TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 5

Chapter 6

Subsection 2

REVIEW OF FINDINGS

7. It is important to review the findings in the light of evidence that has emerged f rom the amnesty process.

Membership of right-wing groups

8. The amnesty applications reveal that many amnesty applicants claimed membership of one or more right-wing groups. In total, 107 applications were received for amnesty, with 71 per cent of the applicants claiming membership of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), 10 per cent of the Conservative party and the remaining 19 per cent claiming membership of a variety of right-wing organisations. The most prominent group was the AWB, under the leadership of Eugene Terre’Blanche. More than forty of his supporters applied for amnesty. Of these, 68 per cent of applications were granted.

Nature of violations

9. Most amnesty applications pertaining to the period prior to 1990 relate to attacks that were intensely individualist, uncoordinated and extremely racist in nature. Amnesty applications for the period after February 1990 reveal a more co-ordinated plan, with better organised and more orchestrated attacks. Two of the best-known incidents were the occupation of the World Trade Centre in 1993 and the support by members of the AWB of the Bantustan administration in Bophuthatswana in 1994.

10. The Commission agreed to the request by President Mandela that it extend the period available for amnesty applications in the interests of reconciliation in order to accommodate the right wing and the Pan Africanist Congress (PA C ) , the majority of whose violations took place after the original date and during the run-up to elections. This decision proved fruitless as the Commission receive d no further applications, particularly for the two incidents described above. Thus the argument forwarded by General Viljoen that extending the date would promote reconciliation did not impact on the process.

CONFIRMATION OF FINDINGS

Collusion between the right wing and the security forces

11. Amnesty applications confirm that in a number of incidents, covert units within the security structures assisted in arming right-wing groups. The amnesty application of Mr Leonard Veenendal^{8 0}, a member of the Civil Co-operation Bureau (CCB), confirms this.

Collusion with the IFP

12. Right-wing amnesty applicants confirmed that they formalised their ties with the IFP. They were responsible for supplying the IFP with weapons and also worked very closely with IFP groups on the north and south coasts of KwaZulu-Natal. In at least two instances, joint attacks were planned and carried out – at the Flagstaff police station and on the Seychelles restaurant. Mr Walter Felgate, formerly a member of the IFP, testified at a section 29 hearing that the right wing had offered to procure weapons to the IFP. The amnesty applications of Messrs Gerrit Phillipus Anderson and Allan Nolte confirm this.