: DECISION
The Applicants apply for amnesty for all delicts and offences arising from the unlawful arrest and/or abduction, the unlawful detention and the killing of Bhekayane Mkhwanazi (aka MK Tekere) at Elandskop in the district of Pietermaritzburg in or about 1988. All the Applicants are former security policemen in the erstwhile SAP. The first Applicant, Taylor, died after he had submitted his application for amnesty but prior to the inception of the hearing. The Committee never heard any evidence from him concerning the incident and is not in a position to make any finding in regard to his application. The remaining three Applicants base their applications for amnesty on the fact that they acted on the orders of Taylor their superior officer at the time. These remaining three Applicants, Du Preez, Vorster and Wasserman all testified before the Committee.
The next-of-kin of the deceased victim, Tekere, who attended the hearing, did not object to the granting of amnesty to the Applicants and the applications proceeded on an unopposed basis.
Although the evidence of the Applicants differed in some respects, the differences were not, in the opinion of the Committee material and, broadly speaking, their evidence can be summarised as follows.
They were all instructed to meet Taylor at a safe house of the Security Police in the Elandskop area near Pietermaritzburg. Taylor was in the company of Tekere who, so he told the Applicants, was either arrested or abducted by askaris while he was on his way to plant a bomb or bombs. Taylor had tried to persuade Tekere to become an askari but could not succeed in doing so and he decided that he should be killed. The Applicants, Du Preez and Wasserman, on the instructions of Taylor then dug a grave at a site indicated by Vorster and thereafter returned to the house where Tekere was held. Tekere was told that he was going to be moved to another place and then blindfolded and taken to the spot where the grave had been dug. Near the grave he was hit over the head by Wasserman. He fell to the ground unconscious, whereupon he was shot by Wasserman with a silenced Makarov pistol. They, Wasserman and Du Preez, took off his clothes, which they later burned, and buried him in the grave. Thereafter all the Applicants returned home.
The Applicants further testified that they had acted on the instructions of a senior officer whose decision they did not question and whose instructions they were obliged to execute. It was done in the course of the political struggle and to protect the interests of the government of that time and the Nationalist Party. It is common cause that the deceased was a member of the ANC and of its military wing Umkhonto weSizwe and thus regarded as a legitimate target by the Security Police.
The Applicants have complied with all the formal requirements for amnesty as set out in Section 18 of The Promotional of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, No.34 of 1995 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act") in that their applications were submitted on the prescribed form and within the prescribed time period.
In the light of all the evidence before the Committee, the Committee is also satisfied that the act/s committed by the Applicants were associated with a political objective as envisaged in Section 20 of the Act.
Although many questions remain unanswered as a result of the death of the Applicant, Taylor, the Committee is satisfied that the present Applicants have disclosed all the relevant facts and information that fell within their knowledge. The differences in their testimony were not of a material nature and should, in the opinion of the Committee be ascribed to the time period that has lapsed between the incident and the hearing of the applications for amnesty.
The Chairperson of the Committee at the time of the hearing was the late Mr Justice Mall. Although this decision was written after his death, the full Committee discussed the merits of the applications soon after the hearing and reached consensus that amnesty should be granted.
Accordingly amnesty is GRANTED to:
Salmon Johannes Gerhardus du Preez AM4077/96
Jacobus Adriaan Vorster AM4390/96
Laurence Gerald Wasserman AM4508/96
for all offences and delicts flowing from or directly associated with the unlawful arrest and/or abduction, the unlawful detention and the killing of Bekhanyane Mkhwanazi (aka MK Tekere) at Elandskop in the district of Pietermaritzburg in or about 1988.
The Committee is of the opinion that the relatives of the deceased, Ms Nombuse Sithole (mother) and Ms Jabu Mkhwanazi (sister) are victims and they are referred to the Committee on Reparation and Rehabilitation for consideration in terms of Section 22 of the Act.
SIGNED AT CAPE TOWN THIS 11TH DAY OF DECEMBER 2000
ADV FJ BOSMAN
MR I LAX
