Apartheid-Era Leader Defies Subpoena

Former President Pieter W. Botha, the last strongman of the apartheid system of racial separation, may be headed behind bars after refusing Friday to appear at a public hearing into secret police activities in the 1980s.

In a high-stakes showdown that some fear will worsen already strained relations between blacks and whites, officials from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission asked authorities to charge Botha with contempt of court after he stood them up at their Cape Town headquarters. A decision by the local attorney general’s office is expected in two weeks.

It was only the second time in its two-year history that the controversial truth commission--a special government body delving into crimes of the apartheid era--has pushed for criminal charges against an uncooperative witness. Other reluctant participants, most recently Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, have put up a fight but have submitted to commission inquiries.

The move to charge Botha is particularly sensitive because it comes just days after President Nelson Mandela, in a racially charged address to the ruling African National Congress, harshly criticized white South Africans for protecting their positions of privilege and doing little to reconcile with the black majority. The speech, hailed as accurate by blacks, brought calls of reverse racism from many whites.

“Pursuing Mr. Botha as a criminal will do a lot of harm for black-white relations in this country, because people will see it as getting at ‘whitey,’ ” said Sheila Camerer, a member of Parliament from the National Party, the country’s largest white-dominated party that Botha led from 1984 to 1989. “Clearly, Mr. Botha has a lot to answer for, and we believe the law must take its course. But we don’t believe such a legalistic approach is best under the circumstances.”

ANC officials welcomed Friday’s legal steps against the octogenarian former president and said it is Botha, not the truth commission, who shoulders responsibility for poisoning race relations.

“There can be no reconciliation on the basis of suppression of the truth,” said Justice Minister Dullah Omar at a news conference in Mafikeng, where the ANC is holding its 50th national convention.

Friday’s no-show was the third time that Botha, once known as the “Great Crocodile” for his fiery temperament, had defied a subpoena from the truth commission. Two weeks ago, he refused to appear based on a technical error in the summons. Earlier, he claimed ill health, although critics noted that he was well enough to announce his engagement to a woman 35 years his junior.

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Under law, the truth commission has the authority to question anyone about political activities or alleged wrongdoing before South Africa conducted its first all-race elections in 1994. Commissioners are particularly interested in grilling Botha on operations of the former State Security Council, which he founded in 1980 as prime minister and which served as a key tool of repression in the waning years of white minority rule.

Cabinet ministers and military generals during Botha’s tenure have already testified before the commission and have linked Botha to deadly activities of the secret police and defense forces. Earlier this month, Niel Barnard, who was his spy chief, said he warned Botha in the mid-1980s that members of his security forces could be murdering and torturing anti-apartheid activists in detention.

Truth Commissioner Ilan Lax said it is essential that Botha be held accountable and that the commission not back down in its quest to seek the truth.

“The commission is about learning from the past so that future generations, looking back, might choose a different option,” he said. “He is forcing our hand in a sense, but the feeling is, if we don’t take his refusal seriously, it will affect our credibility even further.”

In a voluminous written submission to the truth panel, Botha has dismissed its process as a “circus” bent on smearing him and other leaders in the former white government. He also says that he struck a deal last year with the commission’s chairman, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, that allows him to submit written testimony in exchange for influencing former Cabinet colleagues to cooperate with the panel.

Tutu has denied such a deal and insisted Friday that officials had been “very conciliatory and accommodating” toward Botha. But, Tutu said, enough is enough.

“We are nice people, but we keep on being abused,” he said. “Mr. P. W. Botha is a law-abiding man and was president of this country. We would expect him to obey the straightforward law of this country.”

Regional Atty. Gen. Frank Kahn gave Botha until Jan. 2 to explain why he did not respond to the subpoena, which had been served on the former president two weeks ago. If charged and convicted, Botha could be fined and imprisoned for up to two years.

Despite his intransigence, it is highly unlikely that authorities “will go up to Mr. Botha and handcuff him,” a truth commission official said.

Botha’s lawyer has assured the attorney general’s office that his client will appear in court if charges are filed against him.

“To arrest Mr. Botha now would be empty posturing,” Kahn said at a news conference.

In the only other case referred to prosecutors by the truth commission, three former members of a covert intelligence branch of the military refused several months ago to answer questions in a closed-door interrogation, the commission said. The case is under investigation.