Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
10 May 2001
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Amnesty Committee has today granted amnesty to a former security policeman, John McPherson for his participation in a plan to bomb the meeting of the African National Congress National Executive Committee at Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College, Morogoro in Tanzania.
Mcpherson participated in making the necessary logistical arrangements for the operation in that he arranged accommodation and transport within Malawi for the operatives. According to the plan, explosives were to be placed underneath the stage of the venue where the meeting was to be held.
Before the operation could be conducted, Mcpherson's superiors decided that the operation should be aborted. The committee found that the applicant acted in execution of the orders of his superiors and that the incident was directly associated with the political conflict at the time involving the then government and liberation movements.
The committee was satisfied that the Mcpherson's application complied with requirements of the act in that he made full disclosure and acts he was involved in had a political motive.
Also granted amnesty by the committee was Billy Nair for his participation in the Vula operation project. Operation Vula was meant to strengthen the ANC underground structures inside South Africa under the command of Mac Maharaj. Nair was personally involved in storing arms and harbouring Umkonto We Sizwe operatives as part of the operation. The committee found that the applicant's conduct amounts to an act associated with a political objective.
A security force member Jan Van Rensburg was granted amnesty for offences directly associated with the unlawful military training of members of the Inkatha Freedom Party at Entebene in 1993.
Four members of security police of Northern Transvaal, Eric Goosen, Jacques Hechter, Deon Gouws and Jan Cronje were granted amnesty for the bombing of the house of Elizabeth Ledwaba in which Wlilliam Ledwaba was killed and Julian Selepe seriously injured. At Atteridgeville in Pretoria. Four Vlakplaas Unit members and its commander Eugene De Kock, Willem Nortje, Johan Tait Izak Bosch and Leon Flores were granted amnesty for the killing of Xolile Samson, the assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm to Samson and defeating the ends of justice to the death of Samson in November 1988 in Vosloorus.
Another Vlakplaas group Eugene de Kock, Johannes Swart Kobus Klooper and Nicholaas Vermeulen were granted amnesty for being accessories after the fact to the killing of Johannes Sambo and including desecration linked to the disposal of Sambo's body and defeating ends of justice. De Kock was convicted of defeating the ends of justice in respect of this matter and was sentenced to six years imprisonment.
Two Azanian Peoples Liberation Army (Apla) operatives Phila Dolo and Thabiso Makoala were also granted amnesty for murder of Peter Schroeder, Shirley Brummer and James Tsemane, attempted murders of five people, robbery and theft of suzu bakkie and possession of arms and ammunition in November 1992.
Dolo as commander deployed his fellow operatives and ordered them to cars whose occupants were white in accordance with Apla policy. According to this policy whites, whoever they might be, were regarded as legitimate targets.