The fear of communism coming to South Africa justified committing acts during the apartheid era, which he has subsequently admitted were wrong, former police minister Adriaan Vlok said in Pretoria on Friday.
”We believed we were fighting a very, very bad enemy — the communists. I would fight them again,” he said at a press conference at the end of the court case against him, former police chief Johan van der Merwe and three other former high-ranking police officers for the attempted murder 18 years ago of then anti-apartheid activist Frank Chikane.
The five pleaded guilty to the murder attempt and received suspended sentences.
”It was desperate times,” said Vlok. During the apartheid years when he looked at international communism such as that in East Europe and Africa, it seemed a ”worse threat than apartheid”.
”I feared what would happen to this country,” he said.
Vlok said at the conference that it would be detrimental for South Africa to carry on with prosecutions for apartheid-era crimes. He said he cannot predict the future of the country, but is concerned about what effect continuing prosecutions for such crimes would have.
”I don’t know [about the future]. I’m not a prophet, but I’m concerned … about forgiveness and reconciliation. We cannot carry on prosecuting tit-for-tat.”
The alternative he suggested was: ”I think it is time to sit down again and look at what went wrong with the first TRC [Truth and Reconciliation Commission]. It is not satisfactory to carry on with prosecutions.”
Prosecutions
Attorney for the accused Jan Wagener said the best thing for the country would be to have no more prosecutions of apartheid-era crimes. Selective prosecution could be seen as ”immoral”, he said. ”Should there be a fairy godmother drawing names from a hat?”
He said full prosecution would ”take the country nowhere”, adding that if prosecutions did continue, they would have to include anti-apartheid activists. ”It was a very serious political conflict. It takes two to tango. One man’s freedom fighter is another guy’s terrorist.”
Wagener said the idea of ”just cause” is an ongoing debate.
However, Vlok did say that as part of their plea bargain, they would have to testify if more people were prosecuted by the National Prosecuting Authority.
Vlok said he and Van der Merwe ”came clean” because they had decided to ”try to stop living with all the lies” in South Africa. He said he already asked for forgiveness earlier and is now focusing on ”small, little deeds” to repair the past. ”The time is past for the big thing on the big screen.”
Instead, Vlok urged apartheid officials to ”tell the truth, tell everything, look the mothers in the eye”. He has met mothers who asked where the bones of their children are, and those are the people who should be helped, he said.
Vlok also said the list on which Chikane’s name appeared was never a hit list. ”I never regard that list as a hit list. The emphasis was not on taking people out; it was on helping the country in preventing them [anti-apartheid activists] from being successful.”
Van der Merwe said the list was about trying to ”neutralise” the effect of activists responsible for bloodshed. Only in ”extreme” cases was the decision to ”eliminate” them, he said.
Vlok said that he had not felt uncomfortable earlier being in court with Chikane. ”He’s my brother,” he said.
Outcome welcomed
The suspended sentences for Vlok and the four others have brought the case to a satisfactory end, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Friday.
”Acceptance by the Pretoria High Court this morning of the plea bargain concluded between the National Prosecuting Authority and Mr Adriaan Vlok, former [police chief] Johan van der Merwe and the three men charged with them in the Chikane poisoning case brings the matter to the anticipated conclusion,” DA TRC spokesperson Dene Smuts said in a statement. This was also a ”satisfactory” conclusion.
”Accountability has been established, and the men who executed orders did not stand in the dock alone, as happened so often during the lifetime of the TRC. The conduct of messrs Vlok and Van der Merwe, and in particular that of the Reverend Frank Chikane, the victim of attempted murder, has been laudable,” Smuts said.
The African National Congress (ANC) has also welcomed the outcome.
”The ANC, in line with its position regarding matters emanating from the TRC process, welcomes the decision by Vlok and former police chief Johan van der Merwe to take responsibility for the attempt on the life of Reverend Frank Chikane almost two decades ago,” the party said in a statement.
”We believe this is a step in the right direction as it brings the country closer to lasting reconciliation.”
The ANC reiterated its support for the approach taken by the government with respect to unresolved matters arising from the TRC process, appreciating the need to promote justice, the rule of law and reconciliation. — Sapa