ONE year after convicted freedom fighter Kenny Motsamai was released on day parole, the state has lifted restrictions, allowing Motsamai to walk to freedom.
Member of the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla), Kenny Motsamai, was released on day parole from Boksburg Prison in January last year. This meant that he was still in prison after dark.
Some 100 Apla members are still incarcerated under apartheid-era laws. Motsamai spent over 27 years in jail for offenses which occurred during the liberation struggle. The main charge against him was for killing a police officer during a botched bank robbery, one of the tactics used to fund Apla.
“The acts that Motsamai undertook where similar in “criminality” (under normal circumstances) to the activities of Dirk Coetzee, Eugene de Kock and Louis van Schoor. The only difference was that one set of activities were in defence of apartheid, and the other set against it,”writes Ayabonga Cawe.