Amnesty Hearings — Boksburg — 1998-06-24

PETRUS PAULUS STEYN: I was a passenger, I was sitting on the left at the back of the car and I had the pipe bomb between my legs. At that stage Jaco told me that he was going to drive slowly past this place and I must light this thing and I must throw it out of the car. If I remember correctly there was a telephone pole or a lamp post, he just drove past that and he told me to throw it. The car was kind of idling it was almost standing still so I ignited this thing and I was very stressed and nervous because I have never had to deal with anything like this so I threw it out onto the side-walk and because it was a pipe and it was round it was rolling and it rolled towards the building and then I closed my door and Jaco sped away from there.
	Before this happened we put it clearly to Jaco that, we asked him is he aware of this vicinity does he know this street but he assured us he basically grew up in Pretoria.  So he knew Pretoria well and the way he drove towards the taxi ranks you could see that he knew the place well.  When he sped away from there it was as if it wasn't Jaco any longer, he was shocked.  Before the first street we turned off, it was a one-way street, he drove left into a one-way street and a police truck came from the front and we moved closer to this police van.  I do not know if the police van was in a rush because he did not pay attention to us.  Afterwards he turned left into a right street and it was a double lane as I can remember, then he went left and right and up and down. I do not know where he went from there.

MR PRINSLOO: Why did he act this way?

PETRUS PAULUS STEYN: Just after the police van passed us we heard the bang, that is when the pipe bomb exploded.  I do not know if it was the bang or the loud noise or whether he was shocked, I do not know why that was his reaction but he was in a state.   He drove over stop streets and he didn't stop at places where he was supposed to stop. He disobeyed all the traffic rules. I cannot really say what why he acted this way but if I must express my own opinion I think it was a shock to him.  I do not think, according to me he did not know anything about bombs or pipe bombs or anything of that nature.

MR PRINSLOO: Were you worried about being arrested?

PETRUS PAULUS STEYN: Yes we all were worried about this, that is why we postponed this mission all the time and we also said amongst ourselves that the people at the game farm must realise that you would rather be scared than dead. You can't detonate the thing here and the police would see you and will arrest you and you would probably get shot as well.

MR PRINSLOO: He acted in this manner the way you described it and from there where did you go then?

PETRUS PAULUS STEYN: After that Jaco went to some place, I do not know where.  He stopped there - no, I am sorry, I would just like to correct myself, before we went on this mission we went to a place where we put the number plates on or changed the number plates.  I almost confused myself there, I wanted to say we took them off there but we drove with those number plates to that holiday resort.

MR PRINSLOO: Why did you go there?

PETRUS PAULUS STEYN: Jaco apparently said, and he said it in our presence as well, that he would meet the people there and said that he would go around there and that is also what happened.  He then drove there and while we were driving there Jaco was still very shocked according to what we observed.  He also told us that we will not get very far, we will not be able to go back to the game farm because he knows this Hartebeespoort Dam road and there are usually road-blocks on this road and that they will arrest us if some one may have noticed a vehicle. He was worried about the police van that drove past us in that one-way street.  That he possibly, because I assumed he was not very far from where the bomb exploded and they could have thought that this is the vehicle or they could have thought that this is the vehicle, and he could have identified a blue Toyota although he did not have the right number plates.  A point that Jaco then made was that we have to stay there that evening before we drive away because of the road-blocks and everything calms down a bit and then whenever we see that things are quietening down we can then go back to the game farm.

MR PRINSLOO: Did you then go to this specific place, this resort?

PETRUS PAULUS STEYN: Yes I was at this resort.  When we arrived there we changed the number plates again, we put on the original ones and in the meantime Jaco went in. The same people were there, the specific two ladies and amongst others, as in his evidence, there were two older men. They were blind yes. They could play very good guitar. They were old Rhodesians, they came from there and they sang songs and they played on the guitars and we sang. We did not sing with them no, we listened to them and in the meantime they told us that they had certain discussions and they said that they are from Rhodesia, etc.
	Jaco then went into one of the rooms there. There wasn't a door on this room there was just a curtain. They then went into this room and most of the time we heard them talking. I assumed that what we also told them was that Jaco is not feeling very well because we did not want them to know at that stage that we planted the bomb or threw the bomb. 
	Afterwards I am not sure if they wanted to see if they could help Jaco or maybe give him some medication or something, I do not know what the situation was. We waited for Jaco and in the meantime we sat in a kitchen area.  The older lady came there at one stage and asked us if we wanted coffee and we said yes it would be nice. She made us coffee as well as for the two older men who played the guitar.  That was more or less the story.
	What we also observed or saw was that there were a lot of other people who we also learnt while we had certain discussions with the two old men, that there were also other people there who were members of the AWB and who gathered there together. I do not know if Jaco was aware of that but according to these two old men they conveyed that to us.

MR PRINSLOO: From there did you then leave the three of you?

PETRUS PAULUS STEYN: No I am not quite sure.  When we left there I was quite tired because the previous evening before we left the game farm I was doing guard duty so I did not have much sleep because when I came back from guard duty we then left there.  I tried to sleep in the car but it was very difficult with this bomb that we were carrying with us.

MR PRINSLOO: Can you remember that during your hearing there was a woman who gave evidence against Mr Nel concerning what happened at that resort?

PETRUS PAULUS STEYN: Yes I am aware of that but I cannot exactly remember what she said.

MR PRINSLOO: You then left from the resort?

PETRUS PAULUS STEYN: Yes that is true.

MR PRINSLOO: And what time was that, can you say?

PETRUS PAULUS STEYN: I am not quite sure but if I must say it was around 2 o' clock that morning more or less, I am not quite sure.

MR PRINSLOO: Mr Steyn, the history has been told before this Committee how do you feel about the people who were killed and injured as well as the people in Western area, the damages that was done in Randfontein, how do you feel about these actions?

PETRUS PAULUS STEYN: My personal feeling is that I am very sorry about what happened. I do not know if one can really tell the next-of-kin of those victims, to ask them properly or to tell them properly how sorry you are and convince them, if I can say it as follows, for such a cowardice display or act.  At this stage I will put it as such, at that stage I believed in what I was doing was the right thing and I did it for my volk and my fatherland and I believed in what I was doing it was the right thing.

MR PRINSLOO: At that stage did you act by yourself or did you act on behalf of the AWB?