Reports in today's Rapport and City Press newspapers indicate that the President is considering granting pardons to a variety of notorious offenders, including Eugene de Kock, Schabir Shaik and Chris Hani's assassins Clive Derby-Lewis and Janusz Walus.

The Democratic Alliance does not support the sort of political expediency and back scratching that the President appears to be engaging in. The law should never be reduced to a game of 'your criminal in exchange for mine'.

Eugene De Kock was convicted of six murders and 89 other offences, and sentenced to two life sentences and 212 years. He has served just 14 years to date.

Schabir Shaik was convicted on two counts of corruption and one of fraud, and sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment. He has served just over two years to date.

Clive Derby-Lewis and Janusz Walus were both convicted for the murder of Chris Hani, and sentenced to death - a sentence that was, after S v Makwanyane, commuted to life imprisonment. Both have served just 15 years to date.

It is very difficult to see how a pardon of any of these criminals could be in the best interest of the South African public. Any attempt to disguise shoddy political bartering as national "reconciliation" ought to be rejected with contempt. Granting pardons to either an Apartheid mass murderer or the murderers of Chris Hani would serve to make a mockery of the courts, undermine the deterrent effect of incarceration, and insult the families of their victims, the survivors of their crimes, and the group of people the President is apparently trying to appease.

And in Schabir Shaik's case, there is absolutely nothing that would disguise his possible pardon as anything other than a back-scratching exercise.

The DA will insist, in respect of each of the individual pardons, that the well established criteria used by the Department of Justice are taken into consideration, and that no pardon is granted to any individual unless all these considerations are fully complied with. There needs to be a logical and above-board justification for any pardon granted.

The Department of Justice, briefing a parliamentary committee in 2004, set out very clearly the factors which are taken into account when considering a pardon:

The age of the offender at the time of the commission of the offence;
Whether a reasonable period (10 years or more) has lapsed since the conviction;
The circumstances surrounding the commission of the offence;
The nature and seriousness of the offence, with the sentence imposed being the determinant factor;
The personal circumstances of the offender at the time of the application of the pardon;
The interest of the State and the community;
Whether the sentence included imprisonment and the blameworthiness attached to the offence; and
The negative factors flowing from the conviction are of such a nature that the relevant case can on these grounds be distinguished from those of other South African citizens with similar convictions

Currently, these considerations do not have the force of law. The Democratic Alliance (DA) will be introducing a private members legislative proposal to the Speaker's office that would oblige the President to take these criteria into account before pardoning any offender. Furthermore, the legislative proposal will seek to make the reasoning and justification for any pardon, public.