Amnesty Hearings — Johannesburg — 1998-04-15

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: Yes, I have been subpoenaed to be here.  Those are my reasons for having been here throughout the ...(intervention)

MR RAUTENBACH: Am I also right to say that you were sitting inside the room, the hall where the matter was heard, both on the previous occasion in Pretoria and during this week?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: Yes, normally from about 11 or 12 o'clock I would, in Pretoria I would join in in Pretoria.

MR RAUTENBACH: Can you recall when the remark was made by Mr Trengrove in his cross-examination to Mr Bellingan that you were sitting in Court and that he made that remark when he was questioning him about the conversation you had with Janine?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: Yes, and at the time I actually brought it to the attention of my brother's lawyers that I had been subpoenaed and I no choice but to be there.

MR RAUTENBACH: Will you please repeat that, I have difficulties, I don't have an ear-set on.

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: Sorry?

MR RAUTENBACH: Please just repeat that, I didn't hear that.

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: Yes, at the time I did make a remark to my brother's attorneys to please make a note that I had been subpoenaed and therefore that was the reason I had to be there right throughout the last proceedings.  I did have permission though to come a little bit later each morning.

MR RAUTENBACH: You have also - would you agree with me, Mrs White, that you have heard that Mr Trengrove put it to Mr Bellingan, your brother, that as far as his case is concerned that that evidence about the conversation is a vital aspect in this case?  Did you hear that?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: I might not have heard it or whatever ...(intervention)

MR RAUTENBACH: Do you ...(intervention)

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: Yes, I do, I was there at the time when he made that remark.

MR RAUTENBACH: Yes.  Do you accept that this is quite a vital issue?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: I suppose it would be, yes.

MR RAUTENBACH: Because it seems at this moment at least, that you are the only person that can back up anything that Mr Bellingan has said, do you realise that?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: No, I don't know.  Surely there must be other people that should be able to back him up as well, in his work and things like that?

MR RAUTENBACH: Let's just leave it at that for the moment.  I would like to ask you, you say that you were under the impression that it was members of the Security Police who killed Janine, is that correct?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: That was my own personal feeling at the time, yes.

MR RAUTENBACH: I'm asking you about your own personal feelings.

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: Yes.

MR RAUTENBACH: When did you form that view?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: I formed that view when I first hear that they wanted to, that they had decided to make Michael - what do you call it, the, well do the investigations into Michael, and that he was their prime suspect.

MR RAUTENBACH: When did you first realise that he was a suspect?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: It was the first time that the police came to me to take statements from me.

MR RAUTENBACH: Mrs White, am I correct - let's just go back, am I correct that when you, you say you went up to stay for a period of about two weeks with your brother, correct?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: That's right.

MR RAUTENBACH: Now at that stage we all know that Janine's body was at the mortuary, correct?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: That's correct.

MR RAUTENBACH: And am I correct that yourself, you  yourself and Mr Bellingan volunteered to identify the body, correct?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: No, I never ever volunteered.

MR RAUTENBACH: Well I just want to put it to you that there is an entry in the investigating diary to that effect by Mr Steyn, the investigating officer.  Do you deny that?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: No, I definitely deny that.  I would never have offered ...(intervention)

MR RAUTENBACH: As you also denied against him that you had a - or as you also deny that you told him, that you first, on the first occasion when he asked you about the Nedbank account in Pietermaritzburg at Cascades, you also denied that you told, that you deny that you denied that fact of having that account?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: Definitely, I would never deny having a bank account.

MR RAUTENBACH: It seems to me we are going to have a couple of other incidents as well and it will be interesting to see whether you will also deny what the investigating officer said in his investigating diary, but we'll get that later.  At this stage I would like to ask you, are you aware of the fact that Mr Bellingan wanted to, or volunteered to identify his wife's body at the mortuary?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: Yes, I'm aware of the fact that he wanted to.

MR RAUTENBACH: That happened, I could only assume, a day or two after the murder?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: I can only assume that must have been the Sunday or the Monday after our return, yes.

MR RAUTENBACH: Yes.  And do you recall that he was specifically told by the investigating officer that the investigating officer would not like him to go and identify the body, as he regarded the matter as a very sensitive issue?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: Yes.

MR RAUTENBACH: What did you make of that, that the police investigating officer did not want a man to go and identify the body of his own wife?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: We actually thought it was a bit absurd at the time.  We could not understand why he could not identify his own wife's body.

MR RAUTENBACH: Mrs White, absurd, why absurd?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: Because ...(intervention)

MR RAUTENBACH: Yes.

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: ... I did not think my brother would even - I mean at that stage it had never even crossed my mind that my brother might be involved in it, and we could not understand.  I mean my parents, myself, our family, we were totally taken aback with things like that.

MR RAUTENBACH: Mrs White, I can understand that you say to us that it was absurd.  I want to say to you, what inferences did you draw from that, what did you think?  The investigating officer, that's the man in charge of this investigation, he's the man who says: "you are not allowed to go", you the husband, you're not allowed to go and identify your own wife.  What inference did you draw from that?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: The inferences I drew was that it made me very angry, and that is all I can tell you.  I made no other inferences from it.  I was highly angry and upset by these things.

MR RAUTENBACH: Are you telling us, Mrs White, that the thought that he is a suspect or that he's suspected, did not enter, did not cross your mind?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: Not at all.

MR RAUTENBACH: Did you have discussions at that stage with your brother regarding his discussions with the investigating officer?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: As far as I know he hadn't even had discussions with the investigating officer, I have no idea.  At that stage - I can relate to you what happened in those two weeks that we were up over there, and my brother was not in a condition definitely, not even for the first two days, the Sunday he was not in a condition to do any arrangements himself, he was not in a condition thereafter.
	As my brother very rightly said just now, when my father came up to Johannesburg my father took over a lot of the personal aspects of things.  And as far as I was concerned, my brother was totally down in the dumps, he was totally depressed, and that is how we handled the situation that week.

MR RAUTENBACH: If you look back at it now with the knowledge that you have now, would you agree with me that your brother is an extremely good actor?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: Well!

MR RAUTENBACH: Would you agree with me?

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: I don't know that my brother was acting.  I was there with him ...(intervention)

MR RAUTENBACH: But you know now, you know now what happened.  You know now that he, all the shock ...(intervention)

COLLEEN JUDY WHITE: Yes.