Amnesty Hearings — Pretoria — 1976-07-19

MR G VAN WYK: My son John grew up in a very conservative home.  I am a member the Reformed Church and the principles of this church where inculcated into them from an early age. John accompanied me to church  on Sundays when we were still in the Transvaal after which we moved to Amanzimtoti when I got promoted.
	John always asked me things regarding politics and I told him that there was only one way that you can make your cross at a polling booth. He was very keen to know how the political structure could be changed, was the current structure the correct one and I told him that there was nothing that we could do to the present structure. 
	He wanted me to take out books for him that he could read about new thoughts on politics and all sorts of things.  I just told him that we do not talk politics in our home and also as the regards the church, I told him that the Reformed Church is on the right road and we do not discuss church in this house.
	John gradually got quieter and quieter until towards standards 6 and 7 when I noticed that there had developed a complete separation between the two of us. He no longer displayed his childhood enthusiasm at seeing me when I came from home in the evenings, particulary after the times when I forbade him from getting involved in politics and when we were discussing general matters, I told him that I do not want problems in our home, I do not want rift in the household and that he should listen to me. This is how political matters stand now and remember those years the NP politics were regarded as being the valid ones. 
	I told him that that was how political matters stood and that we could only change them at the polling booth if we were not satisfied the structure.  To change to any ultra-right structure only causes problems. I told him that the Security Police were wide awake and he should please not get involved in such matters. I noticed that John became ever quieter and on my part I also withdrew from him and I ascribed the changes to be problems accompanying puberty. 
	From standards 6 and 7 he made friends with Mr du Plessis (Snr) and spent a lot of time with him.  He spent many evenings and nights with him but I did not take too much notice of this because I knew John(Jnr).  Often when he came home in the evenings he would greet us with a kiss and would say, how about a cup of coffee Mama?
	Then he wrote matric and all he told me was that he had passed well.  He passed matric with distinction and I then applied for a bursary for him in engineering, for a B.Sc Engineering, which the Department of Transport immediately approved.  I did not give him a chance to make his own choice, I decided for him because I knew that progress was very rapid in the mechanical side of the transport services. Dr Loubscher was a mechanical engineer and I knew their promotion was very rapid in that section. 
	We sold our house and went to live in a SANLAM Park flat.  This was in July 1989.  I cannot remember exactly when he abandoned university when we arrived there but I was so disappointed that I positively banned him from the flat and he followed his mother who had already left. John always had a gentle nature and had never said anything untoward to me, but that day he said to me, "just let something happen to Mama!"  
	 In any event he and my wife turned up there later, she was crying and we went into the flat and I asked John what plans he had now. We then let him go to the Army where he received further instruction and then he returned to Pretoria where he stayed in a flat with Jean du Plessis because they were already friends.  We would phone him now and again to find out what he was doing.  He would only say that the had been working at Kingsway Hospital after he was on bail. 
	The next thing we heard was when Jean (Snr)'s father phoned me and asked me whether I had heard that our sons had been arrested. Thinking that he was talking about my youngest son I asked him which son he was talking about, and he said they were the two Jeans.  I asked him what the charges were and he said that he didn't know but that we should phone Pretoria.
	I then phoned around and carried on until eventually got to the right place and then I heard on what charges they were arrested.   My wife went down to make a bail application because I knew my son who, although he had a very gentle nature had a will of his own.  For example I later came to the conclusion that he only went to church to please me when he got older, in standard 6 or 7, and only followed the faith in order to please me, not because he wanted to.  John is like his father, when I put my foot down then we want to see it through.
	Well my wife went for the bail application but I didn't want to go as I did not want to look him in the eye when the magistrate asked me if the boy would again do these things if I take him home with me. The rift between us was still too big. I did not want to lie. In any event I went for the second time because the bail application had not been successful and I knew that by now my son had started to change his views. 
	Nine months thereafter my bail application was accepted and he received bail and came to us for a while.  He stuck to his bail conditions and got work at Kingsway Hospital where he did his work to the best of his ability.
	The day of the bomb explosion at Amanzimtoti, our flat was just below where the bomb had exploded, and John was fortunately at home in the flat and immediately helped at the scene.  The first person he helped was a Black guard whose leg was shattered by one of the blasts and he went to hospital to see what he could do there. There I noticed that my son had indeed changed, his views had changed.  I don't know what more I can say.

MR GIMSBEEK: Mr van Wyk, as I understand it now, you did not have a significant influence on your son's upbringing from standard 6 until he committed these crimes?

MR G VAN WYK: No my word was law in the house since he was an infant but later on he no longer even talked to me about politics and the like.

MR GIMSBEEK: Are you aware what his political standpoints were?

MR G VAN WYK: Not at all.

MR GIMSBEEK: Did you know how felt about religion?

MR G VAN WYK: No I only became aware that, my daughter for example had told that John had once told her that although he attended church he didn't believe and that he only attended to please us.

MR GIMSBEEK: Now you've heard what actions John committed. As you knew him was he the type of person who would do such things?

MR G VAN WYK: Definitely not.

MR GIMSBEEK: Were you shocked when you heard about it?

MR G VAN WYK: I was shocked. As I said he a person who stuck to something if he wanted to do it.  Then I thought if he wanted to join a passing organisation or he wanted to become involved in another church, I thought well let him he do so but I didn't know that it would be so far to the ultra right, I thought it might be the CP or the AWB or something like that, but definitely not as what actually happened.

MR GIMSBEEK: Did Mr du Plessis (Snr) ever discuss these things with you?

MR G VAN WYK: Never he never discussed anything with me. We saw one another occasionally but he never spoke to me.

MR GIMSBEEK: Were you aware that he was being influenced by Mr du Plessis (Snr)?

MR G VAN WYK: No not at all.

MR GIMSBEEK: Do you still have regular contact with your son?

MR G VAN WYK: Yes we're visiting quite regularly.

MR GIMSBEEK: What do you feel about his political views at this stage, can you...(intervention)