SURVIVORS of a terror bomb attack in Western Cape 13 years ago have lambasted President Jacob Zuma for excluding them from the process of releasing the perpetrators.
SURVIVORS of a terror bomb attack in Western Cape 13 years ago have lambasted President Jacob Zuma for excluding them from the process of releasing the perpetrators.
The attack, in Worcester, left four people dead and 67 injured.
Today the Constitutional Court will hear an appeal by former Afrikaner-Weerstandsbeweging member Albutt Ryan, responsible for the bomb attack, to reinstate a pardon process stopped in May this year.
The process was halted after a network of South African civil society organisations, acting on behalf of the victims, applied for an urgent interdict in May to stop the process. They were granted the interdict and the process stopped.
The coalition argued that the process was kept a secret.
Nomfanelo Macingwane yesterday relived the day that changed her life forever.
"I was at a Shoprite store on Christmas Eve of 1996. As I approached the till, there was a deafening sound and the whole place became dark. I could not even see my fingers.
"While I was still confused I heard a voice from the back of the shop calling on people to use the back exit. I crawled to the door because my legs could not carry me. My legs were swollen, my ears could not hear any sound," she said.
She said she was disappointed that Zuma was prepared to listen to the perpetrators but not the victims.
"He can give them the pardon but I will never forgive them for what they did."
The mother of three said after the incident she could not work because she could not stand for even a few hours.
Getrude Louw, another survivor, said: "My heart is sore that the president might release these people without even consulting us. We don't even know why the place was bombed."
Other people died later as a result of the bomb.
Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said he could not comment because the matter was sub judice.
JZ FLAYED OVER PARDONS
SURVIVORS of a terror bomb attack in Western Cape 13 years ago have lambasted President Jacob Zuma for excluding them from the process of releasing the perpetrators.
SURVIVORS of a terror bomb attack in Western Cape 13 years ago have lambasted President Jacob Zuma for excluding them from the process of releasing the perpetrators.
The attack, in Worcester, left four people dead and 67 injured.
Today the Constitutional Court will hear an appeal by former Afrikaner-Weerstandsbeweging member Albutt Ryan, responsible for the bomb attack, to reinstate a pardon process stopped in May this year.
The process was halted after a network of South African civil society organisations, acting on behalf of the victims, applied for an urgent interdict in May to stop the process. They were granted the interdict and the process stopped.
The coalition argued that the process was kept a secret.
Nomfanelo Macingwane yesterday relived the day that changed her life forever.
"I was at a Shoprite store on Christmas Eve of 1996. As I approached the till, there was a deafening sound and the whole place became dark. I could not even see my fingers.
"While I was still confused I heard a voice from the back of the shop calling on people to use the back exit. I crawled to the door because my legs could not carry me. My legs were swollen, my ears could not hear any sound," she said.
She said she was disappointed that Zuma was prepared to listen to the perpetrators but not the victims.
"He can give them the pardon but I will never forgive them for what they did."
The mother of three said after the incident she could not work because she could not stand for even a few hours.
Getrude Louw, another survivor, said: "My heart is sore that the president might release these people without even consulting us. We don't even know why the place was bombed."
Other people died later as a result of the bomb.
Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said he could not comment because the matter was sub judice.