FERDINAND BARNARD
In other words Chairperson, if you would grant me the opportunity, I would like to make an unconditional apology to the victims.  I would like to apologise for any share that I had, whether direct or indirect in any of the things that caused problems for them, that caused tragedy and tears for them, that created uncertainty in their lives, and particularly because Mrs Omar is here today, I would like to say that her attitude has meant that I have done what I have done here, yesterday and today, specifically that tipped the scales for me and led me to speak the truth.
	I would like to thank her because it is valuable to me.  It was with malice and an evil heart that I came to your residence where you and your family were supposed to feel safe and I came with the express purpose of killing your husband and the head of your household, Dullah Omar, I did everything in my power to materialise this plan.  I know today that it would have been utterly wasted.
	Furthermore I am in a prison where originally the prison was constructed for executions, and I cannot tell you how many times I have thought that if it wasn't for the efforts of people like Adv Dullah Omar to abolish capital punishment, I would have been a dead man.  So what happens now?  I am doing everything in my power to kill him and to cause his family damage, but they pray for me and they do everything to assist me and indirectly, they save my life.
	I cannot express my regret.   In some bizarre manner, it gives me satisfaction to know that I am paying for what I have done.  My greatest desire is no longer to be released from prison, I would like to become the old Ferdi Barnard once again.  I would like to become what I was before I became involved in this mess, before the police, before everything.  Even if it has to take place in a prison cell, even if I spend the rest of my natural life in a super maximum correctional facility, it has become important to me that people try to understand my circumstances and that they try to forgive me.
	There is a life after this, and if it means that I will spend the rest of my life in prison, I would like to do so with a clear conscience, with a peaceful state of mind away from all this mess that I have helped to create.
	My parents and my family are decent people.  My friends are decent, straight forward people.  They do not deserve what I have done to them.  I owe them an apology as well.  I owe Dr Webster's next-of-kin, in particular Ms Maggie Friedman, an unconditional apology.  I know it does not change anything.  You know how it feels for me, it feels as if a man comes to you and jumps into bed with your wife and then the next minute just says "sorry", what does that do?  It does not change the situation, because the damage is done.
	Sorry is what you say when you spill a drink on a man and if you do it again, you are looking for trouble.  What I feel and what I have experienced, goes so much deeper than that.  I cannot express to you in words how I feel.  I just want you to try to find a place in your heart somewhere you could forgive me.  I have made mistakes, I am being punished for them, I am taking the punishment like a man, I don't want to put anybody else  in prison, I don't want to testify against them.
	I will continue to meet out my sentence as such.  Thank you Chairperson.