Amnesty Hearings — Klerksdorp — 1999-05-11

MR RUDOLPH: Thank you very much.  I would like to say to you, if the afternoon before the meeting of the, - was present, you would have seen the person who gave evidence before you, General Malan, and in which you gave a verdict and I have no problem with that.  I believe that General Malan should have made a good impression on the court, but it was placed on record that there was tension between myself and General Malan. And I respectfully submit that if you were present that afternoon, you would also have come to the conclusion to which I came, that General Malan and his people, because they wanted to fight, were prepared to treat people very badly to say the least of it.
	I have seen the glowing of war in his eyes.  You saw him at the coals of the burnt out fire, and it was astounding if one looked at the role of the police that old friends such as Brigadier Scholtz and those people who were house, friends moved past one another in order to contact one another telephonically while it could have been sorted out in a different way if we were prepared to look one another in the eye.  I refer to this Your Honour because you have that document in your possession.  
	I expected Brigadier Scholtz to at least - because he was a friend of Mr Terre'blanche, I thought that he would go to trouble to go to Mr Terre'blanche's house.  He was well known to us, he wouldn't have been an enemy.  I would like to tell you Your Honour that if in the process I bent over backwards to - when Brigadier Scholtz gave me the message, to be more accommodating instead of telling him that I could not get hold of Mr Terre'blanche and it was water under the bridge, that whole incident could have had a different course.
	I think then that I have done my duty as the Secretary General of the AWB.  I haven't done it properly when I haven't tried to get hold of Mr Terre'blanche.  That however is water under the bridge, but in front of the post office in Ventersdorp I knew that the police became those people in the hands of the people who referred to that voice of the people, but they did not realise that it was a symphony of freedom and the ringing out of gunshots would ... Long ago other people also wanted to hear the voice of black nationalists and today that voice speaks louder and, Your Honour, one of these days it will be the voice of the government.  That is what I said in court.  
	In Ventersdorp I was under the leadership of the AWB and then I further said about this matter, Your Honour, never the situation with regard to our nation was darker.  We had lost our freedom for the second time in an exhausting war.  We have lost so many people in the union.  We became a member of the - however it didn't make an end to that war, the Republic of South Africa would also be in the same situation.  That Republic didn't bring freedom, in fact it only brought about further problems.  A late ...(indistinct) Premier and State President Mr Vorster, during the war, was arrested and held by a government who regarded him as somebody they did not need but he became the Minister of Justice when his people again put the Mandelas and Sisulus in jail.
	Today those same people are getting ready to become the government of tomorrow.  Our road is a road of struggle.  I mentioned these dangers to the court in order to demonstrate that the law plays an important role in the development of a nation.  People standing today in court may tomorrow have power in their hands.  In other words what is going wrong today could be correct tomorrow, what is right today could be proved wrong tomorrow.
	In saying this, I do not want to say that you should not proceed in doing your duty.  What I do tell you is that if you look at the community's interests, you should also take into consideration that it is fluid and in our case that there is division.  I also tell you this because I asked you before that when you listen to all these, you should not look at it as though we are ordinary criminals in order to murder people, rape people.  In fact the same motivation was the motivation which motivated people here and internationally to the position of coming into power.
	The fact that the government refused to speak to its opponents does not make that but a heavy penalty cannot silence you.  In my time I could tell my political enemies behind the walls of the jail, your ideals grow even further and it becomes larger in life and therefore you don't have to look at me.  The best example is Mr Nelson Mandela.
	The meeting at Ventersdorp which caused this was a meeting that was held by the State President.  If people worried about the course of things, there was no better man than the State President to allay those fears.  Prior to that there were problems with the squatters at Goedgevonden, squatters who took the land of the Boers because they were being threatened and they became the minority in their own country.  The only place in the world where there is a comparative example is in Palestine, where the Jews came in and the result was that to this day there is not peace there. 
	In such a situation, no peace is possible neither in Palestine nor in Transvaal.  A problem that needs to be solved is the position of the Boer nation in South Africa.  The government is speaking to the ANC and even minority parties with regard to a new dispensation and it is being pretended as if the Boers do not exist and as if it doesn't matter.  I want to say categorically that I experience among the whites that there are more people supporting the Boer State than communists supporting Joe Slovo, but he is in Kempton Park as an important negotiator while the Boers want freedom.
	The day will dawn that these walls will also be evidence that there were farmers or Boers who tried very hard to bring about freedom.  A place where it should be done was in Potchefstroom, but Ventersdorp in the commando hall, it wanted to stop the State President and with the role name of Rex, they wanted to keep their opponents away.  
	In the case of Mr de Klerk, it was Rex vs the Truth.  Mr de Klerk had to seek refuge in a Casspir.  He didn't - another matter that needs to be solved are those Boers in the, on death row.  Mr de Klerk was at Ventersdorp during the darkest crisis in our nation's history, when all of us doubted where the road would take us to.  He preferred not to allay those fears.  It wasn't allayed.  We will see it again and it will be even worse that Ventersdorp but for that Mr de Klerk has to stand farther.  The fact that I am not a member of the AWB does not mean that I have stopped my fight.  
	And then I would quickly like to refer to another document which I held at Mr Cyrus Vance who is not of importance here.   I further said in desperation, I had to correspond with the ANC.  In this regard I also sent a letter to Mr Mandela as an indication of the fact that I wanted rather to talk instead of to shoot.  I couldn't speak to Mr de Klerk but because of the temporary situation with regard to Mr de Klerk I would rather speak to Mr Mandela, which is an indication of my approach.  
	Then Your Honour, I also said in that court, as I have done yesterday, and I would just like to repeat it quickly.  In conclusion, I would like to quote quickly with regard to the flame in my chest, paining in my chest, so that you can know that it is not only in my chest but also in the hearts of other people.   We are part of history.  We are part and witnesses of this and if I know you would understand it.  I would like to quote from a court case which took place in 1962, in October which was the Rivonia trial of the current State President on 22 October 1962, and in that Mr Mandela said:
"Government violence can only do one thing and that is to bring counter-violence.  If there is no dawning of sanity on the part of the government, the dispute between the government and my people will finish up being settled in violence and by force."
   The same could be said about the Boer people.  He further says:
"Whatever sentence Your Worship sees fit to impose upon me for the crime of which I have been convicted before this court, may he rest assured that when my sentence has been completed I will still be moved, as men are always moved by their conscience."
	I then concluded by saying, Your Honour, the ANC's fight was a fight against apartheid, against a social order in order to gain the vote.  My fight and that of the AWB is a fight to put right the problem at Vereeniging.  That will always burn in my heart no matter what I am being sentenced.  It cannot stop it.  I thank you.  That is what I said there Your Honour.  
	I would like to conclude with that and I would like to conclude by telling you that what we have done here, at least I and I also know my colleague here next to me did the same, was to say to you that there is not a difference between the fight of the Boers and that of the other people in front of us, which took us to Ventersdorp was the freedom of the Boer nation and the Boer people.  That will stay alive.  And if I told you that I do not recognise the current government, Your Honour, I would also like to say to you in the same breath that the previous government for the same reason was not acknowledged by me.  I thought that we could perhaps in all honesty tell you what motivates us and like my good friend here told you yesterday, I stand here for one simple reason and that is that I would like to clear my record.
	I am not a criminal, I never was one, but if I am being regarded as a criminal when I pleaded for my nation, then it is a crime.  And my people - if I go to bed at night I tell myself it was not I who shot people dead and killed people, it wasn't me who caused people to be bitten by dogs.  It wasn't me who tried to belittle the fight of the Boer people and to intimidate those activists.  I thank you.