Former law and order minister Adriaan Vlok and four others have applied for a presidential pardon for the attempted murder of Reverend Frank Chikane, the Star reported on Tuesday.

Vlok, former apartheid police chief-general Johann van der Merwe, police major-general Chris Smit and colonels Gert Otto and Manie van Staden have applied for the pardon, their lawyer Jan Wagenaar told the newspaper.

Last year the men struck a plea bargain with the National Prosecuting Authority for the attempted murder of Chikane, now director-general of the presidency.

Wagenaar said the suspended sentences they were given for putting poison in Chikane's clothes in 1989 now made travelling to certain countries difficult for them.

"Wagenaar said a pardon would be nice as it would allow the men to travel freely," reported the Star.

A multi-party reference group of members of Parliament has been tasked with evaluating 2300 applications for presidential pardons from political prisoners who did not participate in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and who committed offences before June 16, 1999.