Epilogue - Amnesty and Justice, 1995–2007

Summary

IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED:

That on 22 January 2007 at 12h00 at 96A PERCHERSON STREET, BEAULIEU, KYALAMI being the defendant's residential address, payment of the judgement debt in the amount of R325,000.00, my costs plus VAT was demanded from WILLIAMSON CRAIG MICHAEL … declared that he has no money, moveable or disposable property wherewith to satisfy the said warrant …

It is further certified that WILLIAMSON CRAIG MICHAEL was requested to declare whether he owns any immovable property which is executable, on which the following reply was furnished, ‘No.’

— J van den Heever, ‘Return: Execution of Writ of Execution’ to the High Court, Johannesburg

The attempts to bring Craig Williamson to justice for the murders of Jeanette and Katryn Schoon took many forms, spanning more than a decade. Even though Williamson confessed to his role in the murder and despite the tenacious persistence of the Schoon family to do everything in their power to stop Williamson from evading justice, their efforts ended with the limp, pathetic lie that Williamson gave to Deputy Sheriff Van den Heever.

To make sense of this remarkable travesty of justice, an entirely separate book could be written. There is neither time nor space to analyse all the twists and turns in Craig Williamson's path to amnesty and beyond. However, it is necessary briefly to sketch the broad contours of this process, towards an assessment of the specific significance of this book to contemporary contestations around justice for the crimes of apartheid. In addition, tracing Williamson's successful evasion of justice offers important signposts for further research, which could build on this book and take it in new directions.

Evading justice

Crucially, it was Marius Schoon who first sought justice for the murder of his wife and daughter by filing a civil suit against Craig Williamson, on 18 August 1995. Marius Schoon's case against Williamson came about in response to a televised confession by Williamson, who showed no shame for his role in the 1984 bombing of the Schoons’ home in Angola. Citing over a decade of trauma endured by himself and young Fritz, Marius Schoon sued for R1 million, with roughly a quarter designated in Williamson's ‘personal capacity’ and the rest in his ‘representative capacity’ as a servant of the police.