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SNYMAN, ABGAge Description Under cross-examination, Advocate Bizos asked Snyman why Biko had been spread eagled and chained to an iron grill after it was clear that he’d been injured? // It is possible that we acted in an inhumane manner. // Well that is one of the franker answers that you’ve given the Committee. Can we ... Mr Biko was on the one end and in the process of the shuffle he fell and the others fell on top of him. He was then pushed towards the wall. // You were referring to the wall and where the people fell, could you explain from there onwards what occurred? // An effort was then made to shackle Mr Biko ... ... held in detention in Port Elizabeth. Four of the policemen implicated in Biko’s murder have applied for amnesty for the killing. They are Harold Snyman, Gideon Niewoudt, Daantjie Siebert, Johan Beneke and Rubin Marx. Snyman testified before the Amnesty Committee in ... On Thursday Advocate Bizos continues his relentless cross examination of Snyman and puts it to him that it was not Biko’s refusal to answer questions that led to him being injured or beaten up but simply his determination to remain seated after his white interrogators had ordered him to stand. // ... ... had happened to their husbands since their disappearance in 1985. This week they got some answers. Former Eastern Cape Security Policemen Harold Snyman, Hermanus du Plessis, Johan van Zyl, Gideon Niewoudt and Gerhardus Lotz are asking for amnesty for the murder of the Pebco Three. Vlakplaas ... ... who built the bomb, he was technical unit commander at Vlakplaas. Jacobus Kok helped Du Toit build the explosive device. Snor Vermeulen and Lionel Snyman are the men who fitted the car with the explosives. They were sent down from Vlakplaas along with Martinus Ras who would execute plan B, ... Two men dominated this week’s amnesty hearing into the 1985 murders of the Port Elizabeth leaders known as the Pebco Three. The Centenary Hall in New Brighton was cramped daily by residents and activists who came to hear security policemen Gideon Niewoudt and Vlakplaas askari Joe Mamasela speak ... Port Elizabeth was ungovernable. And I want to go even further and say that Pebco was in control here. // The activists were winning the war, or had already done so. There was feedback from the secretariat, the Security Council, which was received by the JMC to the effect that the government was ... The fight between the members and Mr. Biko at that time became a very violent struggle. Mr. Biko was on the one end and in the process of the shuffle he fell, and the others fell on top of him. He was then pushed towards the wall. // You were referring to the wall and where the people fell. Could ... The day’s proceedings end abruptly. The once feared security policeman who’s now a pensioner claims ill health and fatigue. // Your honour I am not a healthy person and I do not feel that I can continue. I am using medication. My age must be taken into account. I do not feel that I can continue ... On the night of June 27, 1985 Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkonto, Fort Calata and Sicelo Mhlauli left a UDF meeting in Port Elizabeth and set out to drive home to Cradock. They were never seen alive again. Their mutilated, charred corpses were discovered days later in three different places along the ... Let’s move our attention now to the Amnesty Committee hearings in Port Elizabeth. South Africans are known as a nation with a short memory, but the one hero that has never been forgotten is Steven Bantu Biko who died 20 years ago this week in a police cell. But while we remembered Biko some of ... The first of many doubts raised by the applicants’ testimony relates to the chain of command. According to the applicants the order to kill came from the then head of the Eastern Cape security police, Harold Snyman. But from whom did Snyman take his orders? The fact that Col Du Plessis told me that he had discussed it with Col Snyman created the impression with me that if it came from Snyman then it most probably came from even higher authority. Snyman interpreted his conversation with Minister Le Grange as sanction to eliminate activists. Colonel Hermanus du Plessis came to him and said they’d run out of legal options to contain militants in the Port Elizabeth area. Du Plessis suggested that the only option was elimination. Snyman did ... Mr Snyman told me that he had a private conversation with Mr Le Grange and that Le Grange had told him that the situation in the Eastern Province needed attention and should be addressed. He wanted to know why these people weren’t being prosecuted, what the problem was and why people responsible ... ... Advocate George Bizos, representing the Biko family, says the Biko’s are strongly opposed to the amnesty applications. They believe that Harold Snyman, Daantjie Siebert, Johan Beneke, Gideon Niewoudt and Rubin Marx have not made a full disclosure. First to break his silence is Harold Snyman, ... Then you went back to Vlakplaas where you gave orders to Martinus Ras, Snyman and Vermeulen to prepare for the operation. What precisely did you tell them? // I can’t give you specific details, but the gist of it was that people would be killed and specifically that policemen would be killed. // ... They also heard from Nic van Rensburg who passed the execution order down from Harold Snyman to the men who would carry it out. This week there was more detail from Eric Taylor and Gerhard Lotz, who together with Sakkie van Zyl stopped their victims on the road from Port Elizabeth to Cradock and ... Mr. Snyman told me that he had a private conversation with Minister Le Grange and that Le Grange had told him that the situation in the Eastern Province needed attention and should be addressed. |
