JOHANNESBURG 14 July 1999 - SAPA

IFP MARCHES AGAINST PHAMA'S AMNESTY

Some 200 Inkatha Freedom Party youth brigade members marched on Wednesday afternoon to the Thokoza police station to present a memorandum to the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Penuell Maduna, police said.

Thabani Dhlamini of the youth brigade said the memorandum was to protest the granting of amnesty on June 29 by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Amnesty Committee to Michael Phama, who was convicted of murdering 21 IFP members in Thokoza in 1983.

Inspector Joep Joubert said the march took place peacefully and Captain BG Makhaya received the memorandum on behalf of the minister.

Dhlamini said the main complaint was that his organisation believed the amnesty was granted in a biased way because amnesty had not been granted to Nicholas Chamane and others of the IFP.

TRC spokesman Phila Ngqumba said amnesty was based on a number of criteria which included full disclosure and proof of a political motive.

Ngqumba said he could not say why Chamane and the others had not been granted amnesty, but denied that the TRC was biased towards granting amnesty to ANC cadres, as claimed by Dhlamini.

Phama was sentenced to life imprisonment and was also sentenced to 10 years for the illegal possession of arms and ammunition.

Phama was a member of the African National Congress and self-defence unit at Phola Park at the time of the incidents.

He and his companions opened fire on a group of IFP supporters who were on their way to a party rally at the Thokoza stadium on September 8, 1991. Sixteen people were killed and many were wounded.

Phama was also involved in a taxi shooting in Thokoza on February 26, 1992 that left five people dead and several injured and the shooting of two traffic officers in Alberton on March 27, 1992. Both officers were wounded.


© South African Press Association, 1999
This text is for information only and may not be published or reprinted without the permission of the South African Press Association