Botha found Guilty

George Magistrate Victor Lugaju found former President P.W. Botha guilty of contempt for repeatedly ignoring subpoenas to testify in public before the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the body responsible for investigating human rights abuses committed during the apartheid era. Botha was fined ten thousand rand and given a one year prison sentence, suspended for five years, which could be brought into effect if he defied another TRC subpoena. The TRC wanted to question Botha about human rights abuses perpetrated by security forces during the apartheid era, as he chaired the State Security Council from 1978 to 1989. Botha had already been named in amnesty applications by former law and order minister Adriaan Vlok, and former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock as having directly ordered murders, bombings and torture of anti-apartheid activists. Botha denied having given any such order in his written responses to the commission. Despite the fact that the TRC had concluded its information gathering phase in July another subpoena for Botha was to follow from the amnesty committee. Click here to read more about South African leaders being exposed before the TRC for their role in violence. Click here to see the TRC Final Reports.