Amnesty Hearings — Pretoria — 1996-06-01

UNKNOWN: As Mr Chairman has indicated, the first applicant will be Mr Hendrik Gerber, duly assisted by Adv Prinsloo.
The applicant is further seated on the far right side.

UNKNOWN: Chairperson, I call the witness Mr Gerber.  He is going to testify  in support of his application.

HENDRIK GERBER: (sworn states)

UNKNOWN: Mr Gerber, you were sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment, is that correct?

MR GERBER: Yes.

UNKNOWN: Is it correct, Mr Gerber, that the offence for which you apply for amnesty today, the deceased, Samuel Kanaka died on the 22st May 1991?

MR GERBER: That is correct.

UNKNOWN: And that is the date around which this incident revolves?

MR GERBER: That is correct.

UNKNOWN: Mr Gerber, is it true that you are a member of the National Party and was a member at that  stage?

MR GERBER: Yes, correct.

UNKNOWN: Mr Gerber, you were a member of the South African Police.

MR GERBER: That is correct.

UNKNOWN: Could you tell the Committee when you became a member of the police and what followed thereafter?

MR GERBER: Chairperson, on the 14th January 1965 I joined the police, I was 16 years old.  After  a year's training at the Police College  I was placed at a station.  I performed  service in the charge  office.  I was too young to perform any other service, I was not allowed to carry a firearm.  In 1967 I was transferred to Springs uniform branch, where after a while I applied to be placed on the patrol dog
course.  The application was granted and I was transferred to Pretoria Dog Unit and I started the course.  It was a four month course and before completion of this course, one afternoon I was called to the office and told that I had to report to Safety Headquarters the next morning for border service.  
	The next morning I went by car with my patrol dog to the Botswana border.  At that stage  the whole border operation was aimed at combatting of terrorism and it was controlled by the Security Branch in Pretoria under the  leadership of Colonel Jan Harmse. 
	During this period I met black members of the Security Branch.  We lived in an old  farmhouse on the border.  Our task was to patrol the area and to inform the people living in the area of possible attack  by terrorists from across the border.  Often during our patrols we were fired at.  It was reported to Colonel Harmse and he suggested that we should keep it quiet because we did not want to sow panic amongst people living in the area as well as the general public. 
	After four and a half months I returned to my station, Springs,  where I was in control of a unit aimed at the arrest of Black people who had committed passbook contraventions.  My team and I, consisting of about 14 Black police officers, regularly performed raids.  (Inaudible) contraventions.  After about five months my patrol dog died as a result of conditions of extreme heat at the border and I was transferred to Murder and Robbery.  Here I really experienced violence.  We often had to witness scenes where people had been killed, there were armed robberies and I really had to deal with violence at first-hand.  This was round about 1968.  Whilst I was performing service in this unit, I also experienced certain techniques of interrogation which included various forms of coercion and torture.  During this period I worked very long hours, I was very seldom at home, in order to combat crime.  I was married at this stage and my wife could not tolerate the situation any longer and we were divorced.  
	After about eight years I tendered my resignation to the South African Police.  I was approached by the Rennies Group to work for them as an investigator at Fidelity  Guards.  I reported to them.  I was given the post and under  the command of Captain Dreyer I performed my duties. We were a small staff, about four to five persons and they were all ex-policemen.  After a while in Johannesburg, I was transferred as regional head of  Safety and Security for Natal Province.  
	I implemented and installed new  systems for the company, we had various branches throughout Natal, and when I was satisfied that the systems were up and running I decided to leave and joined  Price Forbes, a broking company as part of their Risk Management Team.  During this period we performed security analyses for big clients throughout South Africa, such as for instance Sasol I in 1980 where we pointed out various serious loopholes in their systems.  A  complete report was drafted and was handed to top management in an effort to try and rectify these loopholes and gaps and to implement the necessary measures in this regard to reduce the risk.
	During the time we worked at Sasol top management's fear was a terrorist attack on their premises.  I also visited sugar mills throughout  Natal where I performed similar analyses  and the general fear was terrorism there as well.  During this period I was also a founding member of the Institute of Criminology under the Professorship of Jakob van der Westhuizen and I was also a member of the Institute for Strategic Studies under Professor Mike Hough and Dr Wim Booysen.
	After about a year at Price Forbes I was approached by Fidelity Guards once again to return to them and I was appointed as a Group Security Manager for the Republic with my headquarters being in Johannesburg. 
	During this period there were numerous  armed attacks on bank vehicles, armoured vehicles, in which the criminal element was clearly discernible.  These  were organised  attacks.  During this time guards were disarmed, without killing them, and cash removed  from the vehicles.  During this time we also got a contract to (inaudible - microphone not activated) right throughout the country .... our guards had to undergo a training programme organised  by the Defence Force.  I was involved with the taking of fingerprints and the sending of fingerprints and the processing of these prints to the South African Criminal Bureau, after which we received SAP69s in order to make the  selection process very strict. 
	In the early eighties, roundabout 1983-84 I through  sources  at my disposal going back to  police  days I learnt from informers that we could expect an attack from liberation organisations busy infiltrating the country.  It was clear that some of these robberies had been performed in a disciplined manner where AK47s were also used. 
	At that stage it was well-known that AK47s were  not available in South Africa, but that terrorist groups infiltrated the country with these arms in their possession.   This was before the trade in arms across the border really took off. 
	In this period, 1987, I went to Durban to do an investigation there and one evening, just in  front of the hotel where I was staying, round about six o'clock in the evening, I was attacked by four black men as I got out of my car.   They hit me with a blunt instrument through the face, it crushed my nose, my cheekbone,  fortunately I had my briefcase with me and I used that to ward  off the attack.  I was armed but unfortunately my firearm was in the briefcase but I am sure the black men didn't know that.  An eye-witness later told me that he saw four black men in a Mazda with a Transvaal registration number leaving the scene and that these men had on the previous day made investigations and enquiries at the hotel to ask whether I had arrived.

UNKNOWN: (Inaudible).