Special Hearings — Caprivi Hearings — 1997-08-05

MR MACADAM: Are you aware of the terminology, "minimum force"?

INTERPRETER: May you please repeat your question?

MR MACADAM: Are you familiar with the term "minimum force"?

WITNESS:  Yes, I do.

MR MACADAM: Was that aspect ever dealt with in your training that you received in that place?

WITNESS:   When you use minimum force, your aim is not to kill, it's just to disable a person in order to arrest a person.  Minimum force is used by police to apprehend people or to effect arrests.  If the person behaves violently or fights back, therefore you will have to use minimum force to arrest the person or effect the arrest and so that you will be able to put that person into a van or into police cells.  So I will say that we didn't do anything with regard to minimum force or were not trained in that regard.  We were concentrating on elimination or killing people.

MR MACADAM: Did you receive any financial remuneration at all while you were in this camp that you were receiving the training that you've described to us?

WITNESS:   Yes, we were paid.  We were told that they will take the scales of the police, the constable scale and we'll be paid according to such a scale, constable scale.  We were told that after the training there might be some increases.  Since we didn't have a place where we could spend our money, they used to give us everything that we needed up to a stage where they had to construct a shop, a small shop where you could buy drinks and beer cans and some sweets, the small things.  We were not given the full salary and they said they will give us the balance after the training.  If I

MR MACADAM: /remember

MR MACADAM: 1B remember well we were given an amount up to R400, 380, something like that.

MR MACADAM: [Break in recording] ... came from?

WITNESS:   I don't know where it came from.  However, it was South African currencies.  It was new notes, bank notes and it was South African money.

MR MACADAM: [Break in recording] ...?

WITNESS:   This one white gentleman by the name of Swart, he used to come at the end of the month and when we see Swart we knew that we were going to get paid and we did get paid.

MR MACADAM: Just to finally conclude your evidence, two aspects.  You've told us once you had received all the training in this strange place, you worked in the Port Shepstone and Harding areas for some period of time.  After that, did you at any stage become a member of the South African Police at all?

WITNESS:   Yes, I did.

MR MACADAM: [Break in recording] ...?

WITNESS:  It was during 1988, January.  I was based at South Coast after the training.  They came to fetch us saying that we are wanted at Ulundi.  We went to Ulundi, as they said they were requiring us as soon as possible.  Four of us left the South Coast to Ulundi.  When we arrived at Ulundi it was explained to us by Mr M Z Khumalo that we will be taken to Cape Town where we were to be trained as special constables.  That did surprise us, because we knew that we were very advanced with the knowledge, the military knowledge and we didn't understand why do we have to be taken back to be trained as constables and we asked Khumalo why did they have to take us to train as constables.  Khumalo explained that they were not degrading us or giving us a lower position, however, it wasn't a demotion.  However, they wanted us

MR MACADAM: /to

MR MACADAM: 1B to help in the police service.  The main reason was that in Pietermaritzburg most members of the Inkatha were getting killed and they were conquered by the ANC and other structures of the ANC like UDF.  They also said that the Inkatha it's winning in Maritzburg, because it has a -can I repeat it?   It's not Inkatha.  It's not the Inkatha that was getting help from the SAP, it was the structures of the ANC which were helped by the SAP to fight against Inkatha.  Khumalo told us that since we're going for training, to train as constables, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi has met with the seniors of the SAP about the assaults and killing of Inkatha people in Pietermaritzburg and senior people in the South African Police told him that he should bring his own people, if he doesn't trust the South African Police personnel working in Maritzburg.  Therefore the South African Police were going to take those people who were brought from KwaZulu-Natal by Chief Buthelezi, trained those people, trained them to be special constables and their main task was to fight against violence and also to help in the Maritzburg area to protect prominent IFP leaders and also to protect the IFP people.  Mr Khumalo told us that our task is to infiltrate the special constables;  to enter as special constables in order to work with - to go and get deployed with the special constables who work in Pietermaritzburg.  Therefore while in Maritzburg we will be able to further our aims to hit directly at the ANC.  At the very same time we will be able to protect our people.  That is the reason why we were taken to be trained with special constables.  There were many special constables whom we did not know.  They were from different places.  However

MR MACADAM: /we

MR MACADAM: 1B we trained in the same place.  We were also warned that we're getting training and also to hide that we know anything about military.  If I remember well that's the time when they took us to Orib(?).  They took our particulars.  We were together with other - many people were coming to join as special constables.  The SAP took us to Cape Town where we trained.  We were trained under the commanding officer, Colonel Smith.  He was in charge of the camp.  After finishing the training we came back with our appointment certificates stating that we were special constables.  We were deployed - all of us were deployed at Maritzburg and we were staying at the Railway Hostel.  That's where I met my fellow accused, Mr Hlongwane because he was also included in the training of special constables in Cape Town.  It wasn't for the first time I saw him.  I knew him before.  However, I might be able to explain that, if necessary.

MR MACADAM: Did you receive a salary from the South African Police while you were a special constable?

WITNESS:   Yes, that's correct.

MR MACADAM: Did you receive a salary from any other source at the same time other than the South African Police?

WITNESS:  Yes, I used to get money for training that I had in the camp, so I was getting two payments.  However, the South African Police didn't know that there is another salary that we're getting.  After some times, Sergeant Khesili whom I mentioned yesterday went to Ulundi to collect our money and he will give us in secrets - make it a secret when paying us to make sure that nobody knows that we're getting the payment.  It wasn't paid through cheques, it was cash.

MR MACADAM: /[Break in recording] ...

MR MACADAM: 1B [Break in recording] ... remain as a special constable in the South African Police?

WITNESS:   It didn't take much time, it's just a few months and we quarrelled with the other SAP people, because we discovered that some of them were comrades and they also suspected that we were not just ordinary constables, but that we are under a certain mission(?).  Therefore a conflict developed and they supplied us with poisoned food at some stage.  We got sick, seriously sick, we almost died, most of us.  I had to be admitted at Edendale Hospital.  My mouth got rotten and it developed some sores and I had diarrhoea and I was next to my grave.  It was after eating that food.  That's the reason why we decided to quit, because we thought we're going to die.  We went back to Ulundi to tell them, "It looks like the people in Pietermaritzburg have - suspect something about us".  That's how we left the South African Police.  We didn't even resign or say, "Bye", we just left.

MR MACADAM: In 1989 you were then - became a member of the KwaZulu Police?

WITNESS:   Yes, that's correct.