DECISION
The applicant seeks amnesty in respect of the two counts of kidnapping on which he was convicted by the Supreme Court on 21 February 1994. The offences of which he was convicted arose out of a conflict between the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), which is affiliated to the African National Congress, and the Pan Africanist Students' Organisation (PASO) which is affiliated to the Pan Africanist. The Trial Court found that feelings between the two students organisations ran high and spilled over into the community. The applicant, as a member of the ANC Youth League, supported COSAS. The two complainants were, on the evidence led at the trial, members of PASO or the PAC.
On 21 February 1993, there was an unrest situation in the township. At about 6am the applicant was summonsed by other "comrades" (fellow members or supporters of the ANCYL) to join a group which was searching for PAC weapons. He did so and they went to the house of a Mr Bigsana, number 1504. Bigsana was the boyfriend of one of the complainants Nomsa Mpangisa and she and the other complainant Nomangwana Mandita had spent the preceding night at that house. They sought shelter from a group of young men approaching the house and were found by them in a bedroom. The applicant pointed one of them out to the group. She was hiding under the bed. The two women were taken away to be interrogated about their knowledge if any, of hidden PAC weapons. This was in accordance with a decision taken earlier, the applicant was party to their forcible removal.
Before they reached a place where they could be interrogated, the police arrived and the party broke up and the applicant ran away, that is his version.
One of the women was subsequently murdered. The applicant was charged with murder but was found not guilty and in his evidence before us, he denied all knowledge of the killing.
The applicant was an unsatisfactory witness at his trial; the evidence he gave before us differed radically from his denial there that he had played any part in the incident or that he had any interest in politics to the extent that he had never heard of the ANC or PAC until after his court appearance.
At the hearing he admitted his participation in the kidnapping and, having regard to the findings of the Trial Court, it cannot be said that he has not made a full disclosure of the facts to his participation in the kidnapping. There can be no doubt that they were acts associated with a political objective committed in the course of the conflicts of the past.
In these circumstances, the application must succeed and the applicant is
GRANTED AMNESTY: in respect of the kidnapping of Nomangwana Mandita and Nomsa Mpangisa on 21st day of February 1993.
SIGNED ON THIS 14th DAY OF APRIL 1997.
(Signed)
MALL, J
WILSON, J
MS S. KHAMPEPE
