Croc still has teeth

How many chances can a former state president get?

Yesterday PW Botha was expected to be arrested and charged for failing to comply with a TRC subpoena to testify at a public hearing into the workings of the apartheid state.

Instead the Commission gave him another chance - his third - to get involved with a process he has dismissed as a circus.

The official reason given by the TRC for the issuing of a third subpoena is that the second had technically expired. But it's no secret that the Groot Krokodil's (Great Crocodile) previous refusals to attend the hearing are a major political headache.

The Commission does not want its pursuit of him to become seen as the persecution of an old and ailing man.