"Nonetheless I had to pardon those then involved because it was the only way to ensure agreement and reconciliation," the National Party leader told a special commission hearing chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
"This difficult task now rests on the shoulders of the commission."
It was important that the commission dealt with amnesty even-handedly. Any effort to apply stricter norms than those applied till now would result in injustice.
During the negotiations that resulted in the 1993 Constitution it had been the understanding among political parties that legislation in line with agreements reached in those multi-party talks would provide amnesty.
"Those agreements and understandings secured the negotiated constitutional settlement that resulted in the peaceful transformation we have experienced over the last number of years."
Victims of apartheid-era human rights abuses should receive reparation, he said. They "more than anybody else" had paid a heavy price for the freedom that South Africans enjoyed today.
The country owed them a great debt of gratitude and some form of reparation.
"The National Party will support all reasonable guidelines developed by the commission."