TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION

THEMBILE ZILIBELE APPLICANT

The applicant applies for amnesty in respect of the role played by him at an incident which occurred at Needs Camp, East London, on 2 June 1993 which resulted in two trucks being burnt.

The applicant was charged with arson in the Regional Court, East London, but the charge has been provisionally withdrawn pending the outcome of this application.

At the time of the incident the applicant was a scholar at the Masibulele Higher Primary School and was a member of an organisation known as the Students, Youth and Intellectuals Socialist League. The pupils of the said school were not attending classes at the time as their teachers were on strike. There were also problems at the nearby Lingelthu High School relating to the inadequate facilities at that school. A decision was taken that the pupils of the schools organise a march in order to highlight their grievances and to display their dissatisfaction to the education authorities.

During the march certain trucks which were travelling on the road on which the scholars were marching were stoned. The drivers of two of the trucks which were stoned abandoned them in the middle of the road and ran away.

The applicant only arrived at the scene after the drivers had run away. Some of the scholars knew that the applicant could drive a motor vehicle and he was asked to drive the two trucks to the side of the road. He complied. The trucks were thereafter set alight by unknown members of the mob.

It is well known that the education system that prevailed at that time in such areas as Needs Camp was a cause for great dissatisfaction and was a highly politicised issue. The incident which occurred on 2 June 1993 which resulted in the burning of the trucks can, in our view, be described as an occurrence associated with a political objective committed in the course of the conflicts of the past.

The applicant has made a full disclosure and the application complies with the requirements of the Promotion of national Unity and Reconciliation Act, No 34 of 1995. No one injured during the incident and this matter may therefore be dealt with in terms of the provisions of section 19(3) of The said Act.

In the result, the applicant is granted amnesty in respect of all acts performed by himself at the incident which occurred on 2 June 1993 at Needs Camp, East London, which resulted in two trucks being burnt.