Amnesty Hearings — Boksburg — 1998-06-22

JAN B DE WET: (sworn states)

UNKNOWN: Mr Chairman, just before we continue, Mr Bracher was detained and indicated that he would be attending a bit later.  He asked me to convey that to the Committee.  Thank you.

MS VAN DER WALT: Mr De Wet, your application for amnesty is contained in Volume 1, from page 66 to 80 and Annexure B, page 214 to 223.

CHAIRPERSON: Can I just interrupt you, won't you turn those things down please.  It is echoing.

MS VAN DER WALT: Mr De Wet, in your application form on page 70, you mention the offences for which you were found guilty, and there you mentioned that you were found guilty of the explosions in Bree Street and at Jan Smuts?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson.

MS VAN DER WALT: As well as the pipe bombs?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct.

MS VAN DER WALT: And according to the judgment, that is not correct?

JAN B DE WET: No, that is not correct.

MS VAN DER WALT: You were only found guilty for the Germiston attack?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct.  I would just like the Committee to amend that for me please.

MS VAN DER WALT: But Mr de Wet you are applying for amnesty for all the explosions before 1994?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson.

MS VAN DER WALT: In your application form you mentioned that you are a member of the AWB and also a member of the Ystergarde?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson.

MS VAN DER WALT: What was your position in the Ystergarde?

JAN B DE WET: In the Ystergarde I was a Captain and I was also an Instructor, as well as a personal bodyguard of Mr Terreblanche who is the leader of the AWB.

MS VAN DER WALT: Did you attend any meetings which Mr Terreblanche addressed?

JAN B DE WET: Most of the meetings Mr Terreblanche addressed in the Western Transvaal, I was present there because of the fact that I was a bodyguard and I had to accompany him to his meetings.

MS VAN DER WALT: Now the time right before the election, what was the message that Mr Terreblanche, on behalf of the AWB, conveyed to the country?

JAN B DE WET: In the run up to the election it was quite evident that the ANC would take over the country and that the government would give it to the ANC, and at the meetings he said that there would be no negotiations, the only negotiation would take place through the barrel of a gun.
	At several meetings Mr Terreblanche said about the explosions and said that it would be bigger explosions, bigger bombs and I accepted that the struggle and the revolution against the ANC and the NP would be with fire weapons and with bombs.

CHAIRPERSON: Do I understand you correctly Mr De Wet, that you testified to what Mr Terreblanche said - are you telling the Committee that what you did, you did because you were influenced by what Mr Terreblanche said?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson.

CHAIRPERSON: Otherwise you wouldn't have done it?

JAN B DE WET: No, I wouldn't have done it otherwise.

MS VAN DER WALT: During February 1994, you also attended a meeting at Lichtenburg, is that correct?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct.

MS VAN DER WALT: What was the message which Terreblanche conveyed there at Lichtenburg?

JAN B DE WET: After we got the freedom of the town, Mr Terreblanche as well as Constand Viljoen as well as other members of the  right-wing, they addressed a meeting and Terreblanche said there that the ANC, there would be no negotiations with the ANC and the bombs which already exploded, after that, there would be bigger explosions.

MS VAN DER WALT: Do you carry any knowledge with regards to a report which appeared in the Rapport paper and I ask the permission Mr Chairperson, to submit a report which appeared on the 6th of February 1994 in the Rapport and this I received from the Institute of Own Time History and I would just like to submit it if you will allow me.  I hope I am correct Chairperson, I think it is Exhibit G.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, that would be Exhibit F.

MS VAN DER WALT: In the report which you have in front of you, is it the speech that you referred to?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson.

MS VAN DER WALT: And in this report, it is where Mr Terreblanche said that if the demands are not met, let there be more bombs?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson.

MS VAN DER WALT: You already made mention of the freedom of several towns which the AWB received and that is also stated in your amnesty application?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson.

MS VAN DER WALT: Then there were call up instructions in April 1994, is that correct?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson.

MS VAN DER WALT: Did you also receive call up instructions?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, I did.  But the day they got together at the Trim Park, I was not able to go because of financial problems, and I could not be there.  Brigadier Leon van der Merwe was called by me and I told him that I would come later to Ventersdorp, and he said it was fine, Chairperson.

MS VAN DER WALT: And then you went to Ventersdorp?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, I did go there.

CHAIRPERSON: When did you go to Ventersdorp?

JAN B DE WET: It was the 20th or the 21st of April Chairperson.

MS VAN DER WALT: When you arrived in Ventersdorp, where were the people gathered at that stage?

JAN B DE WET: At that stage I did not know where the people were gathered.  I went to Brigadier Leon van der Merwe who was the Head of the Ystergarde, I went to his house and when I arrived there, I found him, Johan Smit, Jaco Nel who is also an applicant, Tiaan Potgieter, who was also a co-accused, I found them there and the next instructions were then given to me by Leon van der Merwe and Johan Smit and the instructions were that it was war and we needed a safe place for the women and children and I told them that the place where I was at that stage, was quite safe and there were also other alternative safety places and he said, send people out with me to go and have a look at the places and in the morning, there we left.

CHAIRPERSON: Who told you that?

JAN B DE WET: Brigadier Leon van der Merwe and Johan Smit.  He was a Major in the Ystergarde.

CHAIRPERSON: I just want to confirm, did he say the war is on?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, he said the war is beginning and the AWB's Wenkommando is busy to occupy the whole of the Western Transvaal.

CHAIRPERSON: And that was about on the 20th?

JAN B DE WET: It was the 20th or the 21st, I am not quite sure about the date Chairperson.

CHAIRPERSON: Why did you go to Ventersdorp?

JAN B DE WET: Because I received call up instructions which said that the AWB and his Wenkommando and the Ystergade was called up to the Western Transvaal.

CHAIRPERSON: Was that the only reason?

JAN B DE WET: No, with the run up to the election, because we suspected that there would be complete chaos with the elections, and we, the  right-wingers, made ourselves ready for a revolution.

CHAIRPERSON: Do I understand you correctly that the reason why you went to Ventersdorp, was to prepare yourself in Ventersdorp and to help to interrupt, interfere with the election?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct, Chairperson.

CHAIRPERSON: Any other reason?

JAN B DE WET: Later, I will give evidence, but later I also received further instructions.

MS VAN DER WALT: You mentioned that you were not at the gathering at the Trim Park, or at the meeting there, and Leon van der Merwe informed you about what he said to the people there?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson, I was told when I was at his house, that we were going to gather together, the women would move together and there would be several commando's.  I am talking about the AWB Wenkommando.
	They would gather in different places in the Western Transvaal in order to secure our people and also to disrupt the elections and to make sure it does not happen.  After a while, he also told me that at the game farm, where we would be gathered, we would receive further instructions.