JOHANNESBURG - Former South African President F.W. de Klerk has been implicated by apartheid-era security officials charged with attempted murder for allegedly approving their actions, says the Sunday Times.
Adriaan Vlok, former Minister of Law and Order, and ex-police chief Johann van der Merwe, were charged last weekwith the attempted murder of cleric Frank Chikane using poisoned underpants. Chikane is now an adviser to President Thabo Mbeki. The Sunday Times said Vlok and van der Merwe were angry that they were the only ones being held accountable for atrocities committed under white minority rule and had implicated De Klerk and his former Cabinet officials in submissions to prosecutors.
De Klerk shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela for securing the country's smooth transition from apartheid to the first all-race poll in 1994. "We have no reason to believe the claims are true," said Dave Steward, executive director of the F.W. de Klerk Foundation.
"It does not worry us. Mr De Klerk has nothing to hide."
Vlok and Van der Merwe are accused of poisoning Chikane, a high-profile anti-apartheid activist, when he was general-secretary of the South African Council of Churches. They used toxins laced in his underwear. Chikane became ill but survived.
