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Ledwaba forgives 'Dr Death' - victim's mom doesn't want to die angry

MOVING ON: Joyce Ledwaba suspects chemicals manufactured by Wouter Basson were used to kill her son PHOTO: ANTONIO MUCHAVE
MOVING ON: Joyce Ledwaba suspects chemicals manufactured by Wouter Basson were used to kill her son PHOTO: ANTONIO MUCHAVE

THE mother of one of the victims allegedly killed by chemicals that Dr Wouter Basson had manufactured, said she has forgiven him.

"I have forgiven Basson. I am going to die and I don't want to die cross," said Joyce Ledwaba yesterday at the final hearings before Basson's sentencing.

Basson, also known as Dr Death, was found guilty by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) of unprofessional conduct last year for his role as the head of Project Coast.

"He came to me and asked me to forgive him and I told him I forgave him and he shook my hand," Ledwaba said.

Basson headed the top-secret project founded and funded by the apartheid government that manufactured chemical and biological weapons.

These weapons included teargas, cyanide tablets, mandrax, ecstasy and other incapacitating agents and were used to kill enemies of the apartheid government.

Ledwaba's 17-year-old son Samuel Ledwaba was killed in 1986 but she does not know exactly when or how he was killed or where he is buried.

She suspects that the chemicals manufactured by Basson were used to drug and kill her son.

"I was told my son was part of a group of boys [the Mamelodi 10] who were meant to go for military training but were instead drugged, shot and burnt in a house in KwaNdebele," Ledwaba said.

Because of the severe burns to the bodies she was unable to identify her son among the victims.

A few months later she was told her son had died when a bomb he was placing on a railway line prematurely exploded and he was burnt beyond recognition.

"My son died twice. I don't know which one is the true version," she said.

Basson was absent from the hearings yesterday.

Marjorie Jobson of the Khulumani Support Group testified that Basson had not taken personal responsibility for the atrocities that led to many deaths.

Advocate Jaap Cilliers, Basson's lawyer, maintained that his client did nothing wrong.

"Why must he admit guilt when he was found not guilty," he asked, referring to Basson being found not guilty in the Pretoria High Court in 2002 of 67 charges which included murder, fraud and drug trafficking.

Jobson told Sowetan Basson could not be directly linked to giving anyone the chemicals that were used to kill people during apartheid.

She said, however, he should take responsibility and acknowledge that the chemicals he manufactured were used to kill people even if he wasn't the one who killed them.

nkosin@sowetan.co.za

 

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