Amnesty Hearings — Mmabatho — 1998-08-04

AMBROSE ARMSTRONG ROSS: Comrade Motepa told us that it was a person who usually attended our meetings, and then he knew that we lacked arms, we didn't have enough arms to use, we discussed about ways which we would use to attack the Ledig Police Station.   In that meeting he told us that the plan which he had included the attack of the Ledig Police Station so that we should take arms from those policemen so that we'll be able to use them to defend ourselves.

MR MULLIGAN: Were you only going to use the firearms or rifles that you were going to take from there just for defence or for attack as well?

AMBROSE ARMSTRONG ROSS: In that meeting, I don't remember the correct date, the time when Inkatha was attacking the people in the trains, we found out that the method which we can use to stop the Inkatha attacks within the trains was that we should attack them again, but the problem we had at that time is that we did not have long rifles, which will be stronger or maybe the same with the arms they had.   We intended that after we found those rifles, we'll try to find places which were particularly active and attack them.

MR MULLIGAN: Right, when the meeting finished, what happened after the meeting?

AMBROSE ARMSTRONG ROSS: After the meeting, Comrade Motepa called Comrade Phute and Comrade Kenneth and Comrade Sepiwe, he told them that they should discuss about the transport which they would use to go to Ledig.

MR MULLIGAN: What happened to you?   Did you leave?

AMBROSE ARMSTRONG ROSS: I left them, I went home.   Some of us left, then only the four of them were left behind.

MR MULLIGAN: When did you see them again?

AMBROSE ARMSTRONG ROSS: They came to my place on the 25th of October, in the evening, around six o'clock.

MR MULLIGAN: How did they come there?

AMBROSE ARMSTRONG ROSS: They came with two cars, it was a red Golf and the green Toyota Corolla.   They took me and fetched me.   They fetched me with those cars then we went back to COSAS room again, it was around six o'clock at that time in the evening.   When we arrived at COSAS room, Comrade Motepa discussed with us about the plan to attack the Ledig Police Station.   He told us we would arrive there, and then we would hold the policemen hostage, we would use their handcuffs and then handcuff them, then take all the guns which we will find in the police station.   He produced a 9mm pistol, he gave it to me.   He took the bigger 9mm pistol and gave it to Kenneth.   Then he took another 9mm.  Other comrades were not armed.   After he gave us those guns, he disciplined us, that is myself and Comrade Kenneth, that those guns, they are fully loaded and that we should try to use them when it was necessary for them to be used.  Because most of the time, we are not warmly dressed at that time and it was drizzling, therefore we went to dress warmly so that we should proceed to Rustenburg at Ledig.

MR MULLIGAN: Why was the decision made to hit Ledig Police Station, what was the reason for that?

AMBROSE ARMSTRONG ROSS: The first reason was that Comrade Motepa had told us about the political significance that Ledig carried, because in the late eighties, him, Comrade Motepa, was involved in the uprising that was in Ledig at that time, he was a main instigator and he was very active in the revolution in the eighties at that time.   He told us how the police of Bophuthatswana had arrested him and tortured him, and they also released him and he became involved in political matters, and when they decided to hunt for him, he ran away.   What he was trying to tell us was that the community of Ledig was one of the few communities in the ex Bophuthatswana that was against Bophuthatswana regime.   They were quite resistant against the Mangope regime and therefore he told us that our attack would have impact, because these people were mishandled by the Bophuthatswana police, because they regarded them as sidelines.   Therefore our attack was intended to lift the spirit of resistance of the people of Ledig and therefore we wanted to show them that the political organisations was with them and in full support of their resistance because of the political situation that prevailed at that time.

MR MULLIGAN: Right.  There you had the meeting, you went for your jackets, you came back, and then what happened?

AMBROSE ARMSTRONG ROSS: We drove off to Ledig.

MR MULLIGAN: What time did you arrive there?

AMBROSE ARMSTRONG ROSS: We arrived at about 11 o'clock at night.

MR MULLIGAN: Yes, and then, continue?

AMBROSE ARMSTRONG ROSS: When we arrived, Comrade Motepa told us that we arrived a bit too early and we had to wait somewhere to bide time, and at about 12 o'clock he said we should proceed to the police station.   On our arrival, we parked 100 metres away from the police station and I alighted the vehicle and the other comrades, six of them, came with me, Paul remained and Comrade Owen, who was in the car that I was driving, so only the six of us and left, Comrade Makubela and Owen remained behind.   On our way to the police station, Comrade Motepa told Comrade Phute and Sepiwe, who were unarmed, that they will wait at the gate, whilst myself and him and Comrade Vusi and Comrade Kenneth would enter the police station.   He also told me that I will wait at the police station door and they will enter and pretend to be looking for some information about the directions from the policemen that they would find inside.   I stood at the door.   As I was looking through the window, I saw one policeman inside the charge office, and Comrade Kenneth was talking to this policeman.   When I was looking at the different direction, I heard somebody screaming, and then I heard a gunshot.   I entered the police station, trying to see what was happening.   That is where I saw Comrade Kenneth standing next to a policeman's corpse, he had shot it behind the head.  There was a door inside the charge office, he entered that door and he was carrying a firearm, he attempted to open the door and he shot at the door.   As he was shooting at this door, Comrade Motepa saw an R4 rifle that was put on a concrete slab counter.   He jumped that counter and grabbed that rifle, and he gave his pistol that he had with him to Comrade Vusi.   After having handed that gun to Comrade Vusi, I ran outside towards the gate.   At the gate, I found Comrade Sepiwe who wanted to know what was happening inside there, and he also asked me, he actually told me that there was somebody in the front seat of the van that was parked inside the yard, but the situation at that time couldn't allow me to respond to him, I was just focusing at the door of the charge office.   Thereafter, Comrade Vusi was the first one who came out, followed by Comrade Motepa
who was carrying the R4 rifle and Comrade Kenneth was the last one.   Comrade Motepa had a rifle that he was trying to cock, but it seemed to have jammed.   It seemed as if he wanted to fold this rifle, because it was ajar.   As he was busy doing that, the R4 fired many a times in the air, and then we ran quickly into the cars.   As we were running, the magazine of the firearm that I had - oh, before I get to that point, before I get to that point, there was somebody who fired from behind whilst we were running, this person constantly fired and during that, the magazine of the firearm I had fell off and the six of us splitted into the cars, the two in the other cars and the four in the other cars, so we were four in each car.   We drove off and ran away.