Reverend Frank Chikane told the Khampepe commission that authorities failed to pursue leads from plea agreements in apartheid-era cases. He highlighted the 2007 suspended sentences for those who plotted his poisoning and questioned why more was not done.
Veteran anti-apartheid cleric Reverend Frank Chikane testified before the Khampepe commission of inquiry in Johannesburg on Tuesday. He described his distress after the 2007 plea bargain that gave suspended sentences to former police minister Adriaan Vlok and others involved in two poisoning attempts on him in 1989.
Chikane said the agreement provided names and details that could have led to further charges against figures such as Dr Wouter Basson, head of the apartheid chemical warfare programme known as Project Coast. He noted that Basson had faced 67 counts including 229 murders in 1999, yet key lines of inquiry were dropped.
The cleric also criticised the National Prosecuting Authority for not following up on information from the plea deals. He recalled how he later held senior government positions and gained access to records at the Roodeplaat Research Laboratory, where toxic agents had been stored.
