Amnesty Hearings — Pretoria — UNKNOWN

JAMES WHEELER: No because the day after the incident we were arrested and I think that for about two or three weeks we were in detention before our bail application was granted and during that time my wife tried to make contact quite a number of times and they said that they did know about us and the incident.

MR STEENKAMP: And my final question to you........
..(tape ends)

MR PRINSLOO: : .....next, I see the pages unfortunately are not numbered, sir, but typed pages, typed page 35, in the middle.   Do you have the documents in front of you?

CHAIRPERSON: Is that the bail application?

MR PRINSLOO: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: It also appears in ...(intervention).

MR PRINSLOO: That's correct, Mr Chairman.

CHAIRPERSON: ...in the second volume of documents.   Maybe if you can get to the bail application and then just point to the number of, the page number of the bail application and we can get it on our papers.

MR PRINSLOO: Mr Chairman, it's on page 45.

CHAIRPERSON: Of the bail application.   That is page 55 of the second volume of the papers.

MR PRINSLOO: I'm sorry, Mr Chairman, I'm confusing everyone, it's page 35 of the bail application, and the numbered page it's page 45.   The page number, it's page 45.  In the middle of the page, and I will just read to you briefly
"Where are your husband's political convictions? My husband does not have specific political convictions, he has never belonged to a political organisation, he does not have any attitudes against any other political colour or race, he treats everyone equally well.
		And regarding politics?
		I cannot say that he has moved into a specific direction."
Was this also a light held by your wife?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes, I gave the instruction to state it as that
because my advocate or my attorney granted me two chances and said one could be like this and one could be like that, and I considered, in terms of my family and decided that we would not follow a political direction.

MR PRINSLOO: No further questions.
NO FURTHER QUESTIONS BY MR PRINSLOO

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Mr Moloi, do you have any questions you would like to ask the witness?

MR MOLOI: Thank you, Mr Chairman.   Mr Wheeler, according to your evidence, you had received a military training?

JAMES WHEELER: That is correct.

MR MOLOI: Amongst other things, you were taught was to obey orders given by your seniors, is that correct?

JAMES WHEELER: That is correct, yes.

MR MOLOI: Were you at any stage during military training, and even when you were engaged in military activities, allowed to make your own conclusions of what could be meant by a policy, for instance?

JAMES WHEELER: No.

MR MOLOI: So at all times instructions were to be clear cut and understood unequivocally?

JAMES WHEELER: That's quite correct, yes.

MR MOLOI: Do I also understand that you say you had not received any clear-cut, unequivocal instructions to kill blacks?

JAMES WHEELER: That is correct, under the given circumstances of the '94 elections, and what predecessed it, and what was said by people, led to this incident.

MR MOLOI: You then drew your own conclusions from what you heard being said by the leadership of the AWB?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes, through my conclusions, I thought that we were assisting them in this operation or war, as they called it, we assisted them, I thought so.

MR MOLOI: Had they specified to you which form this war would take?

JAMES WHEELER: They just said that we would know, and that is it.

MR MOLOI: And were you ever informed that it has now started and in which form, and what your contribution should be?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes, after we've been at Mr De Bruin's house, and he confirmed that bombs went off and this is the beginning of the resistance.

MR MOLOI: What did he mean by that, did he mean now bombs are going to continue going off, or whether you must now take your rifle and go out and shoot?

JAMES WHEELER: That was as I took it, that now we, as white people, now our action has begun, and I took it as myself clearly, as the bombs went off, I knew something is busy happening here in South Africa.

MR MOLOI: According to the radio broadcast you heard, was the bomb explosion attributed to any particular person or organisation?

JAMES WHEELER: No, it happened at the airport, and which meant that once that you close off all the, as we can say accesses, that nobody could escape, and that is what I saw in this thing, that nobody, if somebody starts attacking these places, then obviously to me it meant that it started, what these people had said.

MR PRINSLOO: Chairperson, before we continue, I'm not certain whether or not my client is aware of the fact that he may use the interpretation services and perhaps he might be a bit more comfortable using these services.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, because whatever you say is getting translated simultaneously as you speak, but if you would just speak a little slower, it would assist us greatly.

MR PRINSLOO: Thank you, Chairperson.

MR MOLOI: Mr Wheeler actually the question is, did anybody claim responsibility for the bomb explosion that you heard of over the radio?

JAMES WHEELER: I can - it's what I know.

MR MOLOI: So the bomb could have been set by the right wing or the left wing or anybody else for any purpose whatsoever?

JAMES WHEELER: Not within this specific context of the events of the election and what preceded it.   Regarding this specific event, we knew that it was the right wing that had planted this bomb.

MR MOLOI: Because there were left-aligned parties against the elections?

JAMES WHEELER: This could be true.

MR MOLOI: So the shooting we are talking about took place before the close of the elections on the day in question?

JAMES WHEELER: That is correct.

MR MOLOI: And earlier in that day you had seen scores and scores of people queuing at polling stations for voting purposes?

JAMES WHEELER: That is correct.

MR MOLOI: For the simple reason that the elections were scheduled to take place over two days, it's quite likely that at the time of the shooting, there were still scores and scores of people queuing at the polling stations?

JAMES WHEELER: That may have been so.

MR MOLOI: You wanted to make your contribution to hinder the process of the elections, but you did not choose to go shoot where there were many blacks queuing for voting purposes?

JAMES WHEELER: That's correct.

MR MOLOI: Instead you chose to go shoot in an abundant area, where only one vehicle was moving at the time, and did not know whether or not those people were interested in the elections or not?

JAMES WHEELER: As I have stated, I accept that that 90% of the black South African population supported the ANC and that is how I accepted it, and that we attempted also, through this incident, which today we could term isolated, we attempted to embed fear within the minds of other people.

MR MOLOI: Did that incident have relevance really to the elections?   The elections were not conducted in that abundant road in the middle of nowhere?

JAMES WHEELER: I could put it to you as follows:  that we were an isolated case.   If the objective had been achieved which was proclaimed by these people, it would have been a completely different situation, but for the reason that we were an isolated case, it is now a completely different story.

MR MOLOI: The fact of your contribution towards the cause of the AWB would have been much greater if you had chosen to go shoot where there were people queuing for purposes of voting, because your intention is to disrupt the voting process, is it not?

JAMES WHEELER: That is possible.

MR MOLOI: After this incident, did you report to De Bruin that "I have now contributed by doing X, Y, Z"?