Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 2000-09-27

MR KAHANOVITZ: What did you understand?

LEON A MAREE: I understood Aitchison to be an ex-mercenary, or ex-Zimbabwean operator and at one stage I told Mr Verster and Mr Basson:  "I'm concerned about him because he's playing James Bond.  The CIA is following him, the KGB is following him around.  I'm trying to calm him down."  So I was concerned that he's playing games, he's playing spy-spy and I reported that to...

MR KAHANOVITZ: What quality did he have that led you to utilise him in Namibia?

LEON A MAREE: He didn't have qualities that I would use.  He was put on me to place there, so I didn't recruit this guy.

MR KAHANOVITZ: You see the only quality is, and I use that word advisedly, that I'm aware that Aitchison purported to have, was an ability to kill people.

LEON A MAREE: Yes, I understand what you're saying.  I'm saying, I didn't go and recruit him, so I wouldn't have - he's not the guy I would have put in Namibia.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Now, just to return to that meeting.  What Mr Botha says
"It was then recommended"
at the same meeting,
"that Maree should leave and that he should lie low."

LEON A MAREE: I think Mr Botha's timing is wrong there.  This only came in in December of 1989.

MR KAHANOVITZ: But Mr Botha's evidence makes sense and this is in fact confirmed by Mr Basson yesterday.  If you're worried about being linked to Aitchison and Aitchison has been arrested and you wish to avoid arrest and detention, it makes sense for you to go and lie low.

LEON A MAREE: The facts prove that I didn't lie low at that stage.  I mean if it makes sense or not, I didn't, I only went in December of 1989.

MR KAHANOVITZ: I'm open to correction, but I have a fairly clear recollection of the evidence yesterday from Mr Basson, was that you did in fact go and lie low.

LEON A MAREE: I went overseas in December of 1989.

MR KAHANOVITZ: So the bottom line is, if anybody says that subsequent to that meeting, you went to lie low because you were worried about being arrested or detained, arising out of the assassination of Adv Lubowski, that evidence is untrue?

LEON A MAREE: I missed the gist of your things, give them again.

MR KAHANOVITZ: If anybody says that after this emergency meeting you went to lie low because you were worried that you might be arrested or detained on suspicion of involvement in Adv Lubowski's murder, they're not telling the truth.  Is that your version?

LEON A MAREE: No, that meeting, at that meeting it didn't transpire.  I didn't go and lie low after that meeting.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Did you ever go and lie low because you were worried that you might be arrested for Adv Lubowski's assassination?

LEON A MAREE: Yes, that's what I explained to you, in December 1990, that's what we're arguing about.

CHAIRPERSON: 1989.

LEON A MAREE: 1989, sorry, yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Your version is after, I forget who, the first person who was arrested, was it Mr Botha or Mr Barnard?

LEON A MAREE: I'm not sure which was arrested first.

MR KAHANOVITZ: You gave evidence-in-chief - was it Botha?

LEON A MAREE: Barnard first and then Botha.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Mr Barnard.

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: You said at the time that those people got arrested, you left the country.

LEON A MAREE: Yes, I left the country in December 1989.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Alright.  And one of the reasons that you left, the CCB was about to be exposed, that was the concern.

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Okay.  And in addition you were worried that you might be arrested for the Lubowski assassination.

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Because you were aware that Jumbo Smit from the Namibian police was doing investigations.

LEON A MAREE: Correct.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Mr Chairman, if I can just have five more minutes, I'd rather then just finish before lunch.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, thank you, that would probably be the most convenient thing to do Mr Kahanovitz.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Were you aware of a plot to assassinate ...(indistinct) Hamutenya in Namibia?

LEON A MAREE: No, I wasn't.

MR KAHANOVITZ: No you weren't.  Daniel Tjongarero from SWAPO?

LEON A MAREE: No.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Nico Bessinger?

LEON A MAREE: No.

MR KAHANOVITZ: So you were visiting Windhoek on a regular basis, purely to speak to, to handle Aitchison?

LEON A MAREE: To handle Aitchison yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: And I assume, run your business.

LEON A MAREE: And the business, yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: So this whole SWAPO campaign directed, excuse me CCB campaign, directed against the Namibian elections, you played no role whatsoever.

LEON A MAREE: No, I think I played a role.  I think the reason why Aitchison was given me in retrospect is because I had established a company there and that would slot in there.  It would give me movement to go and handle him there.

CHAIRPERSON: But I think what Mr Kahanovitz is asking, besides setting up your blue plan there and establishing Aitchison, he's asking you, did you play any role at all in the CCB operations relating or concerning the Namibian elections?

LEON A MAREE: No, I didn't.

MR KAHANOVITZ: So, do I take it then that all these projects to doctor oil, poison water holes, burn vehicles, kill people, you had no involvement whatsoever in any of those projects?

LEON A MAREE: I had no knowledge of them at all.

MR KAHANOVITZ: If I might just have a minute?  You said in your evidence-in-chief that somebody contacted you while you were in Germany and told you to not come back because all hell's broken loose.

LEON A MAREE: Ja, Mr Verster.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Is it Mr Verster?  What did he tell you?

LEON A MAREE: He told me that I was to remain in Germany and I would be contacted and told when I should return.

MR KAHANOVITZ: But why did he not want you to return?

LEON A MAREE: Well that was the period that I was lying low for Namibia.

MR KAHANOVITZ: In other words, words to the effect of:  "The Namibian police are looking for you, don't come back to South Africa, you could be arrested."

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Alright.  Where is Donald Aitchison today?

LEON A MAREE: I don't know.

MR KAHANOVITZ: No further questions, thank you.
NO FURTHER QUESTIONS BY MR KAHANOVITZ

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.  Well let's see how long it will be.  Do you have any questions Mr Hockey?  Sorry Mr Rheeder do you have any questions?  Ms Coleridge?

MS COLERIDGE: I do, Chairperson, just a few.

CHAIRPERSON: Should we handle it now before the lunch adjournment?

MS COLERIDGE: It won't take very long, Chairperson.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, I think let's finish this witness then we can start ...

MS COLERIDGE: Mr Maree, what were you other codenames besides Le Roux?

LEON A MAREE: I just had one, Stefan Le Roux.

MS COLERIDGE: And you said you had a partner that dealt
with you in your business, 89, 90.

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MS COLERIDGE: What was your partner's name?

LEON A MAREE: Mr Ehlers.

MS COLERIDGE: Mr Ehlers.  And you said that once you, after Calla Botha and van Zyl were arrested, you informed your partner about the dealings.  What did you inform him about?

LEON A MAREE: I explained to him that the company that I set up and I brought him into was a front company and that he would be much more active in the company, he would take over the company and he did that then and to inform the staff too what the - because it was going to be in the newspapers anyway.

MS COLERIDGE: And so he knew that this company was a front company of the CCB and he knew that this involved certain illegal activities, is that correct?

LEON A MAREE: He knew that, after I told him in 1990, yes.

MS COLERIDGE: And is he still your partner?

LEON A MAREE: Yes, he is.

MS COLERIDGE: And then just in relation to your operations, was your operation called, by the CCB, was it called Lema?

LEON A MAREE: My project name?

MS COLERIDGE: Your project name.

LEON A MAREE: I can't even remember what, it wasn't called Lema, no.