MINORITY DECISION
I have read the decision of Mr Justice Pillay. I am not in agreement with the decision insofar as it relates to the refusal of amnesty to the applicant, Johannes Velde van der Merwe, and the refusal of amnesty to the other applicants in respect of the deaths of Nomkhosi Mary Mnisi and Jacqueline Quinn.
My reasons for dissenting are as follows. This incident took place some sixteen years ago and it is to be expected that faulty memory and an inability to furnish exact details about all events prior to the incident would have resulted in some confusion and/or contradictions in the evidence of the various role players.
It is common cause that the so-called "Meyer group" was preparing to launch an attack in the Free State over the Christmas period and that for some time some discussions had taken place in the CIC about the role of Lesotho in allowing cross-border incursions by the African National Congress into South Africa. It is further common cause that the applicant, Van der Merwe, had received a memorandum from De Kock dealing with the matter and that Van der Merwe finally gave the order for the attack and the elimination of the Meyer group. In my opinion, the vagueness and weaknesses in the evidence of Van der Merwe is not of such a material nature so as to preclude him from receiving amnesty. There is no indication that he tried to deceive or mislead the Committee in a calculating manner nor that he deliberately withheld any information.
There is, in my opinion, also not sufficient grounds to find that all the persons killed during the attacks both inside and outside the Macaskill house and at the Meyer house were not either primary targets or killed in the cross-fire. There is no evidence to suggest that there was any other reason for their killing.
Accordingly, my decision is to GRANT AMNESTY to Eugene Alexander de Kock, Willem Albertus Nortje, Izak Daniel Bosch, Johannes Velde van der Merwe, Nicholas Johannes Vermeulen and Willem Frederick Schoon for all delicts and offences directly associated with or flowing from the incursion into and attacks in Lesotho on or about 19th December 1985.
DATED AT CAPE TOWN THIS DAY OF 2001.
JUDGE R PILLAY
JUDGE S KHAMPEPE
ADV. F BOSMAN
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