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Apartheid officials plead guilty in attempted poisoning

By CRAIG TIMBERG, Washington Post
Published August 18, 2007

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Two of the apartheid era's best-known faces of government repression pleaded guilty Friday to attempting to assassinate an opponent by lacing his underwear with poison.

Under a deal made with prosecutors, neither assailant is likely to go to prison.

Former Law and Order Minister Adriaan Vlok and former police Chief Johannes Van der Merwe entered their pleas at Pretoria High Court, along with three lower-ranking police officers. The five were charged with attempting to kill the Rev. Frank Chikane, then a leading antiapartheid activist, in 1989.

The poisoning made Chikane violently ill, but he survived and today serves as a top adviser to President Thabo Mbeki.

Chikane welcomed the plea bargain in comments outside the courtroom, where demonstrators had gathered. "I'm pleased that this thing is over, and that we can move forward," Chikane said, according to the South African Press Association.

Under the terms of the deal, Vlok and Van der Merwe will not serve any time behind bars if they commit no crimes for the next five years, the Associated Press reported. They and the three others - who also received suspended sentences - must assist in any additional prosecutions that arise. Such cooperation could open the way to a fuller accounting of apartheid-era crimes.

Apartheid ended in South Africa in 1994, when the African National Congress took power with the election of then-President Nelson Mandela.

Hundreds of apartheid-era criminals won amnesty from the nation's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, under a system where those who committed atrocities were encouraged to reveal their misdeeds in exchange for protection against future prosecution.

[Last modified August 18, 2007, 01:25:41]