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D’ATH, GeorgeAge Description If you feel that you’ve done nothing wrong is it really necessary for you to apply for amnesty? // Frankly, it’s not necessary. The only thing is I did it because I was involved in that little struggle. // Whose idea was it that you should apply for amnesty Mr Marx? // Niewoudt. Now we look forward to the testimony of the National Party and other political parties which starts in Cape Town tomorrow. Let’s move to Nelspruit in Mpumalanga where the Truth Commission’s Amnesty Committee heard the cases of former activists across the political spectrum. One of the ... Mr Siebert, did you assault Mr Biko? // No I did not. // Did you cause his death? // His death was caused by the incident which took place. // I asked you a simple question, did you cause his death? // I would not be able to say if I was responsible, there were a few of us present there. Did you lie in order to protect your husband? // I did. // Are you not lying now through your teeth in order to get amnesty for your husband? // Definitely not Bizos. So you are telling me that the South African police service is involved, or has been at least in this occasion, on oiling the palms, greasing the palms of convicted murderers for the purpose of establishing a case against somebody else. // The investigators indicated to me that it was very ... It has been brought to my attention Mr. Chairman that according to media reports on 24 October 1997 Mrs. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has alleged before this Commission that the president of South Africa, President Nelson Mandela, had instructed me as National Commissioner of the South African Police ... No plan, no envisaged plan, no joint venture of that nature was ever discussed with me at all. // I’m not aware of any case where the Defence Force and the police would have acted together internally and where people had been killed and had not been discussed with me. // I in my more than 35 ... By the time of Mr. Hani’s death, more than three months had passed since you wrote that list of 19 names. // Yes. // Did you write a letter to anyone of the 19 asking for an appointment? // No. // Wouldn’t a simple telephone call to them, whether they would be prepared to give an ... On Thursday Advocate Bizos continues his relentless cross examination of Snyman and puts it to him that it was not Biko’s refusal to answer questions that led to him being injured or beaten up but simply his determination to remain seated after his white interrogators had ordered him to ... We oppose the applications of all the applicants for amnesty Mr Chairman and members of the Committee. And want to say at the outset that we do so primarily because we consider their applications an attempt to clear their names with a self defence story in order that the record should be expunged, ... Massacre has become a cheap word in South Africa. There have been too many instances where a dozen or more people were killed in one incident of political violence. But there is no other word for what happened in the Natal midlands in 1990. 200 people died in the single biggest massacre in our ... When I first started photographing this process I didn’t know what was going on. It was a totally new and novel experience. I think the biggest shock for me was when I had to photograph Capt Benzien showing how he tortured people. The Hani lawyers asked why the applicants had remained silent about the existence of these records. They said it showed that the applicants were not making a full disclosure. // I want to read, firstly to hand in, copies of a letter on president counsel letterheads written by Mr. Derby-Lewis to the ... Did you lie to your attorney? // I did Mr. Chairman. // Nobody compelled you to lie to your attorney? // No one compelled me Mr. Chairman except for the fact that I was busy with an armed struggle and I was determined to give as much opposition as possible under any circumstances. // What support ... Under cross-examination, Advocate Bizos asked Snyman why Biko had been spread eagled and chained to an iron grill after it was clear that he’d been injured? // It is possible that we acted in an inhumane manner. // Well that is one of the franker answers that you’ve given the ... But telling the truth is not enough for amnesty. Derby-Lewis must prove that he was working within the structures of an accepted political organisation. // Let me read the words that you would no doubt have come into your notice Mr. Derby-Lewis when you committed this murder as to the policy of the ... … Because in my mind a murder docket is never closed, it is always alive and it will receive attention sporadically. Two ministers who were close to the family informed them about his death. At the mortuary police prevented them from going inside to identify his body. They were only allowed to view the head of the corpse through a window. // Through the window we could see Benji’s head, it was swollen, ... Your evidence was that Col Snyman reported that there was discussion at the JMC in which the Defence Force people put in the JMC, put the security police under pressure and suggested that the security police were unable to stabilize the position. Do you recall that? // Yes. // Now ... of this ... The raids in Lesotho, 1982, 1985; the raids in Matola 1981; the raids in Swaziland; the raids in Mozambique; the raids in Angola; the raids in Zambia; the raids in Zimbabwe; the raids in Botswana; all were because of the policies of PW Botha. We must never forget our history. |
