Past and present South African officials rushed to file last-minute amnesty applications on Saturday, the deadline in a sweeping program of pardons for apartheid-era crimes.
Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, Defense Minister Joe Modise and Transport Minister Mac Maharaj were among 375 current officials whose amnesty applications were delivered Saturday by the governing African National Congress to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.The Truth Commission, led by retired archbishop and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, is investigating abuses committed on all sides in South Africa during more than three decades of white-minority rule. Formed by the current all-race government to promote reconciliation, the panel can grant amnesty to people who confess committing politically motivated crimes.
Notable for their decision to forgo any amnesty request were apartheid's main proponents. Former Presidents P.W. Botha and F.W. De Klerk did not apply, saying their governments never sanctioned widespread human-rights violations alleged by apartheid opponents.
Only 10 applications arrived Saturday from the army. Magnus Malan, the apartheid-era defense minister who approved establishing an agency that infiltrated opposition groups, did not apply, and instead spent Saturday playing golf, his wife said.
Former apartheid-era ministers Piet Koornhof and Adriaan Vlok were virtually alone in the former, white-led National Party leadership in seeking amnesty.
As cooperation and development minister in 1978-84, Koornhof oversaw the forced removal of thousands of blacks from white areas. Vlok was law and order minister.
While Koornhof admitted to the South African Press Association he had been part of a system "which caused a lot of damage and human-rights abuses," most National Party leaders claim ignorance.