South Africa’s former minister of police in the last apartheid era government, Adriaan Vlok, and the police chief under his watch, Johann van der Merwe, are to be charged with attempted murder, the country’s National Prosecuting Authority has said – writes David Wanless from Cape Town.
The authority’s spokesperson, Panyaza Lesufi, said on 17 July 2007 that the two men and three other former high-ranking police officials are expected to appear in court on 17 August. They will be tried for a 1989 attack on the Rev Frank Chikane, who, at the time, was the general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, an organization at the forefront of the struggle against minority white rule.
This is the first case of the prosecution of apartheid-era atrocities in which alleged perpetrators were denied or did not seek amnesty from South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was led by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
“We have decided to prosecute the five men on various charges, including conspiracy and the attempted murder of Chikane,” Lesufi said. “We believe we have a very strong case against the men and are ready to prosecute.” Chikane is now director general of President Thabo Mbeki’s office.
Evidence was given during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, held after South Africa’s first universal suffrage elections, that Chikane’s clothing had been impregnated with chemicals that attacked his nervous system. Chikane mysteriously fell ill during a visit to the United States 18 years ago but recovered after treatment.
Now aged 70, Vlok, in September 2006, asked Chikane to forgive him, and washed the government official’s feet as an act of penitence during a meeting in the capital Pretoria.
Lesufi said those facing charges were to have been taken to court in 2004 after failing to apply for amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The prosecuting authority decided, however, not to prosecute them at the time, saying it had sought to solve the matter through discussions with a legal team representing the accused men.
[With grateful acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches]