Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 2000-11-18

MR VAN ECK: The intention to kill anyone at that stage wasn't a part of his planning, Mr Chairman, he was not informed that that must happen.  And if my memory serves me right and if one has regard to his evidence, if the intention was to kill someone and that was planned in the in-house by Van Zyl, Burger and Basson and approved by the other senior members, he would have associated himself with that, but at that stage when the bomb was planned and put in the Early Learning Centre, that was not part, as far as he's concerned, of the operation there.
	Another form of criticism against him is the discrepancies and the contradictions in his Section 29 statement.  He was cross-examined extensively on that.  I submit that he explained the position and the circumstances where he was detained under Section 29, and he had, at that stage, also regard and sympathy with Barnard who was his good friend and he tried to protect him as well. 
	Botha excluded some other acts for which he didn't apply for amnesty but which he informed this Commission in full, regarding the Rosskam incident, regarding the Webster incident.  In ...(end of tape) ... and that is what he did there.  And I submit that that can't be held against him for not applying for amnesty for that and that when his amnesty application was compiled it was done by experienced legal practitioners and it can't be his fault that certain incidents were excluded.  Like for instance, the Rosskam one, it's not on his doorstep that it wasn't done.
	Mr Chairman, I submit that if one looks at the requirements of the Act and what Botha's role was that he played in the bombing of the Early Learning Centre, that he explained fully his role, that he made a clean breast of it and that he is indeed sorry for what he did and that he apologised for that.  Surely one cannot expect from him to disclose more than what he knew.  For instance, people in the hall, the preplanning of it and if one looks at it in the totality of what transpired that evening there and thereafter, I submit that the only act for which he applied for amnesty, the bombing of the Early Learning Centre, he ought to get amnesty for that.
	The other incidents for which he didn't apply, he made a clean breast of that here.  Obviously that doesn't come into the roll here and I submit in the end that Botha has done everything he could to fulfil the requirements of this Commission and the Act.  As it pleases.  Thank you, Mr Chairman.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr van Eck.  Mr Coetzee.

MR COETZEE: Mr Commissioner and esteemed Members of the Committee, in dealing with the application of Mr Barnard for amnesty regarding the Apie project and the Omar project, one thing, with great respect, which is very clear is that the applicant doesn't at all try to disassociate himself from the seriousness or the immorality of the acts which he has perpetrated.  And quite frankly, very few people could have come to a Commission such as this with a more tarnished background and reputation than Mr Barnard.  But the fact of the matter is that he was a member of the CCB and later the DCC.  He stated his political motivations in regard to his actions quite clearly in his application already and also in bundle K at pages 2622, he clearly stated there what was his intention and  I wish to read it to the Honourable Commission
"I was under the impression because I was indoctrinated and brainwashed, and I'm not trying to escape my own accountability, I was under the impression that what I did was justifiable in terms of the struggle that was waged during that time."
	My submission with great respect, is that his evidence clearly indicates that he has complied with the criteria set out in the Act, more specifically Section 20(2)(b), even Section 20(2)(f) and also Section 20(2)(g).  In any one of those three categories he would very easily fall if one takes cognisance of his evidence.

CHAIRPERSON: So what do you say about the allegations and/or submissions that he was not a member of the CCB after the McQuillan affair?