Amnesty Hearings — Johannesburg — 1997-04-08

MRS VAN DER WALT THE COMMISSION: Mr Chairman, I will not repeat what Mr Prinsloo said, I support his argument with regard to the requirements of the Act.  I want to present to you that it is my argument that Mr Froneman does in fact meet the requirements of the Act as particularly mentioned in Section 22(a) and (d).
	Your Honour, Mr Froneman was if I can say this with respect, he was a young boy when he committed this crime.  However, he did not waste anyone's time.  He has been in jail now for three years.
	Immediately after his arrest, he appeared in court and he pleaded guilty and already at that time he said to the court why he committed this act.
	Your Honour, there had been and you are in possession of the testimony of the criminologist.  There are some aspects which differ from that which he presented to you
today in his testimony.
	With respect I want to argue that at that time, he attempted to move away.  You will note that he does not mention the names of the individuals.  The idea, as he has given testimony that he does not want to be a traitor, he does not want people to consider him to be a traitor.
	Adv de Jager asked Mr Prinsloo why - what the role of religion is amongst the Afrikaner.  Mr Froneman in his application said that for him, there is only one God.  With the statement of F.W. de Klerk that all religions will be considered equal, this created fear amongst Afrikaner people.
	One has to pay attention particularly to the Boer Resistance Movement and what they said with regard to religion.  Again Mr Froneman said that he left the AWB to join the BWB, particularly because they had a more pure position.
	If you would grant me the opportunity I want to read to you the first three paragraphs of the programme of principles of the Boer Resistance Movement, and this is Exhibit C, Your Honour.
The foundation of the Boer Resistance Movement is, the Boer Resistance Movement acknowledges the sovereignty of the Trinity, the God of Blood River and of the vow there, who determined that the Boer people under the leadership of Hendrik Potgieter and Andries Pretorius and Paul Kruger, were led to freedom, were liberated
	and achieve their own free Volkstaat or ethnic state.
	Our guidance comes from this God only.  We will continue in our liberation struggle with the gun in the one hand and the Bible in the other.
  This Your Honour is the foundation.  The very foundation of the Boer Resistance Movement is centred around their God.  This one God whom they worshipped.
	Then with regard to the purpose or goal of the movement.  
To bring honour to the sacrifices of our ancestors and in memory of their sacrifices, to on route to the freedom of our people, so that we can continue under their legacy in our own state under our own flag.
With this in mind, the Boer Resistance Movement wants to hand over the heritage of freedom to our children.
	Again, Your Honour, exactly that which was testified by Mr Froneman in his childlike simplicity, he understood these matters in this way when he attended the meetings of the BWB.
	Here it is in black on white what the position of the Boer Resistance Movement in fact was.  
Finally guidelines, 
the goals of the Boer Resistance Movement is to motivate our people again, to bring our people back to an armed readiness against the onslaught on our people, to prepare our people to be ready for battle, to be battle ready for the third liberation struggle.
Your Honour, this is exactly what occurred with Mr Froneman when he joined Boer Resistance Movement.  He has said to the Honourable Committee, that whilst still a school child, religious instruction was removed from the school curriculum.
	He was told that it is necessary to fight for, to make war so that the ethnic state, the Volkstaat and the Boer people could remain free.  And that this should be done with the Bible in the one hand and the rifle in the other.  Then at meetings he is told that the ANC/SACP and the then
government is in fact the enemy.
	It was also said at these meetings that Muslims have high positions in the ANC and that it is in fact the Muslim community, in particular, the Muslim community who should the ANC take over the government, that Muslims would have senior positions and this in fact occurred.
	If we look at senior positions, many many of the senior positions are in fact held by Muslim Indians, except for Mr Naidoo who is a Hindu.
	These fears in fact came true.  The most serious fear in fact, the most serious fear of this young man was that he would lose his country and his religion.
	He then carried out the goals of this movement as it was communicated to him.   I want to hold to Your Honours that Mr Froneman does in fact meet the requirements, he act under the instructions of Mr Harmse.
	Mr Harmse acted under the instructions of the Movement and I want to present to Your Honours that he has made totally clear what it was and there is no reason why he should not be granted amnesty for the act. ... (tape ends)