JOHANNESBURG - The exhumation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the bodies of four political activists in KwaZulu-Natal has rekindled accusations of duplicity by the African National Congress against the former President, Mr F.W. de Klerk, writes Patrick Laurence.
The ANC cadres - whose graves were pointed out by six former security policemen seeking amnesty - include a woman who was kidnapped from Swaziland by security police, tortured and shot when she refused to become a police informer.
While South Africans have been shocked by photographs of the skeletal remains of the exhumed bodies, the murder of the two men whose bodies were thrown into the Tugela River - Charles Ndaba and Mbuso Tshabalala - has incited the sharpest criticism of Mr De Klerk.
The deputy Defence Minister, Mr Ronnie Kasrils, said: "The record shows that De Klerk was closely briefed by his security police chiefs immediately after the disappearance of Ndaba and Tshabalala," he says. "The discovery of those bodies is the strongest evidence of the double track strategy that De Klerk was following at the time of the negotiations."
A similarly tough worded statement against Mr De Klerk has been made by the Transport Minister, Mr Mac Maharaj, an ANC leader who was detained by security police for his role in Operational Vula after the start of peace negotiations.
However, the National Party says if Mr De Klerk is held responsible for the actions of policemen who acted beyond the law in KwaZulu-Natal before 1994, then by the same token Mr Mandela should take responsibility for all political murders since he assumed office in May 1994.