By Jann Turner
The special pardons process is failing the victims of the crimes committed by those seeking the pardons, writes JANN TURNER
MAY 1 marks the 20th anniversary of the assassination of activist David Webster. He was gunned down outside his Johannesburg home in front of his partner, Maggie Friedman.
My father R ick Turner, also an activist, was shot dead at our Durban home in January 1978. My father's killer has never been found, but the man who shot Webster was eventually brought to justice. Ferdi Barnard is serving a life sentence in Pretoria Central .
On the long list of tasks facing SA's new president as he enters office is Barnard's application for a special pardon. If pardoned, he will walk free with his police and prison record wiped clean.
The special pardons process (also known as the Special Dispensation on Presidential Pardons) does not give Friedman any say in the matter. A court judgment due next week will determine whether she and other victims are entitled to be part of the pardons process.
Former president Thabo Mbeki established this process to deal with the unfinished business of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Its aim was to permit those who did not apply for amnesty an opportunity to apply for a political pardon.
Like the TRC's amnesty process, it was based on disclosure and the demonstration of a political objective for the crime, although the cut-off date for offences was extended to 1999. It was launched at the beginning of last year with the creation of a reference group, which will make findings and recommendations to the president.
The reference group comprises representatives from political parties and is chaired by former National Party cabinet minister Tertius Delport. Unlike the TRC's amnesty hearings, the special pardons process operates under a blanket of secrecy. None of the applications for pardons has been disclosed to victims, interested parties or the public.
The parameters for the reference group state that, because the TRC's amnesty provisions have lapsed, the president is invoking his powers to pardon people.
Central to the TRC process was the acknowledgment of victims. But the special pardons process gives no voice to victims whatsoever. The reference group was asked on several occasions to permit victim inputs and refused to do so.
The group also refused an offer by the civil society coalition to facilitate victim inputs when they recommend pardons. But the group has declined to disclose which cases it is recommending to the president.
Both Mbeki and President Kgalema Motlanthe have been asked to intervene and compel the group to operate transparently and to permit victim participation. Both ignored these requests.
This is despite the fact that Mbeki stated before a joint sitting of Parliament in November 2007 that the special pardons process would respect the "principles, values and criteria of the TRC" and particularly its amnesty process.
Pardon applicants include former safety and security minister Adriaan Vlok; former police commissioner Johan van der Merwe; a group of Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging members who viciously attacked black people in Kuruman in 1995, and a right-wing thug who bombed a supermarket in Worcester on Christmas Eve 1996.
In the Worcester bombing, four people died, one of them a nine-year-old girl.
The bomber claims he is a prisoner of war, even though his crime was committed more than two years into SA's democracy.
A civil society coalition representing the victims has now brought the matter to court.
It includes the Khulumani Victims Support Group, the International Centre for Transitional Justice, the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, South African History Archives, the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, the Human Rights Media Centre and the Freedom of Expression Institute.
Former TRC chairman, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, and the director of the South African Human Rights Commission, Jody Kollapen have filed affidavits supporting the application.
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.
