STATEMENT BY THE WESTERN CAPE OFFICE OF THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION
29 APRIL 1997
The Western Cape Office of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has served subpoenas on three policemen and one member of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to appear at a Special Event Hearing on the Trojan Horse shootings in Athlone in 1985.
The four were notified this week in accordance with Section 29 of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, to give evidence and/or answer questions relating to the Trojan Horse inciden t. They are scheduled to appear before the TRC panel on Wednesday, May 21.
The first day of the hearing will consist of human rights violations statements from victims and witnesses of the incident, in which three young men died when police hiding in a truck belonging to th e South African Transport Services, opened fire on a group of youths who the police alleged were throwing stones.
The three policemen who have been notified to appear are: Sergeant Alexander Jacobus Rossell, and Police Director Christian Loedoelf and Inspector Andre John Smith. The SANDF member is Lieutenant Col onel Salmon Pienaar.
These security force members will appear before a panel consisting of Western Cape Commissioners, Adv Denzil Potgieter, Mr Dumisa Ntsebeza (Head of the TRC's Investigative Unit), Ms Mary Burton, Ms G lenda Wildschut and Committee Member, Ms Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela. The hearing will be open to the public.
All those subpoenaed are entitled to appoint legal representatives. If they are not financially capable of doing so, the Commission may appoint a legal representative to assist them.
Staff from the TRC's Western Cape Office have been visiting schools in the Athlone area over the last two weeks, to raise awareness among pupils of the event and the effect of violence on young people and children during the apartheid years. A candlelight procession similar to the ones held in the wake of the Trojan Horse and St Athens Mosque shootings, is planned by the Athlone community for the night before the hearing.
Background:
On the 15 October 1985 world attention was focused on Athlone after an incident in which youths had started stoning what looked like a South African Transport Services truck and shotgun -armed police men, who had been hiding in crates at the back of the truck, broke cover and fired at the youths. Two youths died in the road and a third, who was in a nearby house, was killed by shotgun fire.
The police defended their alleged "ambush" of the stonethrowers as a necessary technique to protect people using public roads in the area .They said that normal vehicle patrols by security forces had proved ineffective because the stonethrowers had devised a strategy of waylaying vehicles which they thought could be attacked and destroyed with impunity.
In February 1989 an inquest was held to determine the circumstances surrounding the deaths of two children, Michael Miranda and Shaun Magmoed, aged 11 and 16 years respectively, and Mr. Jonathan Cla asen, aged 21 years. Evidence before the court was that members of a police task force were ordered to conceal themselves in wooden crates on the back of a truck which was then driven twice down a road in the suburb of Athlone. On it's second trip into the suburb, it came under a hail of rocks and stones. The policemen sprang from their hiding places and without warning, started firing in the d irection of the stonethrowers .
The magistrate, Mr G Hoffman, found that the task-force was negligent and caused the death of the three victims. Mr Hoffman said that "there was not a shred of evidence" to show that Miranda and Claa sen had thrown stones and although Mr Magmoed had been identified by a witness as wearing a green shirt, he found the teenager had not thrown stones either. Mr Hoffman said that a State of Emergency had been declared 11 days before the incident, but that "the police could not hide behind a state of emergency"
The Attorney General of the Cape at the time, Mr Niel Roussouw, declined to prosecute and this decision was supported by the then Minister of Justice, Mr Kobie Coetsee. The families of Mr Magmoed and Mr Miranda thereafter decided to launch a private prosecution in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1977, the first in South African history. The families were however unsuccessful with their prosecution.