Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
December 12, 1996
NEWS RELEASE ON TRC AMNESTY DECISIONS
(The following summary of the applications, and the main points of the decisions and reasons therefore, is given purely to assist those journalists needing a quick initial summary of the applications and is not a binding document with any legal status.)
1. AMNESTIES GRANTED
1.1. Brian Victor Mitchell. Decision and reasons therefor already released.
1.2. Amnesties have been granted to three members of the community in the Kroonstad area, Roland Roy Petrus, Machabe Petrus Thulo and Paseka Johannes Mpondo, in applications relating to incidents involving the so-called Three Million Gang.
Petrus was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment for the murder of MR GEORGE RAMASIMONG on February 25, 1992. Thulo applied for amnesty for the murder of MR SEABATA ALBERT NTEMA on February 11, 1991, for which he was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. Mpondo murdered TSIETSI LEBOKO on May 11, 1991 and was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment.
The following is the conclusion at the end of the reasons for the Amnesty Committee's decision:
QUOTATION BEGINS:
The Committee is of the opinion that the following conclusions can be drawn:
1. The Three Million Gang terrorised and victimised the Maokeng community;
2. The Police did very little to bring an end to the violence possibly due to the victimisation of witnesses;
3. A perception grew that the Police collaborated with the gang;
4. The community, on the initiative of the ANC members, formed a Self-Defence Unit to protect the community;
5. The Self-Defence Unit consisted of ANC members while the Three Million Gang's members were seen by some as Inkatha members but in fact represented various parties, it might even have had ANC members.
As a result of the perception that the gang was in some way or another connected with Police, the war between the gang and the community and in particular the Self-Defence Unit, became politically tainted. In this war, according to the evidence, about 104 community members and about 25 gang members were killed. The numbers could not be substantiated.
The Committee concluded :
2The three applicants complied with requirements of Section 20(1) and 20(2) of Act 34 of 1995 in that:
1. Applicants... acted with a political motive.
2. Although the Committee cannot, on the evidence before it, find that the Three Million Gang was protected or assisted by the Police or the judicial staff in any unlawful manner, the Committee finds that such a perception existed in the community. The Committee finds that in the circumstances then prevailing it could not be discarded as an unreasonable perception. Subjectively the community believed it. Objectively it seems as though the belief on the facts then known was reasonable.
3. All the applicants were members of a political party and acted against people they believed to be their political opponents. Although they aver that they received an order to kill the deceased, the Committee cannot find that such an order was explicitly given but on evidence it is clear that they acted on behalf of their party. They believed, and on the evidence it appears to be so, that their acts would bring an end to violence and allow freedom of political expression.
In the result the Committee grants amnesty to the three applicants.
QUOTATION ENDS
1.3. Amnesty has been granted to Jacobus Johannes Christoffel Botha, described in his application as a Conservative Party MP.
His application was in respect of acts related to explosions at Hillview School, Pretoria, on July 6, 1991, Cosatu House, Pretoria, on December 18, 1991, and the Verwoerdburg and Krugersdorp post offices on January 1, 1992.
Botha was facing criminal and civil proceedings related to the acts, including a charge of terrorism under the Internal Security Act.
His application was dealt with in chambers. The Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act did not require a hearings to be held in this case.
1.4. Amnesty has been granted to Gerhard Pieter Daniel Roux, Cornelius Gabriel Volschenk and Rowland Keith Robinson, all members of the Boerekommando. Roux also declares himself in his application to be a member of the Conservative Party.
They applied for amnesty in respect of acts arising out of the detonation of explosives at Melkrivier School in the Nylstroom district on January 2, 1992, and the detonation of explosives at Perdekop School in the Volksrust district on December 22, 1991. They were facing a terrorism charge in terms of the Internal Security Act.
Their application was also dealt with in chambers.
2. AMNESTY REFUSED
2.1. Amnesty was refused to Molefe Joseph Tshukudu, also a member of the Kroonstad community and an alleged member of the Self-Defence Unit of the ANC Youth League. He was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment for the murder on October 30, 1992 of HENDRIK GROBELAAR in Maokeng township, Kroonstad.
The Committee concluded:
"There is no evidence before us from the applicant to show that the killing of the deceased was carried out to achieve any political objective. In fact when the applicant was repeatedly questioned what he had achieved or intended to achieve by killing the deceased he could not advance any reasons."
2.2. Amnesty was refused to Cornelius Johannes van Wyk and Jean Prieur du Plessis, members of an organisation called the Nasionale Sosialistiese Partisane (NSP - National Socialist Partisans). Van Wyk is serving sentences of life imprisonment on three counts of murder, and Du Plessis is serving 12 years' imprisonment for crimes including robbery, the theft of weapons from the SA Defence Force and illegal possession of firearms.
Van Wyk was convicted of the murder of MS MAKOARELA DOBANI, MR WILSON DOBANI AND MRS MARIA CLAUDINE ROUX at Cloud's End, Louis Trichardt, in October 1991. He was also convicted, with Du Plessis, on seven other charges arising out of their activities.
