Amnesty Hearings — Richards Bay — 1998-04-14

BRIAN QUNA MKHIZE: Yes, I will do so.  Firstly I would like to explain that the training was conducted over six months.  I would also like to say that it was divided into three.  The first part was Basic Training, the second part was an Advanced Course, the third and last part was called Specialised Course.
	In the first part, we were taught things like drill, physical training and knowing the basic functioning of a gun, the type of gun and how it works, before we got into the Advance Course.
	We then eventually got into the Advanced Course.  In that course the course had to be more concentrated, we were taught things like field craft, that is where you are taught to behave in a military situation, and how you work in a military situation.  You should be swift and you should be intelligence and you should be accurate and know what you are doing, and do it properly.
	There are different phases in the parts or different parts as I have mentioned.  There are phases like Obstacle Crossing, where you are taught how you solve an obstacle, how you overcome a certain obstacle or problems and arrive at your objective.
	We were also taught about footing.  That is where you are able to follow or follow certain people, maybe your group that you are working with, tracing them and getting to them.  And also tracing your enemies, using such things as a compass.  You were taught how to use that.
	You are also taught something like Fire Removements.  This include positions - knowing different positions, standing, kneeling, laying positions, how you roll, how you duck, how you take cover.  Such things in a military situation.
	We were also taught things like the buddy-buddy system where you are taught how you cooperate or how you work with some buddy, working shoulder to shoulder.  How you compliment your movements, how you take different stands against the enemy.
	We also learnt things like house penetration, knowing how you enter a house.  Maybe your target is inside, how you enter or penetrate the house and kill the target and not other people.
	How you enter through locked doors, what clues do you look for.  If you want to remove yourself from a scene of crime, or if you want to eliminate all evidence, we were also taught things like assassination.  How to kill your leaders or leaders of the community.  We were taught how to assassinate such people.
	We were also taught about reconnaissance under the second phase.  Reconnaissance is where you are taught how to trace a person, follow a person.  You should know what he does in his daily life, what he watches on TV, what time he knocks off work every day, his routine.
	Something that he does almost every day, like going to work, coming back from work, going to play golf and so forth.  That was included under what we called "recce", reconnaissance.
	We were taught such things, knowing what a person does in his daily life, what car he drives, knowing the type of car that he uses.  We also learnt about kidnapping, where you take a person against his will.  That is, he does this involuntarily.  You force him to do so.  It could be that you are going to kill him, or maybe you want to get some information from him that will help you or your organisation.
	We were taught about this and we were taught about the different ways of kidnapping so that people don't know or don't realise that you are kidnapping the person.
	We learnt this in the Advanced Course.  We also learnt about different guns.  We learnt about Eastern Block weapons.  Those weapons are not used in South Africa.  A lot of people don't know about them.  If I can be permitted to enumerate the guns that we used, like the AK47 ...

MR WILLS: Mr Mkhize, if I can just interrupt, you have indicated and you can confirm this, that the list of weapons that you were trained in were the AK47, the Tocaroff, the Macaroff, the RPK, the RPD, Rocket Launchers like the RPD7, both anti-personnel and anti-tank weapons, Scorpion machine pistols, mortars, grenade launchers and the G3 rifle, is that correct?

BRIAN QUNA MKHIZE: That is true, there are many others that my lawyer hasn't mentioned.

MR WILLS: Yes.  While you were being trained, you also received some political training by as I understand, Mr Luthuli who is the first applicant to these proceedings.  Could you just briefly explain the type of political training that you received?

BRIAN QUNA MKHIZE: Chairperson, I will explain it this way.  From the time that we arrived at Caprivi, politics was our daily bread.
	We were dealing with politics on a daily basis.  It was the language that was used at the camp because it was important and it was emphasised that we should know it very well, whom we are fighting against and why we are fighting.  We were being trained so that we would know who we are fighting against.
	The skills that we were being given, we were supposed to know who we are going to use them against.  That was part of politics.

MR WILLS: And who was, you used the word enemy earlier in your evidence, who was this enemy and as explained to you by your trainers in the camp?

BRIAN QUNA MKHIZE: The enemy is well known.  The enemy of the IFP at that time was the ANC, but at that time it was using the UDF, the United Democratic Front.
	That was the wing that was used by the ANC, so a lot of things were referred to through the UDF, although it was known to be a wing of the ANC.

MR WILLS: And apart from the political training that you received from Mr Luthuli, is it not so that there were other white trainers in the camp, who also referred to this enemy from time to time, and used this in the process of your training?

BRIAN QUNA MKHIZE: Chairperson, all our instructors were white, there was no black instructor.  Luthuli was the only person who was black, and he had come with us.  He was the Political Commissar.
	He was not only concerned with the training, but also with our welfare and moral, he would encourage us, and our general welfare.
	When we are talking about the training at Caprivi, it was carried out by white persons, there was no black person amongst them.

MR WILLS: You received a salary when you were in the Caprivi of approximately R400-00 per month, is that correct?

BRIAN QUNA MKHIZE: We were informed ... (tape ends) ... amount of R400-00.  Other amounts we will be receiving after the training, because we didn't really need the money at the camp.  The money that we used, we would use at the canteen for beers, that was the only time that we used money.
	Otherwise we didn't use money for anything, because we received everything free.  Guns, uniforms and food was given to us for free.  And we were not in a state where we were in the public or in the community where we could buy anything that we wanted, we were in a bush.  There were no luxuries, so they gave us that R400-00 so that we could have money, and we would use it or take it back, by buying those beers.

MR WILLS: Mr Mkhize, before I leave your training, you also make reference in your affidavit at paragraph 11, to getting taught about alibi's.  For what purpose do you think you were taught about alibi's?