Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
May 5, 1997
The Western Cape office of the TRC today subpoenaed a retired police inspector, Frank van Niekerk, to appear at it's Special Event Hearing on the 1985 Trojan Horse shootings in Athlone later this month.
The TRC's Investigative Unit last week served Section 29 subpoenas on six other people in relation to the same incident - five policemen and one member of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
The five other policemen who have been notified earlier are: Sergeant Alexander Jacobus Rossell, Police Director Christian Loedolf, Sergeant Albertus Myburgh Smit, Lieutenant Douw Vermeulen and Sergeant Andre John Smith. The SANDF member is Lieutenant Colonel Salmon Pienaar.
All seven were notified 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 incident. They are scheduled to appear before the TRC panel on Wednesday, May 21.
The first day of the special human rights violations hearing will consist of statements from victims and witnesses of the incident, in which three young men died when police hiding in a truck belonging to the South African Transport Services, opened fire on a group of youths.
The seven men 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 Glenda Wildschut and Committee Member, Ms Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela. The meeting will be open to the public.
All those subpoenaed are entitled to appoint legal represen- tatives. If they are not financially capable of doing so, the Commission may appoint a legal representative to assist them.
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 evening before the start of the hearing hearing.
Media can direct further inquiries to Christelle Terreblanche at 0824588461 (cell) or 021-245161 (during office hours).
Background:
On 15 October 1985 world attention was focused on Athlone after an incident in which youths started stoning what looked like a South African Transport Services truck and shotgun-armed policemen, 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 Claasen, 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 direction 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 Claasen 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 .