AC/2000/029
TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION
AMNESTY COMMITTEE
APPLICATION IN TERMS OF SECTION 18 OF THE PROMOTION OF NATIONAL UNITY AND RECONCILIATION ACT, NO.34 OF 1995.
ROLAND MARK HUNTER APPLICANT
(AM 8048/97)
DECISION
During the period 1982 to 1983 the applicant was a national serviceman in the South African Defence Force (the SADF). He was attached to the Directorate of Special Tasks (the DST) which was a unit of Chief Staff Intelligence.
During 1982 an arrangement was made for the applicant to meet two members of the ANC, namely Mr Derek Hanekom and Mrs Patricia Hanekom. The applicant met them on their farm in the Magaliesburg area, got to know them and agreed with them that he would supply them with classified information that he had access to at the DST and that they would then supply the ANC with such information.
Thereafter, during 1983, the applicant, on various occasions, passed on classified information to the Hanekoms. He also supplied classified information to other ANC members known to him only by their code names "Jane:, "James" and "Jeffrey".
The classified information supplied by the applicant to the aforesaid members of the ANC related in general to the support that was being given by the SADF to Renamo. The applicant states that his intention in passing the information on was that it be used to undermine the SADF operations in support of Renamo and other rebel groups operating in frontline countries and thereby weaken the apartheid state and strengthen the forces of liberation.
The applicant was arrested towards the end of 1983. He was charged in the Supreme Court, Pretoria, with a number of offences, including treason. He pleaded guilty to the offence of improper disclosure of information and was convicted only in respect of such offence. He was sentenced to undergo five years imprisonment.
We are satisfied that the offence to which this application relates was an act associated with a political objective committed in the course of the conflicts of the past.
We are also satisfied that the applicant has made a full disclosure of all relevant facts, and that his application complies with the requirements of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, no.34 of 1995.
The applicant is accordingly GRANTED amnesty in respect of the improper disclosure of information in contravention of Section 118(4) of the Defence Act, no.44 of 1957, in respect of which the applicant was convicted in the Supreme Court, Pretoria, and was, on the 26th of September 1984, sentenced to five years imprisonment.
Dated at Cape Town this 2nd day of March 2000.
____________________
____________________
_____________________