The former police minister in South
Africa’s whites-only apartheid regime is to stand trial for the attempted murder of a top aide to current President Thabo Mbeki, prosecutors said.
National Prosecution Authority (NPA) spokesman Panyaza Lesufi told AFP
the law and order minister at apartheid’s height in the mid-1980s, Adrian Vlok, former national police commissioner Johan van der Merwe, Christoffel Smith, Gert Otto and Johannes Van Staden, all former high-ranking policemen, will appear before the Pretoria High court on August 17 to face five charges, including attempted murder.
“We have decided to prosecute the five men on various charges including
conspiracy and the attempted murder of (Reverend Frank) Chikane” who is now director-general of Mbeki’s office, Lesufi said Tuesday.
“We believe we have a very strong case against the men and are ready to
prosecute.”
Chikane was almost killed 18 years ago when his clothes were laced with
poison at a time when he was secretary-general of the South African
Council of Churches, one of the organisations at the helm of the fight against white rule.
Last September, Vlok, who is now 70, surprised many including his former
masters when he asked for forgiveness from Chikane and washed his feet as
an act of penitence during a meeting in the capital Pretoria.
Lesufi said the men were supposed to have been taken to court in 2004 after
failing to apply for amnesty at the Truth and Reconciliation Commis-sion, but the NPA reversed its decision to prosecute them, resorting instead to find solution through discussions with the accused’s legal team.
“We believe those (talks) were delaying tactics and we decided to go
ahead and file papers in high court. We believe the matter of this magnitude cannot be dealt with in the boardroom. People need to know what happened (during apartheid era) and public arena in an open court is the right place to deal with this,” Lesufi added.]
While the ruling African National Congress and opposition Democratic
Alliance welcomed the move to prosecute Vlok and his henchmen, former apartheid-era president FW de Klerk said any prosecutions related to the conflict of the past should be approached with “the greatest sensitivity and circumspection”.