Special Report Transcript Episode 24, Section 6, Time 31:42

On Monday this past week five senior security policemen applied for amnesty at the Truth Commission. Their application will be heard tomorrow, but again an Attorney-General pulled a surprise move. On Wednesday Pretoria Attorney-General Jan D’Oliveira issued warrants for the arrests of two of them and on Friday they appeared in court charged with the same acts they wanted to confess to next week. The men are former Vlakplaas commander and Northern Transvaal security police chief Brigadier Jack Cronje, Captain Jacques Hechter, Captain Wouter Mentz and Colonel Roelf Venter, all former Vlakplaas operatives and Warrant Officer Paul van Vuuren. They will give evidence about more than forty murders and are expected to directly implicate former president PW Botha, former police minister Louis Le Grange and Generals such as Basie Smit and Johan van der Merwe. Van der Merwe will testify on their behalf. Apart from high profile murder cases like the Pebco Three and Fabian Ribeiro, they will also talk about elaborate plans to kill ANC MP Simangaliso Mkhatshwa and the death of eight COSAS members on the East Rand. Their amnesty application has opened the flood gates and dozens of former policemen have started filling in their amnesty forms.

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