Ex-Colonel Links Botha to Attacks
A notorious apartheid-era police colonel linked former President Pieter W. Botha to violent attacks on anti-government groups. The former colonel, Eugene de Kock, who is serving a 212-year sentence for murders and other crimes, testified that he bombed the London offices of the then-banned African National Congress, or ANC, a South African church headquarters and trade union offices during Botha’s 1978-89 rule. De Kock said he received a Star of Excellence award for the ANC bombing, and that only Botha as president was authorized to bestow it. Botha, 82, is on trial for contempt for refusing to testify before an official inquiry.
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