TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 3

Chapter 6

Subsection 21

Interference in political activities

Ventersdorp incident

242. On 9 August 1991, an open confrontation between members of the AWB and State President FW de Klerk occurred at Ventersdorp in the Transvaal when the NP planned a political meeting in a town the CP regarded as a CP constituency. According to the AWB, advertisements for the meeting limited attendance to NP supporters only. The AWB insisted that its supporters be permitted to attend as they wished to discuss certain burning issues with the President. The AW B mobilised some 2 000 of its supporters who gathered in the town. A confront a t i o n with the police ensued and three AWB members were killed and fifty-eight people injured. Almost the entire AWB leadership was arrested on charges of public violence . AWB leaders, Mr Eugene Te r r re’Blanche [AM7994/97] and Mr Petrus Johannes ‘Piet Skiet’ Rudolph [AM6329/97] applied for amnesty for the incident.

243. Both applicants testified that they had been key figures although they had had no personal involvement in the various incidents that which took place during the violent confrontation with the police. Both averred that the State President and members of the security forces charged with the keeping of law and order at the time of the incident were the proximate causes of the ensuing violence, and they applied to the Committee to subpoena Mr de Klerk as a witness.

RUDOLPH: What I told, or wanted to tell Mr de Klerk that evening was exactly what I have just told you, and that is that we did not go there to fight for or against apartheid and to demonstrate against apartheid, but simply for our freedom. Mr de Klerk chose to destroy us. He employed his forces there and thought well to set the police on us in an unbridled manner. (Klerksdorp hearing, 10 May 1999.)

244. The application was refused on the grounds that the Amnesty Committee did not regard Mr de Klerk as a necessary or essential witness to enable the Committee to arrive at a decision.

245. The Committee also did not deem it necessary to make a finding as to the proximate cause of the public violence. All the Committee needed to consider was whether the applicants complied with the formal requirements of the Act, whether the acts were committed with a political objective as required by the Act and whether the applicants had made a full disclosure of all relevant facts with regard to their participation.

246. Mr Rudolph testified that he, together with Mr Te r re’Blanche, had been at the forefront of the procession of armed AWB members as they marched to the meeting in Ventersdorp. He testified he was arrested before the major part of the confrontation with the police took place. During this fracas, a number of people were killed and injured. Rudolph himself sustained minor injuries.

247. Rudolph testified that he was fully aware of the high political tension that prevailed and that he had forseen that conflict would arise from the actions that they regarded as the exercise of their democratic right. The demonstrators were intent on conveying their political sentiments to the leaders of the government of the time.

248. Mr Terre’Blanche likewise testified that he appreciated and knew of the high political tension and foresaw the possibility of conflict. He and his followers regarded the government at the time as a weak one – as a government without principle to whom they could not trust the governance of the country. He and his organisation were in favour of a volkstaat for the Afrikaner and were prepared to fight for it, even outside the law.

249. The Committee considered the evidence of the two applicants and all the relevant documentation and was satisfied that the acts were committed with a political objective in the course of the political struggle of the time and that the applicants had made a full and proper disclosure of their role in the incident. Amnesty was accordingly granted to Mr Rudolph and Mr Te r re’Blanche for the offence of public violence in Ventersdorp on 9 August 1991 [AC/1999/0221].