A LIST of 149 people being considered for a presidential pardon includes serial killers and right-wingers convicted of blowing up a Worcester supermarket.
Those on the list were recommended for a presidential pardon in terms of a “special dispensation” created by former president Thabo Mbeki in 2007.
The dispensation allowed those convicted of politically motivated offences before June 16, 1999, who had not applied for amnesty to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to apply for a pardon.
On Monday, the department released the list of names together with their crimes, which include treason, murder, attempted murder, sabotage and the illegal possession of weapons and explosives.
The Khulumani Support Group said: “We note with surprise that there are several individuals on the list of offenders recommended for pardon who are serial killers and who have engaged in crimes such as theft and robbery with aggravating circumstances.”
AWB members who planted a bomb at a supermarket in Worcester on Christmas Eve in 1996 are on the list. Four people were killed in the blast and 50 were injured. Nicolaas Barnard later escaped police custody and went on to kill another person.
Also on the list is former apartheid police minister Adriaan Vlok and his police chief Johan van der Merwe, along with former police major-general Chris Smit and former colonels Gert Otto and Manie van Staden, all of whom pleaded guilty in 2007 to the attempted murder by poisoning of the Rev Frank Chikane in 1989. – Sapa
