Special Report Transcript Episode 29, Section 7, Time 40:08

Perhaps mister Botha’s former cabinet colleagues should take his advice seriously to cooperate with the Truth Commission. More than one of them have been implicated directly in gross human rights violations and there are only 20 days left before the deadline for applications for amnesty. After 14 December they would be vulnerable to prosecution and civil action. Of course the Truth Commission has asked for this deadline to be extended to March next year. It is possible that parliament will do exactly that when they meet early next year. The Truth Commission’s Amnesty Committee has received some 3700 applications for amnesty to date. More than a thousand of these have been dealt with, most of them administratively, that means without hearing evidence. A large number of last minute applications are expected in the next 20 days, among them a group of black members of the SADF’s feared 32 Battalion who served in townships and were involved in a lot of the third force violence of the late 1980s. The Truth Commission will hold a public hearing in Cape Town next week on the death of seven Gugulethu men at the hands of the police in 1986. Nine serving and former policemen have been subpoenaed to give evidence at the hearing. And in Tembisa the Truth Commission will hear evidence on the reign of terror of the Toasters gang. You may have seen that the Special Rreport team was given the foreign correspondence award for outstanding journalism. Tonight we want to dedicate this award to all the people who have appeared before the Truth Commission, the people whose stories we have told on this programme. Thank you for watching the Special Report. Good bye until next Sunday evening.

Notes: Max du Preez

References: there are no references for this transcript