Special Hearings — Trojan Horse Hearings — 1997-05-20

CHAIRPERSON: We would like to call our next witness to the stage, Mr Chris Everson.  Chris will be lead by Dr Mapule Ramashala and Glenda Wildschut will administer the oath.  Thank you Glenda.

CHRIS EVERSON: (sworn states)

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you Mr Everson.  Dr Ramashala?

MAPULE RAMASHALA: ; Before I ask you to tell your story, I have this vision of you and your sound man, somewhat like Peter Magobani running around the community, putting yourself at risk and taking pictures and putting together stories and I dare say that perhaps without the record that people like you put together at great risk, it is really very heartening because it was in part that record that we were able to share with the international community that contributed to the sense of outrage in South Africa and in the international community about the atrocities that were being visited upon people in South Africa.
 Having said that, would you please tell your story, which is really pretty fascinating but also confirms our suspicions about this Trojan Horse incident.

CHRIS EVERSON: Would you like me to speak specifically about the Trojan Horse incident now?

MAPULE RAMASHALA: Give us the benefit of your experience broadly.

CHRIS EVERSON: Well during that time I was working for American Network or CBS News and we were - my sound recordist was initially a man by the name of Nicholas Delaqaza who has since been killed in the Middle-East, but we were working generally in the Cape Town area, in Athlone and in the Cape Flats and normally shipping our material each evening up to Johannesburg from where the report was normally compiled and then satellited through to the USA where it was broadcast usually the same evening.
 During that time it was very difficult initially to get acceptance into the communities, both the communities, the Black communities and the so-called Coloured communities, it was quite difficult as a White crew initially to arrive there and say hi, guys, we are here, can we film?
 And we had a pretty hard time initially and I think I had about 12 cars destroyed to various degrees in about four months by stones and what have you until eventually we were seen as the guys to usually leave alone, which happened, thankfully.
 We had enough trouble having to dodge the police, without having to dodge anyone else as well.  Some months prior to the incident of the Trojan Horse my sound recordist and I were driving down  Klipfontein Road, in Crossroads, pretty close to where the original Crossroads clinic used to be.
 And we were driving away from the city and we saw a large vehicle parked on the side of the road, on the right hand side of the road, pointing back towards the city.  As we drew alongside, we saw a group of policemen standing at the back of the vehicle with what appeared to be the body of a young man laying at their feet.
 So we pulled over, and the vehicle by the way, had a number of boxes on the back.  So we pulled over onto the left hand side of the curb and jumped out.  In those days we had to get out of the car and then get out equipment out of the back seat and attach an umbilical cable from the camera to the recorder which thankfully, we don't need to do any longer, but in doing so it took some time and by which stage the policemen had picked up the body and put it in the back of this vehicle and all jumped back onto this vehicle, threatened us with arrest if we had continued to film them and disappeared. 
 I recall it being very strange at the time, because it didn't appear to be any police vehicle there, there were policemen standing around, without any apparent means of transport, they all jumped back into this large truck.  I don't remember the colour, but I remember it being strange at the time because of the boxes on the back.
 I didn't really put two and two together and I don't know whether the kid they put in the back of the vehicle, was killed or not.

MAPULE RAMASHALA: May I ask you a question.  How big were the boxes?