Solly Mapaila says sorry

SACP leader Solly Mapaila has apologised for claiming that the apartheid government afforded late PAC president Robert Sobukwe preferential treatment during his arrest on Robben Island.

Sobukwe, who defected from the ANC to form PAC, spent six years in solitary confinement on Robben Island.

During an interview on eNCA this week, Mapaila said the apartheid government “treated him as the main political prisoner when others were treated as terrorists and slaves, and were condemned to hard labour”.

Yesterday, Mapaila issued an unreserved apology, saying “Sobukwe’s incarceration was imposed by an illegitimate, racist apartheid regime and he had no control of their actions”.

PAC spokesperson Jaki Seroke said the party has accepted the apology: “To err is human, and to forgive is divine. The matter now rests.”