TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 3

Chapter 6

Subsection 5

PART TWO: SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF AMNESTY APPLICATIONS

■ OVERVIEW

43. A large number of victim statements implicating right-wing perpetrators were received by the Commission, nearly all relating to violations committed from the late 1980s until the election in April 1994. The number of statements received showed a distinct increase in violations as the election approached, peaking in late 1993 when the political climate for extremism was at its height. Most violations occurred in the former Orange Free State and Transvaal and many were as racist as they were political in character.

44. A total of 107 applications for amnesty were received from members of right-wing organisations. This figure does not include those applicants who were found not to be bona fide members of such organisations, or those who participated in right-wing activities while they were members of the security forces .

45. The overwhelming majority (71%) of applicants claimed membership of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB). Ten per cent of applicants claimed membership of the Conservative Party (CP). The remaining 19 per cent of the applicants claimed to belong to a variety of organisations, including the nonspecific ‘right wing’.

46. Most applications for amnesty from right-wing applicants were heard and settled in the early stages of the Amnesty Committee’s work. Of these, 68 per cent were granted amnesty. Roughly half the applications were dealt with in chambers²³² and half in hearings convened by the Amnesty Committee. Sixty per cent of the hearable applications and 67 per cent of the chamber matters were granted amnesty.

47. The Amnesty Committee heard that, prior to February 1990, violations committed by members of right-wing organisations took the form of isolated attacks with a strong racist character. From February 1990, right-wing violence took on a more organised and orchestrated form. Isolated racist attacks on individuals were replaced by mass demonstrations and orchestrated bombing and sabotage campaigns. Perhaps the two most dramatic of these mass actions w e re the June 1993 occupation by members of the AWB and other right-wing groups of the World Trade Centre at Kempton Park²³³ and the invasion by members of the AWB of Bophuthatswana in support of the homeland administration in 1994²³⁴ In the first incident, Eugene Te r re’Blanche led a crowd of up to 3000 right-wingers around a police cordon and smashed an armoured vehicle through the plate glass doors of the Centre, where constitutional negotiations w e re underway. The right-wingers occupied the chamber for more than two hours singing Die Stem²³⁵ Their representatives handed over demands for a volkstaat. In the Bophuthatswana incident on 11 March 1994, Eugene Terre’Blanche mobilised a force of 600 AWB members following an appeal by President Mangope to the Volksfront for assistance in suppressing civil action calling for political reforms in the homeland. They entered Mafikeng in Bophuthatswana and proceeded to attack local residents. Over forty-five people were killed, including three AWB members.

48. It should be noted that one of the main reasons for extending the cut-off date for amnesty applications was to accommodate potential applicants who had been involved in these two incidents. Yet amnesty applications were received in respect of neither. The original cut-off date was 30 November 1993.

CATEGORIES OF VIOLATIONS

49. This chapter deals with the violations committed by the right wing prior to the unbanning of political organisations in February 1990 and the violations that followed the unbannings until the first democratic election in April 1994 in the following broad categories: attacks on individuals; possession of arms, explosives and ammunition; sabotage of the transitional process, and sabotage of the electoral process .

50. The first category deals with right-wing attacks on individuals, on those perceived to have betrayed the nationalist ideal and on black persons insofar as race determined the notion of the ‘enemy’. Few human rights violations were committed by right-wing groups during the 1960s and 1970s.

51. The second category deals with applications for amnesty for the possession (including the theft or manufacture) of arms, explosives and ammunition.

52. The third category deals with violations committed between February 1990 and December 1993, which were intended in one way or another to derail the process of negotiations by instilling a climate of terror and fear in the country. Included in this category are indiscriminate attacks on individuals, targeted assassinations, interference with political activities and sabotage attacks on symbolic targets, including schools, businesses, newspapers, court buildings and so on.

53. The fourth category deals with violations committed between 1 January and 27 April 1994 with the specific intention of throwing the preparations for the first democratic elections in April into disarray. These violations include those arising from a comprehensive pre-election bombing campaign of strategic attacks as well as ongoing attacks on individuals.

54. It should be noted that the violations reported to the Commission represented less than half of the actual number of violations for which members of right wing organisations were responsible in the months leading to the April 1994 elections.