hrvtrans HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION HEARINGS 1996-06-11 KIMBERLEY 2 https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/hearing.php?id=55382&t=&tab=hearings https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/originals/hrvtrans/kimber/ct00653d.htm CASE NO: CT/00653 VICTIM: IZAKIEL MOKONE VIOLATION: KILLED BY HAND GRENADE DURING MARCH TESTIMONY BY: WALTER SMILES MS SOOKA Could we now call Walter Smiles to the stand please? Could we have quite in the hall please. Walter, thank you for coming here today to give your evidence, we are very pleased to see you here. Is there any reason for the glasses? MR SMILES MS SOOKA Thank you very much, we would like to see your face properly. Mr. Potgieter will administer the oath. ADV POTGIETER Will you please stand. WALTER SMILES Duly sworn states ADV POTGIETER Thank you very much, you may sit. MS SOOKA As we usually do, we will now ask a commissioner [indistinct] ADV NTSEBEZA Mr Smiles as you heard earlier, my Afrikaans is not that good, I will put my questions in English and it will be interpreted into Afrikaans and you can tell your story. Mr Smiles I think firstly I would like to welcome you again and I would like you to understand and realise that you are not on trial here. That our duty and our purpose in the Commission is to lay bare the truth and hopefully in laying bare the truth people will be able to reconcile it - one with another and also to be able to forgive one to the other, do you understand that? MR SMILES Yes. ADV NTSEBEZA So I would like you to feel very free and even in your remorse and in your contrition you should still feel free that today is an opportunity for you to get this load off your chest and this load off your shoulders. Now, first of all I just want you to tell us who you are, very briefly. MR SMILES Yes I am [indistinct] ADV NTSEBEZA Ja who you are - where you are now and before you come to the events that have led to this hearing. MR SMILES What happened was the following. ADV NTSEBEZA Jy kan maar in Afrikaans praat. MNR SMILES Okay ek sal in Afrikaans praat. I am Walter Smiles, I am a member of the ANC Youth League and the ANC from when we started in Marshall Street and our structure was sound and I was with MK and everything was fine. MS SOOKA [indistinct] not be able to hear his evidence and he will not be able to tell his story confidently if we make such a noise. Could we please ask you to keep quite so that he can tell his story in peace please. MR SMILES Then I eventually found that I was already connected with the case. But you see I have no experience of this type of thing and when we went up it was all right and when we got there the petitions were handed over, the first petition, the second petition and the third petition - when it was time to hand over the third petition, then there was a sign that I must throw this grenade. And he laid down at the same time, so when I threw it I was weak I had had no experience of this type of thing and then I threw the grenade and then I felt very sad for the harm that I caused and I heard somebody had died and I felt very bad. My heart was very-very sore. ADV NTSEBEZA Take your time Mr Smiles. What happened then thereafter when - after you realised that somebody had died and it was one of your people, not the target at which you had aimed your hand grenade at. What did you do, did you go back to Lawrence? MR SMILES I went down - there is a place there and I met him there. ADV NTSEBEZA And what happened then? MR SMILES ADV NTSEBEZA Do you know why the police did not accept your story that you were the person who threw the grenade, do you have any idea? MR SMILES ADV NTSEBEZA If it was possible for the Commission to do something for you what would you like us to do? MR SMILES AUDIENCE IS CLAPPING THEIR HANDS MS SOOKA Please could we refrain from doing that please. MR SMILES ADV NTSEBEZA Thank you very much Mr Smiles, I have no further questions. MS SOOKA I would just like to ask you two questions the one is where is Major Lawrence Mbatha - do you still have contact with him? MR SMILES Yes, I think it is partly because we are still in this integration process. MS SOOKA Also could you tell me a little bit about what happened to you afterwards. I note that you mentioned that you were in the camps - did you also go into exile afterwards? MR SMILES ADV NTSEBEZA MR SMILES ADV NTSEBEZA Ja. MS SOOKA Thank you very much. I think you have been very brave to have come and told your story before all of these people. There is a process by which you can apply for Amnesty - we have an Amnesty Committee who can facilitate that you complete such a form. We are also very grateful for the fact that if you come forward it might well be possible for the other two persons who are sitting in jail unjustly for them to be freed if new evidence is taken into account. We are struck by the fact that you have come forward even though emotionally it must have taken an enormous amount of courage and we hope that the networks that are available in the Kimberley area will at least be able to assist you with counselling so that you can begin to talk more about the emotional turmoil that you are feeling. Thank you for coming forward.