Amnesty Hearings — Durban — UNKNOWN

MR WILKINSON: The third applicant, Mr Eugene Marais.

EUGENE MARAIS: (sworn states)

MR WILKINSON: Thank you Mr Chairman.
	Mr Marais on the 9th of October 1990 you committed an offence which led to a violation of human rights.  A few days later you were arrested.  Who arrested you?

EUGENE MARAIS: By the security police.

MR WILKINSON: Was there a specific branch involved?

EUGENE MARAIS: The people who arrested us are known as the special rights investigation unit as we understood it.  That was a branch of the murder and robbery unit which investigated political matters.

MR WILKINSON: Now in terms of what legislation were you arrested?

EUGENE MARAIS: The day after we were arrested we were informed by the security police that we were being held under Section 29 and also Section 29 of the Internal Security Act for a period of about 96 days.

MR WILKINSON: Did you - you immediately pleaded guilty?

EUGENE MARAIS: That is correct.

MR WILKINSON: On what charges did you plead guilty?

EUGENE MARAIS: There were seven charges of murder, 27 attempted murder and the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.

MR WILKINSON: You received clemency from the State President?

EUGENE MARAIS: That is correct.

MR WILKINSON: And you also applied previously for indemnity in terms previous legislation's?

EUGENE MARAIS: That is correct.

MR WILKINSON: Why were these not successful?

EUGENE MARAIS: The crimes which we were charged with took place on the 9th of October 1990.  During November of 1990, during negotiations between the ANC and the then National Party Government, The Pretoria and  Groote Schuur Minutes were issued and it was decided that amnesty would be granted for crimes which had taken place before the 8th of October 1990.

MR WILKINSON: So today you are before this Committee to apply for amnesty, not only for the murder charges but for the other charges?

EUGENE MARAIS: That is correct.

MR WILKINSON: Thank you.   Your history, your links with right-wing politics?

EUGENE MARAIS: These are part of the application.

MR WILKINSON: In your own words, step by step, please tell us step by step what happened on the 9th of October which led to this incident.

EUGENE MARAIS: Mr Chairman, I really only began to become interested in  politics in 1980 while  I was at university in Bloemfontein.  That year there was a general election, and we as students were recruited to help with this election.  Former Minister Kobie Coetzee stood there for the National Party and I served in his team to work on voting day.  In fact he won that election and that was a great pleasure for all of us.
After that I went to the defence force for my national service.  In 1983 there was a referendum.  We were in the defence force and we had a very restricted knowledge of what was going on outside.  On a particular morning we were told here's a referendum, you're are in the defence force, you vote for the Government so you must say "Yes".
And so then I did vote yes without really knowing what was going on.  After the completion of my national service, I became increasingly involved in politics and particularly right-wing politics.  It became very clear to me that what the National Party had promised before the referendum of '83 had not been complied with or achieved.  On the contrary, certain things that they said, they had gone on to do precisely the opposite.  This upset me greatly and I listed increasingly to and became increasingly involved in the Conservative Party and in conservative politics.
I joined them, and in the next election I worked for them.  I canvassed for them and went from house to house and I also acted as an electoral agent on various occasions.  In about 1987 I was approached by a friend who invited me to an AWB meeting.  I attended it and I found it most interesting.
What was said there was very interesting, and it was precisely reflected my feelings and I became convinced that I should join the AWB and I did so.  I also progressed in the AWB.  At Kempton Park I even became the leader of the so-called Burgerraad.  In 1990 I moved from Witwatersrand to Richards Bay where I began my own business.
I became acquainted with a person, and from our conversation it became clear that he was a member of the AWB and that is how he introduced himself to me.  A little while later he introduced me to Mr Botha as the local leader/Kommandant of the AWB.

MR WILKINSON: Who was this person who introduced him?

EUGENE MARAIS: That was Mr van Wyk.  I discussed the situation with Mr Botha and because I had a business and I was dependent on business from the public and large business enterprises, I decided that I didn't want to act in public as a member of the AWB.  In other words I didn't want to be visible, but I would make myself available for anything which he had to do for me - had for me to do.
	We thought this was a good idea, because at that stage the AWB had been so infiltrated by the security police that I thought there were more security police than others in the AWB.  I attended an AWB meeting in Richards Bay, incognito because I was a photographer and I went there without a uniform and I took photos and I looked like any other person attending.  It gave me the opportunity to be there.  During September 1990, Mr Botha approached me - excuse me?

MR WILKINSON: What was Mr Botha's rank in the AWB?

EUGENE MARAIS: He was a Kommandant, also the local leader of the AWB in Richards Bay.

MR WILKINSON: Did he regularly visit your business?

EUGENE MARAIS: He visited me very regularly.  We discussed politics frequently when we had the opportunity.  Obviously I was running a business and sometimes clients were present and we either moved to the back of the shop or waited till the people had left, but politics was definitely on the agenda.

MR WILKINSON: When Mr Botha visited the shop, how did he greet you?

EUGENE MARAIS: If the situation justified it and it was possible and the public wasn't present, I would greet him in a military way and addressed him as Kommandant.

MR WILKINSON: So did you have any doubt about his leadership position in the AWB?

EUGENE MARAIS: During September 1990, Mr Botha approached me.  He told me about the Orde Boerevolk - more or less what it was about, what the objectives were, and he handed me a form - one which you've already seen.  I filled it in and signed it.  After that about two or three weeks passed and then it was the 9th of October.  I didn't listen to the news on the radio in the morning, but it was about half past eight when Mr Botha came to my shop.
He was very upset and he asked me if I had heard what had happened in Durban.  I said I hadn't, and he told me.  Immediately I switched on the radio, and for the rest of the day I listened to every news bulletin.

MR WILKINSON: May I interrupt you? Everybody who visited you in the shop that day, the ordinary people - that's what everybody was talking about that day in Richards Bay, it was about this attack in Durban?

EUGENE MARAIS: That's right it was big news.  Everybody was very upset and literally every person whom I met then and in the days afterwards was talking about it.  I just want to make it clear - I heard in the previous testimony, previous evidence to the "alleged" PAC members.  You must understand that on that day, we were reacting to news reports on the media.
The first report I listened to that morning referred to members of the PAC breaking into a shop, stole knives and summarily attacked Whites.  In other words it's not that we -  hadn't heard that it was possible, or hoped that it might be so - this is what we believed happened and that was how the news was relayed to us.  For the rest of the day I saw Mr Botha a couple of times.  He told me that I should come to his home that evening, and that is what I did.

MR WILKINSON: What did you take with you?

EUGENE MARAIS: I brought my rifle.

MR WILKINSON: What kind of rifle was it?