Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Amnesty applicants from across the political spectrum will appear before panels of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Amnesty Committee this month.
Next week, at hearings in Pretoria, Benoni and Cape Town: - Former policeman Craig Williamson and other members of the old South African Police will apply for amnesty for the murder of Ruth First in Mozambique in 1982 and of Jeanette Schoon and her daughter Katryn in Angola in 1984;
- At the same hearing in Pretoria, former Police Commissioner Johan Coetzee, former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock, Williamson and five others will ask for amnesty for bombing the ANC's London offices in 1982;
- Four people who declare themselves as ANC members are applying for amnesty for a Wimpy Bar bombing in Benoni and an ambush outside Lindela Hostel in Katlehong in 1988. They are Tebogo Kebotlhale, Molwedi Mokoena, Phumzile Sigasa and Elgas Mabore Ndhlovu. In its evidence to the TRC last year, the ANC included the bombing in a list of attacks of which it said: "... We are uncertain as to whether these attacks were carried out by bona fide MK cadres." One person, Maryann Serrano, was killed and about 60 injured.
- In Cape Town, four members of the Pan Africanist Congress will apply for amnesty for various armed attacks around Cape Town which claimed six lives, including those of two members of the former South African Police before the 1994 elections. The applicants are Walter Tanda, Andile Shiceka, Gcinikhaya Makoma and Mandla Maduna.
Later in September, hearings will resume involving:
- the so-called "Caprivi trainees", who say they acted on behalf of the Inkatha Freedom Party, - members of the Afrikaner Weerstandbeweging responsible for pre-election bombings in 1994, and - the Bophuthatswana policeman who killed AWB members during their invasion of the former "homeland".
Inquiries: Vuyani Green, 082- 452-7858