Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
4 JUNE 1997
The amnesty applications of three more people are scheduled to be heard when the TRC's Amnesty Committee reconvenes in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga on 11 and 12 June.
- On Wednesday, 11 June 1997, the applications of brothers Joe and Conrad Mkuna in relation to an attack on the house of the regional ANC treasurer, Joe Shabangu (now national ANC organiser) in Nelspruit will serve before the committee again. These matters were partly heard when the committee sat in Nelspruit in May.
The handgranade attack in November 1992 followed after Mr Shabangu, then an ANC member, was allegedly suspected of being a police informer. One person was injured in the attack. They were charged with attempted murder and the unlawful possession of fire-arms, sentenced in 1995 and are still in prison. The ANC has indicated that Mr Shabangu might ask to give evidence at the hearing. Prior to the attack on Shabangu in November 1992, Mr Joe Nkuna had been beaten up during October 1991 and allegedly left for dead.
- A related matter, the application of Derrick Skosana, will be heard on Thursday, June 12. Both the Nkuna brothers and Skosana are asking amnesty for the same incident. However, their versions of events are essentially in conflict, particularly pertaining to the source of instructions for the alleged deed.
- Three other applications, all inter-related, were also to be heard during the next week in Nelspruit. They had to be placed on hold, as one of the advocates has not been able to make himself available, after several res side. The attorney for the other two applicants is available, but the three matters are required to be heard in conjunction.
The Amnesty Committee's Chief Leader of Evidence, Adv Mokotedi Mpshe, has expressed his concern with a tendency among legal repre- sentatives who fail to make themselves available to their clients for amnesty hearings. "In particular the TRC is obliged to afford priority to those applicants for amnesty who are currently incarce- rated. The Amnesty Committee requests that legal representatives of all applicants for amnesty take into account the limited time schedule within which all applications must be concluded and that this may necessitate relatively short notice having to be given to them to make themselves available to represent their clients", says Mpshe.
"It must also be said that those legal representatives who have already experienced the ramifications in scheduling and presenting applications to the Amnesty Committee within the demanding time constraints have on the whole been co-operative. For this the Committee and the Amnesty staff appreciates that they have on occasion have had to re-schedule their normal practice demands."
The hearings will be held in the Nelsville Townhall, Grace Street, scheduled to start at 09h00am.
For more information, the media can consult with Sello Rabothatha at 0824588462.