Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
8 April 1998
Amnesty was granted to two applicants who were previously convicted for illegal possession of firearms. One applicant, Sydney Ndaba, is a member of the ANC as well as an ANC affiliated civic organisation and trade union. The other applicant, Gerrit Phillipus Anderson, was a member of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) whose cell in Natal co-operated with the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in the procurement and hiding of weapons.
Both the applications were considered in chambers, as they don't relate to gross human rights violations as defined by the legislation guiding the amnesty process.
Ndaba was found guilty in 1992 after being detained in January 1991 in Kathlehong. He was charged with the illegal possession of an AK47 and an unlicensed pistol, as well as ammunition for the weapons. In his application he states that he had the weapons to defend his family and community due to a spate of violence at the mine where worked between members of rival trade unions, the ANC aligned National Union of Mineworkers, Numsa and the IFP union, Uwusa. Several Numsa shopstewards, like Ndaba, were killed or attacked at the time. Numsa then took a decision during a mass meeting to defend themselves and the applicant was later asked to store some firearms as he was rumoured to be a target of the rival union.
Nobody was injured by the weapons in Ndaba's possession. He was sentenced to more than five years imprisonment.
Anderson was an adviser for special AWB operations in Natal and in charge of a cell at Umhloti between early 1993 and mid 1994 when he illegally possessed 11 home-made pipe shotguns, a revolver and two pistols, all three unlicensed.
He says the AWB procured the weapons for the IFP as this party could in turn help the AWB realise its ideal of a Volkstaat. This was done with the approval of the AWB leadership. The weapons were never used to attack or injure anybody.
Anderson states in his application that the home-made guns were hidden by an IFP member, and later handed over to the security police by a third party. Anderson was then charged and a sentence of 8 years imprisonment was handed down.
For more information, please call Christelle Terreblanche on 0824588461.