The Committee noted that the NSP was an organisation which consisted of only four members, and added:
"A question which immediately arises is whether NSP is or was "a publicly- known political organisation or liberation movement", as required by Section 20(2)(a) and (d) of the Act.... The NSP was a group of only four people and, on the evidence before us was neither a publicly-known political organisation nor liberation movement. Newspaper cuttings were handed in as exhibits, in an attempt to show that this group was a publicly-known political organisation or liberation movement. Far from showing this, the newspapers paint a picture of religious fanatics under the influence of the Church of the Creator apparently bent on purging the country of "inferior" races."
After considering arguments on this issue, the Committee found:
"In the light of the aforegoing, the applicant has not been able to show that when he committed the offences in question, he did so as one of the people described in Section 20(2) of the Act. For this reason alone, his application fails in respect of all the offences."
The Committee also gave additional reasons for the application failing. (Pages 3 to 8 of the reasons.
2.3. Amnesty was refused to Kwane Sebe, the former commander of the Elite Unit of the Ciskeian Police and son of former Ciskei leader Lennox Sebe. Kwane Sebe, 38, is serving 21 years in prison for the bombing of a house belonging to his former second-in-command, Mr Zandisile Nygwanya, and a bottlestore belonging to Mr Nygwanya and Mr Fikile Gatya, a former official in President Sebe's office.
Court evidence was that a six-man unit of the Ciskeian Defence Force blew up the Keiskammahoek bottle store with military explosives in May 1989. Sebe was convicted of malicious damage to property and jailed for nine years on this charge. In a later trial, he was jailed for 12 years after being convicted, again of malicious damage to property, for the bombing of a house in Peddie in December 1989.
The Committee referred to Sebe's evidence that the properties were bombed as part of intelligence operations, believing that an organisation known as Iliso-Lomzwi was engaged in activities directed at destabilising the Ciskei. (It also referred to Mr Nygwanya and Mr Gatya having been detained in the Ciskei, and to an incident in which Mr Gatya was demoted in President's office.)
The Committee found:
".... In the absence of clear evidence that Mr Gatya and Mr Nygwanya were members or supporters of Iliso-Lomzwi, the Applicant's offences cannot be said to be associated with a political objective.
"The extraordinary lengths to which he went to ensure that Mr Nygwanya remained in custody despite the fact that he had been released on bail, coupled with the fact that he threatened to destroy Mr Nygwanya's property because of the latter's refusal to "clear his name", indicate that his motive for committing the offence was anything but political.
"Mr Gatya's humiliating demotion and his subsequent detention on the orders of the Applicant reinforce the belief that Applicant was determined to hurt those who did not comply with his wishes. We are driven to the conclusion that Applicant acted against both of them out of malice, ill will or spite."
2.4. Amnesty was refused to four brothers - Adriaan van Straaten, Willem van Straaten, Gideon van Straaten and Dawid van Straaten - who were convicted of murder and robbery, and sentenced on May 14, 1991.
The four murdered MR WANTON MATSHOBA and MR SAZISE CYPRIAN QHELISO in Vereeniging on June 17/18, 1989 and robbed a company of a heavy-duty transporter. Willem Jacobus van Straaten was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment, and his brothers to 13 years' each.
The Committee concluded:
"On all the evidence and on the probabilities which appear from the facts which are not in dispute, the Committee cannot come to the conclusion that these murders and the removal of the vehicle were acts which were associated with a political objective and not purely criminal acts. The applications and the evidence do not satisfy the criteria in Section 20 of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act. Advocate E Niewoudt, who appeared for the applicants, tried to convince the Committee in a competent and ingenious manner in her heads of argument that these applications fell within the ambit of the Act. In her arguments she bent over backwards to give the facts a political rather than a purely criminal connotation. These arguments are not convincing against the objective, established facts and evidence at the criminal trial."
2.5. Amnesty was refused to Thamsanqa David Jackson, who is serving 12 years' imprisonment for the murder of a policeman, MR OUPA PETRUS DITHABE, in Masilo Location, Ventersdorp, on April 23, 1993.
The Committee found:
"It is crystal clear from the evidence tendered that the Applicant allegedly killed the deceased in self-defence after the deceased slapped him on the face. It is equally clear that the Applicant's offence was not associated with a political objective.
"We are accordingly satisfied that the act committed by the applicant does not meet the requirements of Section 20(2) and (3) of the Act at all."
(THE FULL TEXTS OF THE REASONS FOR DECISIONS ON APPLICATIONS WHERE THERE WERE PUBLIC HEARINGS ARE ATTACHED TO THE PHOTOCOPIED TEXTS OF THIS STATEMENT AND JOURNALISTS ARE URGED TO REFER TO THEM FOR THE DETAIL. FAXED COPIES OF THE REASONS ARE AVAILABLE ON REQUEST TO JOURNALISTS OUTSIDE CAPE TOWN. THEY RUN TO 47 pages. Contact Odile Pearce or Monica Joyi at 24-5161.)