______________________________________________________ DECISION
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This is an application for the abduction and murder of Andrew Mokupe, Jackson Maake and Harold Sefola. In this matter amnesty was previously granted to Jacques Hechter(AM 2776/96) and Paul Jacobus Jansen van Vuuren (AM 2777/96), a separate panel of the Committee on amnesty having been satisfied that the two (2) Applicants' applications complied with the requirements of the Act.
Without much ado, it is necessary to point out that at the relevant time Bokaba was a junior officer Security Forces who simply carried out orders from his superiors, namely Hechter and Van Vuuren. It was not within his powers and duties to disobey such orders.
At the hearing the Applicant was the only witness to tender evidence in support of his application and although the next-of-kin of the deceased were in attendance, they did not give any countervailing evidence to contradict or oppose the evidence. Neither were submissions made by Mr Eric van den Bergh who represented the victims. He conceded that there was no basis to oppose the application. However, he stressed the desire of the families to know where exactly the deceased were killed so they could possibly retrieve the remains of their bodies and perform traditional rituals.
The Applicant's evidence, briefly states, is as follows:
At the time of the occurrence of the incident the Applicant, Hechter, Van Vuuren, Warrant Officer Van Wyk, Sergeant Joe Mamasela and Constable Selahle who were all members of the South African Security Police (SASP), operated in the Mamelodi area. They were gathering information on African National Congress (ANC) activists and their actions. In 1986 Van Wyk and the Applicant successfully recruited Jackson Maake to work as their informer. At the time Maake who was an ANC supporter had been arrested with other youth activists. At first all went very well with Maake as an informer until Van Wyk was transferred to KwaZulu-Natal when he handed him to Hechter and Van Vuuren who were to continue to use him as an informer. The Applicant's contact with Maake thus came to an end and he had no dealings with him.
Later the Applicant was told by Hechter and Van Vuuren that Maake had been sent to Botswana to infiltrate the ANC. On a certain day and whilst the Applicant was at Mamelodi, he was called by Van Vuuren to come and see Maake in their offices. At that stage Maake had returned from Botswana and when he came to their offices he found him in the company of Van Vuuren. The Applicant simply greeted Maake and did not engage in any conversation with him. He did not again see him at their offices.
Then subsequently on a certain day the Applicant was called to a certain place by Hechter. He found him with Maake, Van Vuuren, Mamasela and Selahle. They were in a Blue Ford Husky kombi. Its windows were tinted and Selahle was the driver. The Applicant is unable to remember the exact date and place where they all met. Hechter gave the Applicant an instruction to ascertain the whereabouts of Andrew Mokupe. He was to observe his movements near his mortuary and report to him immediately he saw him. He was not told why Mokupe was being looked for. The Applicant complied and whilst he was still searing for Mokupe he was radio contacted and informed by Van Vuuren that the latter had been found. He had been arrested at Mamelodi East. The next order (from Van Vuuren this time) was for him to go to Pienaars Rivier where he found his aforementioned colleagues.
They were in the company of Maake and Mokupe who both appeared to have been arrested. Mokupe's vehicle was being driven by Mamasela. There they went into a disused farm which had a hut. The two (2) suspects were handcuffed and put in the hut. No blankets were provided and Hechter, Van Vuuren and Mamasela left the Applicant and Selahle there to watch the suspects for the whole night.
The next morning Hechter and company returned and the Applicant and Selahle were then given a chance to go home to change and refresh. They were leaving the suspects with their colleagues, presumably to question them. On their return in the afternoon, he observed that Mokupe's hands were swollen and Hechter instructed that they take him to a public telephone where he would call his friend, Harold Sefola. Hechter's plan was to force Mokupe to say to Sefola that some ANC comrades were coming to his house and that he should not panic. They were coming to fetch him. The next stage of plan was for Mamasela and Selahle go and abduct Sefola who, on the basis of what he had been informed, would have been waiting for "ANC comrades". They were using Mokupe's vehicle to fetch Sefola.
All went as planned and having so abducted Sefola in Witbank they brought him to the farm where Maake and Mokupe were being held and tied with ropes to prevent them from escaping. Then the three (3) suspects were questioned about the ANC. They were being questioned by Hechter, Van Vuuren and Mamasela. They admitted being ANC members and that they had received military training under its auspices. They were electric-shocked with a generator and wires. They died one by one. The Applicant and Selahle did not participate in the questioning and torture and stood by whilst it was taking place.
When they had all died, Hechter went back to their offices in Pretoria where he fetched a land mine and on his return they were all (including Van Vuuren and Mamasela) ordered by Hechter to load the corpses into the kombi. Their bodies were covered and taken to some point on the way to Bophuthatswana where they were blown up. As it was at night he does not know the real location of the place and would not be of much help to the families of the deceased. The Applicant says they all observed silence about the incident and never revealed it to anyone. Not even to the most senior officers in the police force. He says although he did not play a leading role in the operation, it was necessary to combat insurrection and prevent police use of unlawful methods against freedom fighters from being known.
In cross-examination the following emerged from the Applicant. He had no personal knowledge of Maake having left for Botswana and all the information he had in this regard was what was told to him by Hechter. At no stage did he deal with Maake alone and during the time he was handled by Van Wyk he was a co-handler. After the incident he heard rumours that Maake had lied to Hechter and that he did not go to Botswana. For this reason he was suspected of being a double agent who had infiltrated the police to monitor their activities on behalf of the ANC. At the previous hearing Hechter and Van Vuuren testified that Maake was supplied with a Ford Cortina Station Wagon to enable him to carry out his tasks as an informer. They had also covertly arranged for him to obtain a licence through a contact amongst traffic officers.
The mother of Maake, Shoke Martha Maake, through the legal representative denied that her son was an informer and that he had a vehicle. She maintains that Maake who was 18 years old at the time could not even drive. In this context the Applicant testified that he had never seen him driving a vehicle. He had not even heard a rumour to that effect.
After considering the evidence as a whole we are satisfied that the Applicant acted in obedience to superior orders. There is also no doubt that the incident occurred as the result of the conflicts of the past. He has complied with the requirements of the Act and, further, appears to have given a full disclosure of the relevant facts.
Amnesty is therefore GRANTED for the following offences:
1. The abduction and murder of the deceased;
2. Violating dead bodies; and
3. For any offence or delict emanating from the incident.
It is recommended that the next-of-kin of the deceased be declared victims in terms of the Act and are accordingly referred to the Reparations and Rehabilitation Committee.
SIGNED ON THE day of 2000
____________________________ACTING JUDGE J MOTATA
_____________________________ADV N SANDI
____________________________MR W MALAN
