leaders have expressed confidence that there is no ”evil intent” or ”malicious attitude” towards Afrikaans-speaking people in the current process of prosecutions based on apartheid-era crimes.
”There is no evil intent or malicious attitude towards Afrikaans people. There is a sincerity from the government, I believe, to create true reconciliation,” Isak Schalk Burger, president of the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa, said on Wednesday.
He was speaking after a meeting at the Union Buildings with Chikane and leaders of some of the country’s churches with the biggest Afrikaans-speaking congregations.
Chikane briefed the church leaders on the post-TRC legal process against those implicated in apartheid era crimes.
It was the second such meeting with leaders from the Afrikaner community, the first being last week’s gathering with senior journalists from the Afrikaans media.
Chikane sought to reassure them that the prosecutions recently announced against Vlok and van der Merwe and three others were part of a bigger process to close the book on apartheid-era atrocities.
”There are guidelines so that those people who are ready to tell their story can go to the National Prosecuting Authority to say ‘this is what I did’, reach an agreement, go to court and settle it, that is all it is about,” he said.
”We can’t maintain the message that going to court is translated into persecution; going to court is to make sure that a judge makes the ruling so that nobody can charge you again,” Chikane added.
Misconduct in the apartheid years should be brought into the open, Dutch Reformed Church moderator Piet Strauss said following the meeting.
”As churches we have a special interest in justice, we see the message of the Bible as something that is for justice, also in everyday life,” he said.
”If there should be prosecutions it should be on both sides, that was clear, but added to that the need for reconciliation and that it should be done as quickly as possible, dealt with, and not be something that is dragged out causing divisions,” Strauss added.
Other church leaders who attended the meeting included those from the Pentecostal Protestante Kerk, Evangelische Gereformeerde Kerk, Full Gospel Church, Afrikaanse Protestante Kerk and Hervormde Kerk. — Sapa