George - Mr P. W. Botha ordered the bombing of the Johannesburg headquarters of mainstream church opposition to apartheid when he was head of state, his trial heard yesterday.
The allegation came from Mr Paul van Zyl, executive secretary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), who cited an apartheid government minister and two top policemen as saying that the order for the 1988 bombing came from Mr Botha.
The trio - former law and order minister Adriaan Vlok, former police chief Johan van der Merwe and apartheid death squad commander Eugene de Kock - had all named Mr Botha in amnesty applications to the TRC. Twenty-three people were injured in the blast, responsibility for which has been claimed by De Kock, currently serving a life term for six murders and a spate of robberies.