Fewer than one in seven apartheid amnesty requests were granted

Evidence

To qualify for amnesty, perpetrators had to confess fully and with conviction for crimes during apartheid considered to be political. Amnesty would preclude prosecution for crimes so confessed, though not for other crimes, political or criminal. The Commission’s official report of 1998 revealed that of the more than 7,000 requests for amnesty, only 849 or a little over 12 percent were granted. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1575

Categorization

• QUESTION: Amnesty only covered fully confessed political crimes — wondering what distinguished the 88% denied and what drove the twelve-percent grant rate.