Elijah Mhlanga
The amnesty committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) resumed hearings in Durban on Monday, under severe time constraints.
The committee adjourned on Wednesday last week because chairman Judge Andrew Wilson left for Pretoria for another hearing. Wilson had come to Durban to replace Judge Hassan Mall, who fell ill.
The committee has to complete the hearings by Friday but has four cases to cover, three of which have been partly heard.
TRC spokesman Nosisi Tyantsi said the committee would hear the applications of former Durban security policemen who arrested and tortured two anti-apartheid activists, Raymond Lalla and Pravin Gordhan, now the supervisor of the internal revenue service.
The committee is also expected to complete hearing evidence in the murders of ANC members Brian Memela, Blessing Mabaso, Luvuyo Mgobhozi and Mbongeni Zondi. Police pursued the four from KwaMashu, killing them in full view of other motorists on the N2 near Quarry Road.
Among the amnesty applicants are security branch Major Mathys Botha, Zambian-born Colonel Laurance Wasserman and General Johannes Steyn.
The hearing for the murder of Umkhonto weSizwe members Charles Ndaba and Mbuso Shabalala also returns to haunt the policemen, who have claimed one of the men was an informer.
The last applicant in the case, Warrant Officer Salmon du Preez, could not testify last week after the judge presiding over the hearing had to attend another hearing in Pretoria.
The committee is also expected to hear evidence from the last witness on the murder of Dion Cele, who was killed by the security branch policemen and buried on a farm near Pietermaritzburg.
Tyantsi said if the amnesty committee failed to complete the hearings it would make further arrangements on Friday.
Meanwhile, Mall (77) is recovering from a triple heart by-pass operation at St Augustine's Hospital. Officials at the hospital said the judge was doing well.
Mall was listening to evidence at the Durban Christian Centre last week when he fell ill.
Doctors decided to do a triple heart by-pass operation on Friday. After the operation he was taken to the intensive care unit and yesterday visitors crowded around his bed.
He will not be available to hear evidence at the TRC for at least six more weeks.