Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 2000-06-21

CHAIRPERSON: You can remove your jacket if you wish, Mr Burger, in fact anybody who wants to remove their jacket, may do so.

MR DU PLESSIS: Mr Chairman, if we can just get the opportunity to arrange all the documents here.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes certainly Mr du Plessis.  Mr Burger's application is on page 130 of Bundle A.

MR DU PLESSIS: Thank you Mr Chairman.

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: (sworn states)

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.  Mr du Plessis?

MR P DU PLESSIS: Thank you Mr Chairman.  Mr Burger, is it correct that you are the applicant in this matter, applying for amnesty for four matters?  Is that correct?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: That is in terms of the Act 34 of 1995.  The four matters for which you are applying for amnesty are arranged in order as they are in the application, it is the Athlone Early Learning Centre bomb incident; the Gavin Evans matter; Dullah Omar matter and the incident relating to the baboon foetus at the house of Desmond Tutu, is that correct?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: That is correct.

MR P DU PLESSIS: This application of yours is dated 2 December 1996, is that correct?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: It is based on an earlier application of yours in terms of previous legislation dated 28 March 1991, as corroborated by an affidavit made or signed on the same date in 1991, is that correct?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: That is correct, yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: At this stage, I am not going to refer specifically to the documentation, I will get back to that later, but at this stage I would like you to tell us in your own words what the circumstances were surrounding these events for which you are applying for amnesty.
	Just by way of background firstly, I would like you to place on record when you joined the CCB.

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: I joined officially on the 1st of June 1988.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And then briefly background before you joined the CCB, where were you, where were you employed before then?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: I was employed at the Brixton Murder and Robbery of the South African Police, in the capacity as Officer, second in command and later Officer in Charge.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Your rank was Colonel?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Now just briefly, I would like you to sketch for the Committee what the background was, the circumstances under which you were transferred from the South African Police to the CCB?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: Chair, at the beginning of 1988, there was a difference of opinion which arose between myself and Gen Schutte, who was the Detective Head of Brixton, and it revolved around the involvement of members of the Brixton Murder and Robbery Unit, they were involved in a murder or murders of drug smugglers, and they were later convicted.
	As a result of this event, Headquarters thought it fit to bring about a change at Murder and Robbery and the structure there as a whole, and I was not happy with that, because the members involved had acted entirely on their own initiative and my submission to the General was that it actually effected the integrity of the other members, if we were transferred under this cloud of suspicion, namely that we were involved.

MR P DU PLESSIS: In any event you then decided to follow other career opportunities?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: Yes, I pursued other career paths.  I investigated other career opportunities, and amongst these was a transfer to the South African Defence Force, Special Forces.  The reason for that being that I knew Col Joe Verster from my childhood, we were at primary school and high school together, we were friends there, and after that he went to the Defence Force and I went to the South African Police.
	We lost contact with each other, until the time that I started showing an interest in going to Special Forces.

MR P DU PLESSIS: So you approached Verster in this regard?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: Yes, I did.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And to sum it up, it arose from your social contact with Verster?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: That is correct.

MR P DU PLESSIS: In the sense that you knew him from your childhood days, correct?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: Correct.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Now briefly if you could tell us or describe to us, how it came about that you were eventually appointed to the CCB?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: I contacted Mr Verster, and as a result of this contact, an arrangement was made for a meeting, I met him in Johannesburg, and I disclosed my intentions to him that I wanted to be transferred to Special Forces.
	He told me that there was indeed such a possibility and that the reason why he was meeting me in Johannesburg, in the Ponte block of flats, and why he was dressed in civilian dress, is that it was a civil section of Special Forces in which I was to become involved.
	We discussed my rank and how it would adapt, how it would be adapted to Special Forces, the civilian structure and he told me that it would be a civilian appointment, but that the level of the post and the salary, etc, would relate more or less to what it would be in the Officers' core.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Did you officially apply for a post thereafter?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And you completed the necessary documentation?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And you later got feedback that the application was successful?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: At that stage, were any of the other members who were also involved, Maree, van Zyl and Botha, were they involved in any way in your investigating other career opportunities?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: No, not at the stage when I negotiated with him initially, that is with Mr Verster, but he told me, after my application was successful, after he told me that it was successful, that there would be vacancies and that I could make certain proposals to him for the further posts which were still vacant.

MR P DU PLESSIS: At the stage when you applied for the position, after your first interview with Verster, did you know, did you have detailed knowledge of what your position at the CCB would entail?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: No, no, I didn't.  I didn't have a detailed knowledge.  What was conveyed to me was that I shouldn't talk about this matter to anybody, with anybody and that I should regard it as a secret and that we would work in that way as well.

MR P DU PLESSIS: So what you did know was that you would not work in uniform, but you would work in a covert capacity?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Were you told in broad detail, why this appointment to the CCB was necessary?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: No.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Were you told in any way what your function would be?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: Yes - I don't really understand your question, later, in 1989 we were told during the induction course, we were told what the rules and so forth were, but yes, we were told that we would be utilised against the enemies of the State which at that stage were waging a war against the South African Security Forces, in a civilian form.

MR P DU PLESSIS: So in broad detail, you knew what the prospects were and what kind of work you would do?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: After your appointment had been approved, did you then in terms of Botha, Maree and van Zyl, you approached them?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: Yes.  Yes, I recruited all three of them, and I also arranged for interviews with the Chairperson, and I arranged for their contracts of service.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And they were also, they formally applied then on the same basis?  They then formally applied for a post at the CCB on the same basis?

DANIEL F DU TOIT BURGER: That is correct.