WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2002-05-20 Time: 13:49:45 Posted By: Jan
Note: There has been an outcry, especially from other political parties that Mbeki has been secretive about the prisoners he is releasing.
Jan
Source: www.mg.co.za
The Justice Department on Sunday released the names of the 33 prisoners who received presidential pardons last week.
The ministry had indicated on Friday that it would make public the names and the reasons for the pardons.
The announcement comes after a week of mounting criticism of the pardons, most of which were reportedly for African National Congress (ANC) and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) members.
They were sentenced for crimes including murder and robbery, and several were refused amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
They are: Dumisani Ncamazana, Zama Thutha, Luvuyo Kulman, Patric Hadebe, Mabandla Mavundla, Mncedisi Siko, Pakamile Ciche, Bonakele Jwambi, Luyanda Kana, Mzwabantu Katsiketsi, Mseki Mbusi, Bonakele Petros, Xolile Edgar Nkukwana, Mandlankosi Jakavu, Mjuyiselo Klaas, Monwabisi Kana, Mabongo Jamela, Thando Kana, Soyiso Zuzani, Monwabisi Eric Khundulu, Basayi Nxaleko Magoko, Zwelenkosi Mjo, MC Skoti, SP Mpambani, MG Sokoyi, NL Zibonda, W Fanayo, X Faku, A Resha, M Mafa, Kwame Sebe, W Faku and DS Mahayiya.
The Justice Department said in a statement that a general policy for presidential pardons had been developed over the years.
“It should be emphasised that, in view of the present crime situation, a very strict policy is applied. Each application is considered on its own merit,” the statement said.
Mbeki’s move has provoked speculation of a blanket amnesty for perpetrators of political crimes.
The murderers of South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani are among those now expected to seek clemency, as is Eugene de Kock, a self-confessed assassin for the apartheid regime who is serving a 212-year prison sentence.
Mbeki on Wednesday acknowledged that those pardoned had been jailed for political crimes.
“It is a group of people who petitioned the government on the basis that they were involved in the struggle,” the president said.
The truth commission was set up by former president Nelson Mandela to probe apartheid-era abuses and had the power to pardon perpetrators who confessed in full and proved that they had acted with a political motive. But the majority of the amnesty applications the body received in its six-year existence were refused. It granted 1 200 pardons and denied some 5 500 requests, including those brought by Hani’s killers, Janus Waluz and Clive Derby-Lewis.
Mbeki has been highly critical of the panel set up by his predecessor and Justice Minister Penuell Maduna this week said a blanket amnesty was being mulled as the truth commission had not achieved its aims.
“The main goal of the TRC was to bring about reconciliation, but it failed,” he said. “My impression is that the government is now in a position to put things right.”
A survey released last year showed that views on the truth panel were split along racial lines, with blacks thinking it had done a good job and whites disagreeing strongly.
Maduna also disclosed that he had held talks with former apartheid era military commander and rightwing leader Constand Viljoen and told him “anyone requiring a pardon from among your own foot soldiers” should apply for one.
Government communications chief Joel Netshitenzhe said a general amnesty could provide relief for those who “were misled not to go through the TRC process.”
The official opposition Democratic Alliance, who claims six of the men pardoned by Mbeki did not bother to go before the TRC, accused the president of using a “back-door” and “piecemeal” approach to release people who were refused a reprieve by the TRC.
It also criticised Mbeki for keeping the men’s names secret, saying the families of their victims had a right to know they had been freed. But other political parties merely indicated that they would jump to secure pardons for affiliates who were behind bars for apartheid-era crimes.
The PAC said it would ask for clemency for each of its members and the Zulu-nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party, whose clashes with the ANC claimed thousands of lives, said it would advise hundreds of its members to apply for presidential pardons.
The Freedom Front’s Corne Mulder said his party would advise up to 50 rightwingers arrested in the violent run-up to South Africa’s first all-race elections in 1994 to do the same. A lawyer for De Kock said a letter asking for clemency for his client should reach Mbeki next week.
De Kock, who headed a state death squad and whose proficiency at killing earned him the nickname Prime Evil, approached the TRC for amnesty for more than 100 crimes. He was pardoned for more than 60 but his campaign to be freed came to a halt last year when he was denied pardon for killing alleged arms smugglers for the ANC.
A group lobbying for the release of about 80 jailed rightwingers, the Organisation for Afrikaner Political Prisoners, said it too was planning to approach Mbeki and Maduna.
“Our goal is to ensure the freedom of these people for once and for all,” it said. – AFP