DECISION
The applicants apply for amnesty in respect of Section 18 of the Act for the killing of Casius Nceba, Richard Ngwenya, and Bheki Khumalo. For the sake of convenience the applicants will be referred to by their names.
The incident occurred during the period of heightened political activity in the country and particularly in Soweto where clashes between the police and the youths were the order of the day.
Pretorius received information from his informant that Nceba was leading a unit which was responsible for various acts of intimidation and attacks on policemen's houses and informers and made it impossible for ordinary policing to be effected in the area. Information also indicated that the unit was in contact with underground MK structures.
He ordered Lengene to infiltrate the unit posing as an MK operative from abroad in order to obtain more information about their activities. Shortly after his infiltration, Lengene confirmed that the unit indeed had contact with underground structures.
In order to make the unit win Lengene's trust, thus enabling Lengene to obtain the required information, it was decided that weapons like AK47, handgrenades and an SPM limpet mine would be furnished to the unit and passed on as having been received from the underground structures.
Moni and Monyami both askaris from Vlakplaas, were instructed by Pretorius to organise training for the unit at a hotel room in Hillbrow. It is not clear whether the objective of getting more information about the various activities of the unit and its association with the underground structures of MK was ever realised. What is quite clear and obvious is that the unit, having been trained in the use of limpet mines, put pressure to bear on Lengene to select targets for destruction.
Pursuant to the pressure that the unit was putting on Lengene to select targets for destruction, Pretorius and his second in Command Steenberg approached Nienaber and requested an order to have the members of the unit killed by means of explosives. In this way the activists would be given "doctored" limpet mines which would explode on them as soon as they pulled the pin from the mines. This would create the impression to the public that the activists had accidentally blown themselves up on an ANC operation because of poor training.
General Nienaber issued the order for the operation. Subsequent thereto and on instruction from Pretorius, Lengene, Moni and Monyani informed the members of the unit that directions had been received from the MK command abroad to attack identified targets.
Pretorius then gave instructions to the applicants about how the operation was to be conducted. The applicants were each given a firearm and were instructed to use the firearm by shooting at the members of the unit in the event of the limpet mines not exploding.
Monyani was assigned to Nceba, Moni to Ngwenya and Lengene to Khumalo and the targets were in Kliptown, Mzimhlophe and New Canada respectively. Pretorius instructed them to use their firearms to kill the activists in the event of the limpet mines not exploding.
Moni failed to execute his order properly, to shoot and kill Ngwenya because he was under the influence of liquor. We do not propose to deal with the many inconsistencies which were apparent from his evidence on this issue as we do not regard them to be material, suffice it to say that ultimately Ngwenya died as a result of the apparent injuries he sustained from the bullets fired at him by Moni.
Nceba was blown to shreds, while the bodies of Khumalo and Ngwenya were taken to an unidentified place off the road to Rustenburg, not far from the Vlakfontein turn-off, they were burnt with petrol and oil in order to destroy their identities.
Evidence was also led that the declared limpet mines were obtained from Colonel Jacobus Kok and Colonel Jacob Francois Kok. They were usually instructed to furnish these weapons by their superiors. Although they did not know against whom they were to be specifically used they were aware that they were used by the security police against members of the liberation movements in order to resist the struggle waged by these members against the National Party led government which they supported.
We must express our concern at the practice of giving training to these activists in the use of sophisticated and dangerous weaponry and then justify the need to act pro-actively by killing them, advancing the reason that they (activists) had become dangerous resultant to that training. In the present matter, Nienaber stated that the police created "a monster" when they gave training to the activist. We agree with these sentiments. It however begs the question whether there were indeed no other available methods short of "creating a monster" that could have been effectively used to obtain the required information.
In this regard evidence was led by Pretorius that there was no other method that could have been used, other than giving training, in order for Lengene to win the trust of the activists and obtain more information about their activities. In as much as we dislike the method, we are confronted with the unchallenged version of Pretorius that none was available.
Having regard to all the evidence herein we are satisfied that the applicants have met the requirements of Section 20(1)(a) read with Section 20(3) of the Act. Whilst we are satisfied that the applicants have satisfied the requirements of the Act for amnesty, we must express our disappointment that none of the applicants could stretch their minds wide enough in order to remember the exact spot where the bodies of the two (2) activists were burnt. Although they declared willingness to assist, this was rendered futile by their inability to identify the exact spot.
The victims were represented by counsel and indicated that they did not intend to oppose these applications. Their only cardinal objective in these proceedings was to be informed by the applicants of the remains of their beloved sons in order to be able to attend to the traditional ritual of reclaiming their spirit and to be able to once and for all deal with their loss and chart the way forward. Regrettably their objective has not been achieved.
There is however no evidence before us to suggest that this information was deliberately withheld. One indeed cannot be reasonably expected to remember the finer details of this kind of information in respect of an incident that occurred over 20 years ago.
In the premises amnesty is hereby GRANTED to the applicants for the killing of Nceba, Khumalo and Ngwenya and all the delicts and acts flowing from the said killing.
We are of the opinion that the families of Casius Nceba, Richard Ngwenya and Bheki Khumalo are victims as defined in the Act and are hereby referred to the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee for consideration in terms of Section 22 of the Act.
SIGNED AT CAPE TOWN ON THE 23RD DAY OF JANUARY 2001.
_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
