charged
Spoor, from White River in Mpumalanga, has represented the anti-mining Amadiba Crisis Committee community group for the past 12 years. Spoor had then become involved in a strong exchange with the general about how best to de-escalate the tension and continue the meeting. “Another person arrived, who introduced himself as an aide to the minister, yelling at Major General Swart to arrest Mr Spoor.
Smuts pointed out that the second and third counts against Spoor were referenced under the old Transkei Penal Code that had been used to suppress people in the former apartheid territory. But a recent Eastern Cape High Court judgment had ruled: “It would be contrary to the spirit and purport of the Constitution for any court to give recognition to an apartheid fiction that no longer exists.