Johannesburg - The first and so far only apartheidera cabinet minister to apply for amnesty, Mr Adriaan Vlok, yesterday implicated the former president, Mr P. W. Botha, in a series of government-sanctioned bombings in the late 1980s, including the 1988 bombing of the headquarters of the South African Council of Churches, Patrick Laurence writes.
Mr Vlok, who served under Mr Botha and his successor, Mr F. W. de Klerk, told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) amnesty committee that he had ordered the bombing of the council's headquarters after being instructed by Mr Botha to render it "unusable". The bombing - in which no one was killed, though 21 people were injured - was linked to sabotage attacks on the headquarters of the Congress of SA Trade Unions and cinemas showing the film, Cry Freedom, an account of the life of black-consciousness leader Steve Biko, who died in detention in 1977.
AFP adds: Mr Norman Gilindonda Gxekwa, once sentenced to death for participating in killing three people by "necklacing" was pardoned yesterday by the TRC.