Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
September 3, 1997
Details of the killings and torture of high-profile anti-apartheid activists in the Eastern Cape, as well as of security police methods and structures, are expected to emerge during a five- week sitting of the Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which begins in Port Elizabeth next week.
Next week the Committee will hear the applications of five former South African Police members relating to the death of Mr Steven Bantu Biko in 1977 and the treatment in detention of Mr Peter Jones, who was arrested with him.
However, the week will begin with an application arising out of the treatment of Mr Mkuseli Jack in detention. On Monday and Tuesday, September 8 and 9, the Committee will hear the application of Gideon Johannes Nieuwoudt, a former member of the SAP's Security Branch in Port Elizabeth.
Mr Nieuwoudt has applied for amnesty for ten deaths and two assaults in total. The first application to be heard relates to the assault on Mr Jack, when he was detained in Port Elizabeth for, among others, his activities as president of the PE Youth Congress (Peyco) during 1985.
Five former Security Police members, including Mr Nieuwoudt, will appear from Wednesday September 10, to ask for amnesty in relation to assaults on and the death of Mr Biko in 1977. The other four applicants are: Mr Harold Snyman, Mr Daniel Petrus Siebert, Mr Jacobus Johannes Oosthuizen Beneke and Mr Rubin Marx.
Nieuwoudt has also applied for amnesty in relation to an assault on Mr Jones, who was arrested with Mr Biko near Grahamstown in August 1977 and then detained in Port Elizabeth. Mr Biko died on September 12, 1977 when he was transported to the Pretoria Central Prison.
Messrs Nieuwoudt and Snyman will appear again before the Amnesty panel during the week starting Monday September 15. This time they will be joined by six other former security policemen, who have all applied for amnesty in relation to the death of the three Eastern Cape activists known as the PEBCO (Port Elizabeth Black Civic Organisation) Three. The activists, who were killed in May 1985, were Mr Sipho Hashe, Mr Champion Galela and Mr Quqawuli Godolozi.
The other six former security policemen asking for amnesty in relation to their deaths and abduction are: Mr Gerhardus Johannes Lotz, Mr Kimpani Peter Mogoai, Mr Johan Martin van Zyl, Mr Gerhardus Cornelius Beeslaar, Mr Hermanus Barend du Plessis and Mr Johannes Koole.