Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 2000-09-26

CHAIRPERSON: This document that's just been handed to us, Mr Kahanovitz, will be Exhibit L.

MS COLERIDGE: Chairperson, I just want to get these exhibits right.  We had an Exhibit L previously.  I'm just checking my ...(intervention)

CHAIRPERSON: Sorry then it's my fault, I was just working on the fact that the photographs were K.

MS COLERIDGE: Can we make those photographs M, Chairperson?

CHAIRPERSON: Sorry about that, if we can just revisit the photographs which we called Exhibit K this morning.  Is it Exhibit M?

MS COLERIDGE: M, that's correct.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Is it N for Nellie or M for Mother?

MS COLERIDGE: M for Mother.

CHAIRPERSON: Then this document will be N.

MS COLERIDGE: N, correct, Chairperson.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Might I proceed?  Thanks.
	Mr Basson ...(intervention)

MR LAX: Sorry, before you do.  We already have an M and that is the diary.  I thought so, I was just ... The diary was called M, that front page with sort of archaic man with his quill.  We called that M at the end of the last hearing, so we should proceed from there onwards, I'm afraid.

MS COLERIDGE: I'm afraid I've got all the exhibits, incorrect.  Sorry, Chairperson.

CHAIRPERSON: Alright.  The photographs will then be N for Nellie and this extract from the work of Mr Pauw will be Exhibit O.  Mr Kahanovitz?

MR KAHANOVITZ: I want to refer you to page 173 for a start.  You will see here that the author of the book relates certain information that was conveyed to him by Pieter Botes and the context in which this is being discussed concerns the attack on Albie Sachs in Mozambique on the 7th of April 1988, and what the long and the short of what Mr Botes has to say is, you'll see in the middle of the page 173, Botes said that
"The instruction to kill Sachs had come from a senior member of the CCB and was signed by Joe Verster.  As Co-ordinator for Region 2 he was responsible for carrying out the operation.  There were South African and Mozambique operatives, both conscious and unconscious, in the three teams of six each that infiltrated Mozambique through the Namacha border post between Swaziland and Mozambique.  They used false passports and cars with false registration papers and number plates.  To maintain security, none of the teams knew each other or why they were doing the work.  Botes was in Swaziland to monitor the whole operation, using a phone box to communicate with his men in the field."
Then he details, that's Pauw, what the routine was that was used and how the plan was devised and he quotes Botes, who says the following:
"Sachs had been on our assassination list for a long time and we did extensive surveillance on him.  We knew exactly where he lived and worked, who he mixed with and what his movements were.  I knew that it would be easy to blow him up.  I chose a highly intelligent and very dangerous black member of the CCB to plant the bomb."
Maybe you can just read for yourself onto the following page up to the end of that paragraph.  You'll see Botes says that the man was paid R4 000 for blowing off Sachs' arm.  You with me?

WOUTER J BASSON: Yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: You read that.

WOUTER J BASSON: I'm reading it.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Well what do you have to say about Botes' claim that the attack on Albie Sachs was a CCB operation authorised by Joe Verster?

WOUTER J BASSON: Chairperson, I do not know about this operation, I was not a member of it, and if Botes maintains that he did it, then it is most probably so, but I wasn't part of it and I don't know anything about the operation.

MR KAHANOVITZ: So you're not in the position to confirm what he has to say and you're not in the position to contradict what he has to say?

WOUTER J BASSON: That is correct.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Then if you go to page 183 of this document, if you could read from page 183 through to the point that I've marked at page 186, which deals with a plan that was formulated to assassinate an academic by the name of Robert Davies, in Maputo in July 1989.
	Mr Chairman, in the interests of progress, I don't ...(intervention)

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, I was just going to ask, perhaps if you could ask whether he knows anything about it, instead of us waiting for him to read the three pages now and he can read them later.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Do you know anything about this project?

WOUTER J BASSON: No, Chairperson.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Except you agree that you were involved in Region 2 activities in July 1989.

WOUTER J BASSON: Just to correct myself, Chairperson, as I've stated I was not aware of when Mr Botes arrived at the scene or on the scene, I did not work with him.  If I said that this was the period in time, I was mistaken.  Ten to one it was the last six months of 1987.  However, during this period I was involved with Region 2.

CHAIRPERSON: So Mr Basson, are you saying that you were at some stage the Co-ordinator of Region 2 and then when Botes came in you stopped?

WOUTER J BASSON: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: Was there no transition period or hand-over period where you had to work together, show him the ropes, as it were?

WOUTER J BASSON: Chairperson, only the handing over of directly aware staff and from there onwards he continued his own activities without notifying me, and it wasn't necessary to involve me any further with Region 2.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Maybe just to complete the picture for the Committee.  As I understand the situation, Mr Botes and Joe Verster had an argument which led to Mr Botes being dismissed, could you just sketch the context for the Committee.

WOUTER J BASSON: Chairperson, I was not present during the physical argument, what I did hear was that there was a disagreement between Mr Verster and Mr Botes.  What the precise scope was, I don't really know.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Maybe I can help you, Mr Botes says Mr Verster accused him of misappropriating funds.

WOUTER J BASSON: Very well, then it is most probably like that.

MR KAHANOVITZ: But you don't have personal knowledge?

WOUTER J BASSON: No, I did not observe or hear the argument as such.  Mr Botes became upset and he got into his car and drove away and from there on, by means of the Chairperson who was Gen Joubert at that stage, they tried to mediate the matter.  Or Gen Webb then.

MR KAHANOVITZ: But the consequence for you was that because Mr Botes had been fired or had resigned or whatever the situation was, you were brought in to take over his activities.

WOUTER J BASSON: Yes, I think it was the most logical step, because I knew the people and because they would be basically leaderless I was called in to co-ordinate the region once again.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Did that also include taking over activities that Mr Botes was involved in, in Namibia?

WOUTER J BASSON: No, Chairperson.  I did not take over any of his existing projects.  It was also not a long period during which I was involved with Region 2, but the objective was to re-examine what was going on in the region, to rationalise and basically to start looking at what we could do from the beginning again because at that stage some of the agents or some of the indirect persons who had been used by Mr Botes had been influenced to such an extent that they could no longer be applied for CCB activities.

CHAIRPERSON: Sorry, Mr Kahanovitz.  If you could just explain to me, I might have forgotten, Region 2 was Mozambique and Swaziland, now you're talking about projects of Mr Botes in Namibia.  Is that at the same time that he was in Region 2?

MR KAHANOVITZ: That is so.  This is in the context of - you will recall there was an early evidence about, at the stage of the Namibian elections a lot of regions were ...(intervention)

CHAIRPERSON: That's right, I remember now, thank you.