Amnesty Hearings — Johannesburg — 1998-04-22

DEON MARTIN: The blue lights and reflector jackets.  We went to set up the roadblock at the Ventersdorp/Pietersburg/Klerksdorp crossing.  I don't remember who else was with me in the vehicle.  The sentra was following.
	We arrived and the crossroad and Phil Kloppers said to Kallie Meiring who was a security officer for the Krugersdorp Town Council, to set up the roadblock and make it appear as if it was a genuine roadblock.  Phil Kloppers and myself would drive with the Mercedes in the direction of Ventersdorp in order to identify vehicles which we could pull over and those would be vehicles with black passengers.  We did this in order to eliminate the possibility of pulling of SAP or Defence Force vehicles.
	We would drive past the vehicle and if we could see black passengers inside the vehicle, we would drive back, pass them and the road had a slight hill and a turn, we would then have flashed our headlights and then Andre Visser would have connected the blue light.  
	We managed to pull over a great many vehicles in this manner, I don't know exactly how many but I do remember that one vehicle wouldn't start again, upon which Phil Kloppers told them to set the vehicle on fire.  It was our own people who set the vehicle on fire.  We searched the vehicle, we asked the people certain questions.

DEON MARTIN: Which questions did you ask?

MS VAN DER WALT: Questions such as: "Where do you come from, where are you going, to which political party do you belong"?  Then we would search the vehicles and let the people go.

MS VAN DER WALT: Why did you question the people and then allow them to go?  What was the purpose behind that?

DEON MARTIN: Our objective was to target ANC/SACP members.

MS VAN DER WALT: Were you looking for the right or specific target?

DEON MARTIN: Yes.  It was conveyed to me that General Oelofse said that we should pull over ANC/SACP Alliance members.

MS VAN DER WALT: Did any incidents occur during the searching of vehicles and the questioning of the passengers?

DEON MARTIN: Some of the people were unhappy because of the fact that AWB members pulled them over.  Kloppers hit one of them with a baton and said: "Just go".

MS VAN DER WALT: Did you openly wear the AWB uniforms or did you attempt to disguise it?

DEON MARTIN: No, we wore them openly with the symbols, camouflage gear and so forth.

MS VAN DER WALT: So if people had stopped there they would have been able to see that you were AWB members?

DEON MARTIN: Yes, that's correct.

MS VAN DER WALT: You may proceed.

DEON MARTIN: Phil Kloppers and I drove once again in the direction of Ventersdorp and we saw two vehicles approaching from the front, one was a Honda Ballade followed by a Toyota Cressida.  We saw that there were black passengers in these vehicles.  We turned around and drove past them and once again I gave the signal to those who were manning the roadblock, that would be the flashing of the headlights.
	I pulled over off the road.  The vehicles were approaching and approximately 250 metres away from us they pulled off the road suddenly after the blue lights had been activated.  I could hear the door of the vehicle opening as well as the roof light of the Honda Ballade, I could see it going on and off.  
	I told the men to be careful because one couldn't be sure that people were dropped off or that they were planning an attack on us.  The vehicle then proceeded very slowly and stopped at our roadblock.  We ordered the passengers to climb out, they were searched and we told them to sit down on a small embankment on the side of the road while the vehicle was being searched.
	Once again I posed the questions to the people, where they came from, where they were going, to which political party they belonged.  Phil Kloppers walked on after them and if someone didn't want to answer he gave them a slight hit with the baton.  Many of them or most of them answered that they were ANC members.  
	After that I called Etienne van Zyl and Jaco Badenhorst who were deployed to watch for vehicles.  We decided that this would be the correct target to shoot at.  We stood in a line, I fired the first shot, that would be the signal that the others should commence shooting.
	Everyone except Kallie Meiring, Gert Diedericks and Andre Visser fired at the people.  Kallie Meiring couldn't fire because he was position in such a manner that he had to watch for those who would attempt to run away into the veld.  If he had fired he would have been firing in our direction.  The shooting occurred very quickly, it was a matter of seconds. 	And after that Kallie shouted that a vehicle was approaching.  Some of the men jumped into the Sentra and then sped off in the direction of Randfontein.  Kloppers still shouted after them to meet at the City Hall.  It then came to light that a vehicle was not approaching and Gert Diedericks approached with a flashlight.  
	We held in over the people who were lying there very still, it appeared as if they were dead.  Kloppers gave me the instruction to cut off the ear of a black man, which I did.

MS VAN DER WALT: Why did you have to do that?

DEON MARTIN: It was according to the instruction of General Oelofse, he wanted a trophy.  He wanted to show how things
MACHINE SWITCHED OFF
...[inaudible] of myself Phil Kloppers and Etienne Visser handed over a small steak knife with a black handle and he said that I should cut off an ear for him one day if we were to encounter a corpse and that indicated to me that the war was very imminent.  
	It was not the same knife which I used to cut off ears, the knife which I used I won in a lottery in Durban with Nick Fourie who is now deceased.  We picked up the shells on the scene, Etienne Visser was involved therewith.  We managed to pick up all the shells so that we wouldn't leave any evidence behind.
	We set the vehicles alight, once again to disguise any clues and from there we travelled back in the direction of Randfontein.  We could hear the sirens so we knew that paramedics and ambulances were on the way.  On the way back to Randfontein we dropped off Diedericks at my house where he fetched his vehicle and his children. 
	After that we went to the City Hall and we found that the other men weren't there.  From there we went to Jaco Badenhorst's residence where we found the others.  On the question, Phil Kloppers' question who shot everybody, he said affirmative and Phil Kloppers sent someone, I don't know who it was, to take the ear from the vehicle.
	All of us left there and we didn't have an opportunity to get in contact with each other.

MS VAN DER WALT: And after that, did you speak to any of the members?

DEON MARTIN: I spoke with General Oelofse, we visited him the next day and he congratulated us, myself and Phil Kloppers.  He congratulated us with our activities the previous evening and he suggested that we shave off our moustaches and cut our hair short and I had to get rid of my Mercedes because the Mercedes was noted.  I didn't want to do this because I believed that the revolution was at hand and I decided to keep the Mercedes because as I understood it war was at hand and it would - on the 16 December.

MS VAN DER WALT: You mention the 16th December, this revolution, this particular evening of the 12th, would it have started then?

DEON MARTIN: That's how I understood it.

MS VAN DER WALT: And General Oelofse, did he mentioned anything, if in any other areas there were any incidents?

DEON MARTIN: Negative.  At that stage he didn't say anything.  At a later stage he mentioned to me that the other areas were quiet and he was angry and the area commanders because they did not act on the instruction.

MS VAN DER WALT: Do you know of any bomb explosion during that time?

DEON MARTIN: That's correct.  There were explosions on the West Rand.

MS VAN DER WALT: Do you know if any persons were arrested for these explosions?