Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
June 9, 1998
Twelve AWB applicants seeking amnesty for attempting to derail the first all-race elections in April 1994 are to appear before the Amnesty Committee of the TRC at the Boksburg City Council's banquet hall from June 17 to 26.
The applicants engaged in a three day bombing spree, killing 21 people and injuring 46 on the East Rand , West Rand, Pretoria and Johannesburg.
The applicants are: Nicholas Clifton Barnard, Abraham Liebrecht Myburgh, Etienne Jacobus le Roux, Petrus Paulus Steyn, Jan Bastiaan de Wet, Gerhardus Daniel Fourie, Johannes Andries Venter, Jacobus Petrus Nel, Abraham Christoffel Fourie, Jan Wilhem du Plessis, Johannes Petrus Olivier and Johannes Abraham Vlok.
They have applied for amnesty for detonating bombs which killed and maimed civilians. They say in their applications that the AWB, the Conservative Party and the Afrikaner Volksfront met in Ventersdorp and other venues in the Western Transvaal early in 1994 to discuss where a future Volkstaat would be established and to prepare for war. They add that after these meetings, the AWB's generals, and General Chris van den Heever in particular, gave Kommandos instructions to prepare for war. General van den Heever informed members that the AWB would not be ruled by an ANC-SACP alliance.
The breakdown for next week's hearing will be as follows:
17 -19 June: Applicants responsible for the Bree Street car bomb on Sunday April 24, which killed seven people and injured 13 people, will be first to give testimony.
22 - 23 June: Those involved in the placing of a trailer bomb in Germiston on Monday April 25, which killed 10 people and injured eight, will appear.
24 - 25 June: Applications relating to pipe bomb attacks on April 25 will be heard. In Randfontein, no one was killed but property was damaged. In Pretoria, a pipe bomb killed three and injured 14 at a restaurant in Bloed Street in Pretoria.
26 June: Applications involving the Jan Smuts Airport car bomb attack on April 26, the day before election day, will be heard. Ten people were injured and damage was caused, but no one was killed in the attack.
Inquiries: Mbulelo Sompetha at 082-452-7870