The Truth and Reconciliation Commission chairman, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, yesterday formally laid charges against former South African president Mr P. W. Botha. Mr Botha had defied a subpoena to appear before the commission.
However, the South African attorney-general, Mr Frank Kahn, gave Mr Botha until January 2nd to show cause why he should not be prosecuted following a request from his lawyers that they be given an opportunity to make written representations on behalf of their client.
"We are laying charges in terms of the law and it is up to the attorney-general to decide whether to prosecute," Dr Tutu said after waiting 35 minutes for Mr Botha (81), to arrive.
"I don't get angry easily, but in fact I am," he added.
The enabling law under which the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established, the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, makes failure to heed a subpoena a criminal offence. It is punishable by imprisonment for two years or a fine or both.
Yesterday was the second time that Mr Botha ignored a subpoena to appear in person before the TRC. But a legal technicality - the subpoena gave the venue and date but not the time of the hearing - prevented the TRC from proceeding with criminal charges on December 5th.
In an interview with the Afrikaans newspaper Rapport last month Mr Botha declared his determination not to appear before the TRC, accusing it of seeking to divide the Afrikaner people and describing it as a circus.
He denied any role in the thousands of deaths attributed to soldiers and police during more than 45 years of apartheid rule and said he was proud of his fight against communism.
After his initial refusal to appear, President Nelson Mandela had talks with representatives of the Dutch Reformed Church, to which Mr Botha belongs. According to news reports, Mr Mandela asked them to persuade Mr Botha to abandon the confrontational course on which he had embarked.
Judging by Mr Botha's non-appearance yesterday, their intervention was unsuccessful. His lawyers appeared to signal that they believed that he would be able to justify his stance on legal grounds. After Mr Kahn received the request from counsel for Mr Botha for an opportunity to make written representations on "unknown facts" he said: "Time being of the essence, I have given him until January 2nd, 1998, after which time I will make my decision on all the facts and the law."
Mr Botha had ealier given Mr Kahn an assurance that he would heed a subpoena to appear in court under the Criminal Procedure Act if a decision was taken to charge him.