DECISION
The applicant applies for amnesty in terms of Act 34 of 1995 as amended (the Act) in respect of contravening the Riotous Assemblies Act.
In 1980, as a member of both the Black Students Society and the South African Student Organisation, he participated at a gathering in a protest rally near Bosmont, Gauteng. The rally related to unequal and racially based education. This was in transgression of the Riotous Assemblies Act in that the required permission for such a gathering was not obtained. The apartheid system did in fact create such structures as a result of which different educational systems for different bodies of people racially divided by the same system were developed.
It was this system of education against which the applicant was also protesting. Clearly this was a politically motivated activity. It is by the very nature of the system against which he protested, that the protest is rendered politically based. In our view he has disclosed with sufficient clarity the relevant facts pertaining to the protest which gave rise to the offence for which he was convicted and sentenced to a four month suspended prison sentence.
There does not seem to be any records of this conviction so as to verify his allegation and the facts. However, we do not find anything untoward in his application to nullify or adversely affect the application.
Furthermore, we have been informed that the applicant was previously employed by the Commission.
We do not think that he should be penalised on either of these issues because neither can be regarded as an issue that disqualifies him from making the application in any way. Nor can the absence of records which were in the custody of the apartheid government render his application refusable and tainted.
We are satisfied that he has complied with the offence arising from the transgression of the Riotous Assemblies Act is consequently GRANTED.
Signed at Cape Town on this the 21st day of September 1999.
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