By Franny Rabkin
A COALITION of civil society organisations yesterday called on the Democratic Alliance (DA) to "formally apologise" for its role in "denying victims a voice" in applications for presidential pardons for politically motivated crimes.
This followed an article in the Sunday Times by the DA's Dene Smuts, which criticised the 2007 "special dispensation" to deal with pardon applications for politically motivated crimes.
Smuts said the special dispensation was "destroying the moral basis" of the amnesty law. But her opinion contradicted that of previous DA justice spokesman Tertius Delport, the DA nominee to the parliamentary reference group that sifted applications .
The coalition, which includes the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation and the Khulumani Support Group, has litigated the constitutionality of the special dispensation all the way to the Constitutional Court, saying the process made no provision for participation of the victims of the crimes for which pardons were being sought.
In 2008, the coalition had written of its concerns to all political parties, but had received no response from the DA. Instead, Delport replied in his capacity as chairman of the reference group, rejecting the coalition's concerns.
The coalition said the DA had not contradicted Delport then. "We can therefore safely assume the DA formally approved the exclusion of victims (and) the blanket secrecy."
Delport, now retired from politics, yesterday confirmed the party's official position was to support the special dispensation.
But Smuts told Business Day there would be no apology "to NGOs" and that the DA's position historically was always that "transparency and the rights of victims to be informed should be observed".
Delport was "best placed" to explain "why his group felt different considerations applied", she said.
CSVR is a multi-disciplinary institute that seeks to understand and prevent violence, heal its effects and build sustainable peace at the community, national and regional levels.
