&25 YEARS AGO

The ANC has instructed leadership and members to go to the truth commission if they committed human rights abuses during the anti-apartheid struggle — and, in a gesture of support for the truth process, has withdrawn temporary immunity given to its members by the old government.

“The ANC renounces the temporary indemnities (designed to allow exiled members back into the country before the 1994 elections) as they no longer serve any purpose. The ANC will submit its record, leaders and members to the scrutiny of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” said a statement issued on Thursday.

“We have nothing to hide. Instead we want to help create a climate in which the healing process of our nation is enhanced.”

This week the Mail & Guardian asked senior officials and cabinet ministers from the party how it would deal with amnesty applications from its own members to the truth commission and found the ANC grappling to come up with a consensus policy around a number of sensitive issues.

— Mail & Guardian, 15 to 21 March 1996