Mbeki, Zuma, Maharaj must be charged for Church Street bombing - apartheid police general
20 May 2016
Pretoria - Former apartheid police general, Johan van der Merwe, says former president Thabo Mbeki, President Jacob Zuma and Mac Maharaj should all be charged with murder for their roles in bombings during the armed struggle.
"The Pretoria bombing was authorised at the highest level of the ANC. I know the ANC is blaming Mr Oliver Tambo because he is dead, but in terms of their structures, the NEC was responsible for the policy and conduct of these bombings. And the political military council was responsible to authorise these operations,” Van der Merwe said at an AfriForum conference in memory of the victims of the Church Street bombing in 1983.
The bomb was set off outside the Nedbank Square building in Pretoria's Church Street on May 20, 1983. The target was the South African Air Force offices. Nineteen people, including the two bombers, were killed and 217 people were injured.
Van der Merwe said those who gave evidence at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) could help in securing a conviction against the three.