Amnesty Hearings — Johannesburg — 1998-04-15

MICHAEL BELLINGAN: Yes, Mr Chairman.  Perhaps we should just get that because I promised the Committee a copy of that, of those forms in February.  That was on page 890 to 891 of the record, which is in my notes.  The reference to the record is 890 to 891.  And what I had said then is slightly out because I've subsequently got hold of the documentation of this venture between my father and my sister and myself.  The tender papers are dated the 8th of September 1989, there is a letter from the Natal Provincial Administration to my father, and we had to put down a 10% deposit with the tender I see, which was paid back to my dad, because he put, he drew the R14 000 from his building society, attached the cheque and then we submitted that with the tender.  And on this document, on page 5 of the document there is a paragraph referring to, it says here
"In the event of the purchaser electing to pay the balance of the purchase price off over 9 years"
... etc., etc., etc.  I said 10 years, it's in fact 9 years, Mr Chairman, so I was a little out there.

MR HATTINGH: Mr Chairman, this document will be handed in.  We haven't got copies at this stage but this document will then be handed in as Exhibit L.

CHAIRPERSON: ...(indistinct)

MR HATTINGH: Copies will be made available.

MICHAEL BELLINGAN: As far as what I'd said in how I came to have the house in Gallo Manor, Mr Chairman, if there was any suggestion that that was somehow lavish then here my documents are with regard to the purchase of the land that I bought in Buccleugh in Sandton, which I bought for R262-thousand and then sub-divided and built a house on one and sold the other half for R37 000.  I built the house myself.
	Then when I sold that I bought the house in Gallo Manor and I paid R932-thousand for that.  My bond then was R70 000.  By the time I  had done the various building alterations which - the application for the plans are amongst these documents over here, my bond was up to R120 000, Mr Chairman.   The value of the alterations is also reflected on the approval forms from the Town Council of Sandton over here with all the details of the building alterations.
	Than obviously in the course of time, it's a capital asset, it grew in value due to building costs, inflation or whatever, and then I finally sold it for - that's not here, but it was around, it was less than what I wanted, it was around R280 000 in 1991, when Janine and I were going to buy the other house in the area.

ADV BOSMAN: May I just ask here, the property, was it jointly owned by you and Janine or was it your sole property?

MICHAEL BELLINGAN: It was my sole property, Mr Chairman.  The lavish lifestyle just never happened at all, Mr Chairman.  You can see here, here and there there are some cheques for things like plants purchased at nurseries and things like that.  There were little things like that, but there was nothing lavish about it, Mr Chairman.  These cheques are very small, there's cheques for R18, for cash and some building equipment that I purchased etc., etc.  And then also, in my amnesty application in one of the schedules, for the moment I don't know which one, but it is mentioned there that I did do some work on the side for Military Intelligence, for which I received a cash payment.  And also, Mr Chairman, the fact that obviously I rented out the cottage on the property as well.  So I received money from that as well.  My disposable income wasn't just the R1 700-odd, that pay slip which I handed in or showed Advocate Trengrove at that time, it was quite a lot more than that.
	And then I also had friends in the business and in return for me doing certain assessments, personnel and certain of their management things for them, I also got back things like, for example I see my plans were drawn up for these alterations by someone that I did some work for on the side, a Mr Core(?).  And then as far as getting paint and things like that is concerned, a little bit of work for some people and then get some paint at cost price or for nothing or whatever.  So I struggled through these building alterations, doing a lot of the work myself and making do with what I could get.

MR HATTINGH: The documents referring to the various properties that you purchased and sold, those can be marked Annexure M, perhaps all the documents in M marked from M1 to whatever those documents are.  I would now wish to turn to the document, the discussion document which we find in bundle 1, on pages 8 to 13 as well as from 14 to 22, and I would like first to deal with the status of this document and then to the explanation for the existence of this document.
	It is at this stage common cause that you signed an amnesty application the 8th of October 1996, which found its way to Cape Town through the hands of Mr Kjellberg.

MICHAEL BELLINGAN: Correct, Mr Chairman.

MR HATTINGH: And it's also further now common cause that this first document, the application, even though it refers, on page 5 thereof under paragraph 11(b), it refers to annexure, that at that time when it was handed to Mr Kjellberg it did not contain an annexure.

MICHAEL BELLINGAN: I agree with that, Mr Chairman.

MR HATTINGH: It was then put to you that sometime towards the end of November/early December, there was a further meeting with Mr Kjellberg.

MICHAEL BELLINGAN: Correct, Mr Chairman.

MR HATTINGH: And that during that meeting apparently the discussion document was given to Mr Kjellberg, which he then forwarded to Cape Town and which was then received in Cape Town on the 12th of December 1996.  Now just firstly your comments with regard to this discussion document being handed to Mr Kjellberg on that date, or towards the end of November/early December, what are your comments?

MICHAEL BELLINGAN: I don't deny that I did indeed give it to Mr Kjellberg, Mr Chairman, exactly when I'm not too sure, but I know that on the 10th of October, Mr Kjellberg was at the prison, when he actually collected the document, the skeleton application which I had signed on the 8/10th, but at that stage there was nothing about this discussion document.

MR HATTINGH: At this stage, when I refer to the discussion document I refer to pages 8 to 13 of the bundle number 1, which is a typed version.  Just to confirm, this typed version, was this version ever handed in?  This form being typed, was it ever handed to Mr Kjellberg?

MICHAEL BELLINGAN: Not by me ever, Mr Chairman, no.  I don't - the only time I've seen that typed document or the first time I've seen it was in I think February, just prior to Mr Chaskalson visiting prison, when I found it in the bundle.

MR HATTINGH: So what you handed to Mr Kjellberg at that stage, what was it then?

MICHAEL BELLINGAN: That was my hand-written notes, Mr Chairman.

MR HATTINGH: Have you got it with  you at the moment?

MICHAEL BELLINGAN: I've got some of it with me, Mr Chairman.

MR HATTINGH: The original one thereof?

MICHAEL BELLINGAN: I think it was handed out on Monday, the original yes.

MR HATTINGH: Now at that stage in your dealings with the people from the TRC, I understand your evidence to be that you handed them some notes - perhaps I should just ask you first, were there any photocopying facilities available to you in the prison?

MICHAEL BELLINGAN: No, Mr Chairman.

MR HATTINGH: So when you handed notes to people or agents from the TRC, would that be in the original or a copy form?

MICHAEL BELLINGAN: No, that would be an original.  I might also just add that I don't want to create the wrong impression, it may very well be that I gave these notes to someone other than Mr Kjellberg of the TRC, maybe not to him.  I don't recall exactly, it was 22 years ago, Mr Chairman, but I gave it to someone at the TRC - my hand-written notes, no photocopies, no typed notes from myself.