Botha Implicated in 1988 Bombing

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission gave notice that apartheid-era President Pieter W. Botha, on trial for contempt, was directly implicated in the bombing of a church council’s headquarters in 1988. The 82-year-old hard-liner is charged with contempt for refusing to testify to the commission about his government’s suppression of black resistance to white minority rule. The court was told that a notice would be issued to him informing him of his right to legal representation at an amnesty hearing in which he was implicated by three senior apartheid officials. The three now seeking amnesty have said that Botha gave the order for the attack. The blast injured 21 people.