AC/2001/242

TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION

AMNESTY COMMITTEE

APPLICATION IN TERMS OF SECTION 18 OF THE PROMOTION OF NATIONAL UNITY AND RECONCILIATION ACT NO. 34 OF 1995.

ANDRIES JOHANNES VAN HEERDEN APPLICANT

(AM3763/96)

DECISION

The applicant applied for amnesty in respect of a number of incidents. This Committee had to deal with the following incidents:

1. The assault on Lucky Mahlangu. It turned out that the victim was not Lucky Mahlangu but Solomon Mahlangu.

2. The arrest of Edward Mokati and assaults on detainees.

3. Assaults on various people during the interrogation following the Cafe Zurich bomb explosion.

4. The supply of weapons to the IFP. There should be a separate public hearing dealing with incidents related to the supply of weapons to Inkatha. This panel accordingly did not deal with this incident.

1. THE ASSAULT ON SOLOMON MAHLANGU

The following seem to be common cause. Solomon Mahlangu, Lucky Mahlangu and Monti Motloung were MK cadres who returned to the R.S.A. after they received military training. They were involved in what has become known as the Goch Street shootout during 1977. Solomon Mahlangu and Monti Motloung were arrested on the scene while Lucky Mahlangu managed to escape. Monti Motloung was wounded and sustained severe injuries which resulted in him being mentally unfit to stand trial and being declared a government's patient.

After the incident the Applicant rushed to the scene and in an attempt to extract the information from Solomon Mahlangu about the identity and possible whereabouts of the person who escaped (Lucky Mahlangu) he assaulted Solomon. According to the Applicant he slapped him several times and also hit him several times with his fist.

2. THE ARREST OF EDWARD MOKATI AND THE ASSAULT ON SUSPECTED CO-PERPETRATORS

This application can be linked to the application of Edward Mokati who applied for amnesty in respect of a bomb blast at Vanderbijlpark Square in Johannesburg. See AC 2000/056.

Mokati was arrested after the incident and taken to the Sandton Police Station for interrogation. He cooperated with the Police and pointed out where limpet mines were kept and where other MK members could be found.

As a result of this, eight (8) or nine (9) suspects were arrested. They were interrogated and two of them were assaulted by the Applicant in a building in the Industrial area at Alexandra which was used as a Police office. This incident took place during 1988.

One of the suspects was Miss Shezi who was present at the hearing. At this hearing it turned out that she was the girlfriend of John Dube (alias Silver) who was Mokati's accomplice in the Vanderbijlpark Square Bomb Blast.

She testified that the Applicant slapped her and that he was present when she was assaulted by some of his colleagues. She further testified that she was then blindfolded and taken away to another room where she was raped. She couldn't say whether the Applicant was part of the group who raped her or whether he stayed behind with other detainees. The Applicant denied that he ever raped a woman or that he was aware that she had been raped. She confirmed that she did not report the matter to the Police and stated that she later reported it to Mr Naidoo. She also testified that she was tortured and that electric shocks were applied in an effort to extract information about the whereabouts of Silver. Throughout the assaults and rape she was hand and leg-cuffed. She also stated that the number of people arrested after they had been pointed out by Mokati were five or six and not seven or eight as stated by the Applicant.

3. THE ASSAULTS ON GEORGE, NOMSA AND PHOSA FOLLOWING THE EXPLOSION AT CAFE ZURICH

The Applicant testified that the Cafe Zurich was damaged by a bomb explosion and the owner and her son were injured. Captain Zeelie was in charge of the investigation and Applicant assisted him. They ascertained that one of the waiters in the cafe named George assisted the person who planted the bomb in the cafe. According to Applicant, George placed the bomb beneath the counter. George was interrogated and it transpired that he protected the real perpetrator, Peter Dlamini, who placed the bomb in the cafe. The Applicant stated that in an attempt to get information he severely assaulted George. He hit him with his fist, kicked him and applied electric shocks to him. In doing so he made use of a telephone as shocking instrument.

As a result of the assaults, George gave information which lead the Security Police to a flat in Berea where they arrested two women. The Applicant stated that the women were known as Nomsa and Phosa. They searched the flat and found detonators hidden in a loudspeaker system which served the flat.

After their arrest, Nomsa and Phosa were taken to John Vorster Square for interrogation about the whereabouts of John Dlamini. The Applicant assaulted them by slapping them. They thereafter cooperated and indicated that John Dlamini could be found at Dube. He, however, managed to evade arrest.

George became a State witness and Nomsa and Phosa were prosecuted and convicted.

The hearing was also attended by two women known as Nomsa and Phosa and a man known as John Dlamini. Mr Dlamini's legal representative stated that it was common cause between his client and the Applicant that this Mr Dlamini who was present at the hearing is not the same person that was referred to by George and who had been involved in the Cafe Zurich bomb blast. It was also put to the Applicant that the two women present at the hearing and known as Nomsa and Phosa were not arrested in a flat in Berea but were arrested at Nigel.

In regard to the 1st incident, it is so that the Applicant's version before the Amnesty Committee stands unchallenged because the victim, Solomon Mahlangu, was arrested, charged, tried, convicted, sentenced to death and ultimately hanged. "Dead men tell no tales". His colleague, a certain Motloung, sustained severe injuries when they were apprehended. He suffered brain damage and was even unfit to stand trial. He was declared a State President's patient. The third person, also a Mahlangu, escaped. His whereabouts are unknown even today.

Solomon Mahlangu was a trained cadre of uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), a military wing of the African National Congress (ANC). On this day, he and his colleagues were armed with military weapons, with AK-47's. Before the encounter with the Applicant, a shootout occurred between Solomon Mahlangu's unit and those who were pursuing them, trying to apprehend them.

It is so that MK cadres and ANC members were extremely feared by those who viewed them as their enemies. This fear was made worse by the previous government's propaganda machinery which referred to them as terrorists.

Section 20 of the Act required the Committee, before granting amnesty, to be "satisfied" about the technical requirements, the political objective and that "that applicant has made full disclosure of all relevant facts".

The Committee, after analysing all the evidence before it is satisfied that the Applicant has complied with the requirements of full disclosure.

In the result, amnesty is GRANTED to the Applicant for all the incidents applied for.

The Committee is of the opinion that the following people, Mrs Annah Mahlangu, Solomon Mahlangu's mother, Miss Shezi and Mr Edward Moketi are victims and are referred to the Committee on Reparation and Rehabilitation for consideration in terms of Section 22 of Act 34 of 1995.

DATED AT CAPE TOWN THIS DAY OF 2001.

ACTING JUDGE C DE JAGER

ADV. S SIGODI

MR J B SIBANYONI

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