16 NOVEMBER 1998
The Amnesty Committee of the TRC this week granted amnesty to four applicants who had applied in connection with a variety of incidents that happened mainly in the Gauteng region in the early 90's, including murder, attempted murder, robbery and unlawful possession and use of explosives.
Three of the applicants had applied in respect of the same incident and the fourth applicant for an unrelated matter. However, all the applicants had appeared before the amnesty committee during a hearing, on 13 November 1998, at the JISS Centre, in Mayfair, Johannesburg.
The first three applicants, who say they were members of the ANC Youth League in Meadowlands, Soweto, are Stanley Molahleni Wanyane (34), Batandusa Godlo (31) and Bukhosibakhe Masiso (38). They were granted amnesty for an incident where they were involved in a shoot-out with police after they were stopped at a roadblock in Rustenberg while driving a vehicle laden with an arms cache.
In their attempt to escape the trio stopped passing motorist, Pieter Johan Barbas, and demanded that he hand his car over to them. When he resisted, he was shot and killed and they made their getaway in his (Botes) BMW.
Wanyane and Godlo we subsequently arrested and sentenced to lengthy jail terms for their role in this incident. Masiso was never captured and was therefore never prosecuted. He nonetheless applied for amnesty together with his accomplices.
The fourth applicant, Bongani Chistopher Khumalo, of Zola 3 in Soweto, an ANC member who was involved in activities of Self Defence Units (SDU) in the area, was granted amnesty for the 14 incidents during 1992 - mostly unlawful possession of explosives and attempts on lives of a number of people in the township, that he regarded as political enemies.
He was granted amnesty for incidents that he was also involved in, in the Eastern Cape, during 1993, where he was finally arrested and later prosecuted.