DECISION
This is an application in terms of Section 18 of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, No 34 of 1995 ("the Act").
The Applicant has already been granted amnesty for an incident which was heard at Aliwal North on 24 April 1998 and which has come to be known as the Lady Grey Police Station Attack. At the hearing of that matter two other incidents for which the Applicant had also applied for amnesty were removed from the roll for further investigation and because they appeared not to involve gross violations of human rights.
The Applicant was at all material times a member and cadre of the Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA), the military wing of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), having received military training abroad under its auspices.
According to the Applicant, during March 1992, he, Luyanda Gqomfa and a person by the name of "Monde" whose true identity he does not know, attacked a farmhouse in the Lady Grey area with petrol bombs. According to information contained on the Applicant's SAP69 and a statement of one Gavin Isted who lived on a neighbouring farm, the incident occurred early on the morning of 26 March 1992. The farmhouse, which was unoccupied at the time, on the farm Wilgespruit, was gutted with an estimated loss to the owner Mr JZMS Myburgh in the region of R297 000,00.
The Applicant claims to have acted on orders from and in pursuit of the political objects of APLA and the PAC in that the act was aimed at farmers who were the "eyes and ears of the police" and occupiers of "dispossessed land". We accept this as his object.
The second incident relates to the Applicant's conviction for malicious injury to property, on 19 April 1993 in the Burgersdorp Magistrate's Court under Case Number 1019/92. The Applicant wrecked his cell on 12 August 1992 at the Burgersdorp Prison, in an apparent effort to prevent him being apart from other awaiting trial prisoners. He was suspicious of the prison authorities' motives and believed he was being separated with a view to intimidate him.
Having considered the facts of this incident we are not satisfied that the Applicant's actions were sufficiently aimed at furthering the political struggle and objectives of APLA and the PAC, but appear rather to have been aimed at improving the conditions of his incarceration whilst awaiting trial. Accordingly amnesty is REFUSED.
With regard to the farm attack, the Applicant has made a full disclosure of all relevant facts and the Committee is of the view that the Applicant has satisfied the requirements of the Act.
He is accordingly GRANTED amnesty in respect of his conviction and sentence on 9 and 10 December 1992, in the Regional Court, East London under Case Number ASH72/92 for arson.
The Committee is of the opinion that Mr JZMS Myburgh of the farm Wilgespruit, in the Lady Grey district is a victim and he is accordingly referred to the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee for consideration in terms of Section 22(1) of the Act.
SIGNED AT CAPE TOWN ON THIS 7TH DAY OF FEBRUARY 2001
