Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 2000-09-28

FERDINAND BARNARD: Yes, Mr Chairperson.  Mr Slang van Zyl tasked me at a certain stage to work on Lubowski while he was in South Africa.  He would come here to address people or to attend meetings.  The CCB had information about what was on his agenda.  Mr van Zyl contacted me and I met with him in a business complex in Florida.  He told me this is the story, they need information with regards to Lubowski, who he was going to contact, what his movements are, what his vehicle is and all the information that you could get on him, while he was in South Africa.
	I was given the name Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town as being the first place where he would address people or would attend a dinner party.   I received cash from Lubowski and a photograph, although I knew what he looked like, while I was in South-West Africa in June.  He appeared in the newspapers at various times, and I also think I saw him on television, (indistinct) and all those people were on television on a regular basis, all on rallies where they addressed people.  He was also in the newspaper, like the Windhoek Observer, and I bought this every day just to get the feel of the place.
	I went to Cape Town.  This was after the second Omar excursion, I would say August or September.  It took place in the timeframe when this incident took place.  I once again booked in to a hotel, and I took a taxi to the Mount Nelson Hotel, to go and look at the physical layout of the place, to try and find out where they would have a dinner party like this.
	That evening, I returned approximately half past six.  Later that evening, people arrived, they were all dressed in very formal suits and evening wear.  There was a dinner party, I could not get access to the specific unit or section of the Mount Nelson Hotel that they used, I could get very close.  I even saw Adv Lubowski, I had a visual, he was approximately three or four meters from me.  I had, he was, he had a suit and a bowtie.  I tried to get, or observe as much as I could while I was there.
	At a later stage, I waited outside for the meeting to be concluded so that I could see with whom else he had made contact.  I could not move in with, to the place where they were busy with their meeting or the dinner party itself.  Lubowski came out, he was accompanied by others and they climbed into a kombi.  I cannot recall the colour, I took the registration number and I decided to follow it.  But it was not possible, because of the time of the evening.  I do not know if it went to Hout Bay or Camps Bay.
	I thought maybe the people would become a bit uncomfortable and I then withdrew.  I made a report to Slang, but I also had contact with him.  I think it was the next morning, when he said to me that they had information that Lubowski was flying to Johannesburg and that he was going to stay at the Johannesburg Country Club, where he was going to address people there or will attend a meeting there.  It will be in the afternoon, and it was very clear that the CCB had pin-point information or they had somebody very close to him, they knew his whole agenda, about where he was going to be.  
	I took an earlier flight, they even knew what flight he was on.  I took an earlier one and I landed in Johannesburg and I waited there for him.  What then happened was that I  spoke to Brenda Mills, she brought my vehicle to the airport.  I waited there and Adv Lubowski disembarked from the plane on the scheduled flight as they had told me.  I observed him, he went to one of the places where you can rent a vehicle.
	I don't know if it was Avis or Imperial, but one of the offices inside the airport building.  He rented a vehicle, I observed all of this.  I followed him to the parking lot outside.  He received a red BMW vehicle.  It was still the old boxed shape, it was before the dolphin shape BMW.  It was red of colour.  I took down the registration number and I followed him.  Mr Lubowski drove to the Rosebank Hotel in Johannesburg, where I physically observed him, how he checked in.  I found out his room number by phoning from a call box in the hotel lobby, after I waited a while and I asked if my friend, Lubowski, checked in.  They gave me his room number and I said "I will go to his room number", and I also had the room number then.  I hung around for a while and later that afternoon, I drove out to the Johannesburg Country Club.  I observed the layout of this Country Club and also to see if I could get access.  I also had to ensure or try to find out where they were going to have this function.
	I was in position at about five o'clock that afternoon.  The outside area is quite big, not everything was tarred.  There were a lot of trees, etc.  Lubowski arrived alone, but there were also other people moving around.  He arrived alone, he parked quite far from the front door, and he got out and started walking.  That was just after six.
	I then once again, as I did at the Mount Nelson, follow him.  I could not get to him.  There were once again people in formal clothes, I would stand out, I was not an invited guest.  There were a lot of security people outside, and once again I decided to sit outside and I thought if he comes out, he may go to another place.  I did not know how long it would take.  Approximately eleven o'clock that evening something strange happened.
	Someone came out and climbed into Mr Lubowski's vehicle, a blond woman.   Climbed into the BMW, switched it on and drove off.  I was confused, and I wondered how I could have missed him, because he was quite a large man.  I thought to myself that I wouldn't follow her, that I would just remain there.  Approximately 10 to 15 minutes later, Adv Lubowski came out.  He was in the company of three other men.  They first stood around outside, chatting to one another.  I noted then that they moved towards a vehicle which was parked in the parking area.  It was a Rover sedan, one of the V8s.  I took down the registration number.
	They remained in the car and spoke for a while, approximately 10 minutes.  All of them departed.  He went with them.  All four of them were in the vehicle.  I followed them, they drove to the Rosebank Hotel.  At the Rosebank Hotel they disembarked and entered the hotel.  I myself parked and also entered the hotel.  They were in the restaurant or the bar or the lounge, they were having cocktails in this place, these four persons together.  	They remained there for quite some time.
	I went back to the same telephone and I contacted Slang van Zyl telephonically and told him "listen, I have surveilled this man the whole day long, I have all the information that you wanted, what am I supposed to do now"?  In the heat of the moment we decided that Slang van Zyl would come to the hotel and that I would meet him outside the hotel.  Van Zyl arrived, in the meantime I was there by myself and no one told me to do this, but I went up to Mr Lubowski's room to see where it was situated.  
	I tried the door and then I came back down.  I waited for Mr van Zyl, he took approximately 40 minutes before he arrived and we spoke down in the parking area.  I said to Mr van Zyl "look, I am ready, I have things here with me, this man is meek, he has been walking  around here in the parking area by himself as well.  It was very easy to be able to take him as an opportunity target, also at the Country Club, I could have nominated him at any time there, because he was walking around by himself in the dark."  Van Zyl nearly had a heart attack, he said "no, never, there was no such order", but I did this on the grounds that I thought that the CCB was still after him.  There was no doubt in my mind that they wanted to kill him in South-West during that excursion, and I thought "here is the ideal opportunity, this is the sort of work that I do, why don't I just take him out"?
	Van Zyl nearly had a heart attack and he said "under no circumstances should I do anything other than my observation of Lubowski".  That was the instruction and the instruction came from the highest level.  He also said that Staal Burger would have me for breakfast if something went wrong with this.
	I abided by his decision.  Just to say I had an AK47 in the car, and I had a modified bayonet which I took with me to clubs and places like that.  It was actually a murder weapon, I had it on me.  He totally discouraged me to do anything other than the monitoring and I abided by that.
	I conveyed all the information during a co-ordinating session between me and Mr van Zyl, I conveyed all the information to him, including the information pertaining to the movements.  I also gave him a description of Mr Lubowski as I had viewed him, a physical description.  The fact that he was a large man, that he was in shape, he was reasonably light-footed when he walked.  He looked like the kind of man who had had training.
	One would look out for that kind of thing, so he was light-footed and I also described his clothing.  He was actually quite an impressive man, if one stood close to him.  If one stood close to Adv Lubowski, he was an impressive man.  I judged him to be 6"3, 6"4 in length.  I conveyed all this information along with all the other physical descriptions of the vehicles and the persons who were with him to van Zyl, and that was the last of my involvement there.