Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 1997-11-17

MR BOOYENS: Now, the group was put together in that, you mention that in paragraph 25, and this group consisted of about 20 policemen, people with counter-insurgence training?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct and I approached people who had fought in the Rhodesian Bush War and, perhaps, also in Namibia and who had been in the Task Force there.  I did not go there with a group of administrative staff, I used people who had experience of thinking on their feet and people who would know how to deal with the situation on the ground.

MR BOOYENS: Briefly, as far as the planning of the operation is concerned, paragraph 26, here we talk about stoppers.  That is actually a type of surrounding protection?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Yes, some of these people were normally placed in the bushes as surrounding protection, because it was close to the N1 highway and it could have been dangerous if some of them actually ran in the direction of the highway.  Jimmy originally told us that the people would all be in the bus, he would be the driver and he would control everything.  So, we simply organised certain cutoff points to stop these people from running away.

MR BOOYENS: You had considerable firepower on that morning?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Yes, the policemen were well armed.  I was, personally, was very well armed and the people in the bush had also all been issued with R1's and enough ammunition for their guns.

MR BOOYENS: And you were armed with a R1 and a Baretta Pistol.  Is that correct?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Yes.

MR BOOYENS: And these armed policemen formed the majority, you had the upperhand also as far as firepower was concerned?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Correct.

MR BOOYENS: In paragraph 27 you refer to the fact that the, this operation, in any case, as far as the planning was concerned, was comparable to what the police would have done if they had gotten wind of a bank robbery?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct.

MR BOOYENS: On page or paragraph 28 you deal with the situation on the ground and, perhaps, just for sake of completeness, there is a little bit more detail here.  That morning, very, very early, before it was light, this police task team moved in?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct.  We met at a particular place where the planning was done as to who would go where.  The members were then sent out to their various posts.  I cannot recall whether they, at that stage, were already aware of what the panel van or combi would look like in which the liberation fighters were to travel.  Each person was given a certain spot, a certain position to take up.  Some went into the bush and the group who were opposite, who sat opposite the bridge and had to give us the message as soon as they saw the vehicle, everybody was in place and we also envisaged or thought that we would hire a big truck to just block the road, just in front of the van so that there would be a situation where the panel van would actually then collide with the truck, but we abandoned that, because the risks were too great.  The driver of the truck would have been very exposed and he could possibly have been killed.

MR BOOYENS: Now, were the policemen or the police bus, the normal people who would have been in the bus, were they replaced by heavily armed policemen?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Correct and the bus drove the normal route as it was planned and it crossed the bridge.  We waited for a couple of minutes, we thought nothing was going to happen.

MR BOOYENS: You were in radio contact and you received the information that the bus had crossed the actual intersection and nothing had happened?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Yes, it went into the direction of Guguletu, a vehicle moved in behind it and nothing happened.

MR BOOYENS: Let us just stop there and look at the situation at the, on the ground before the bus comes through the intersection.  If you look at the plan - Mr Chairman, I presume this will be EXHIBIT A, because I do not think it has been handed yet.

CHAIRPERSON: No.

MR BOOYENS: I understand that an inspection in-loco is being planned, but could you please just tell us your initial position?  You say you were a passenger in a vehicle driven by Grobbelaar and where Charles Brazelle was also present.  The initial position which you took up, Mr Bellingan, when you were still in the position where you were supposed to cut-off these people, would that have been further back on the right-hand side of this plan?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: It would have been the eastern side, further back behind the letter "A".

MR BOOYENS: Round a curve in the road there was a little side road, that is where you were waiting in a car?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct.

MR BOOYENS: So, that was you, Grobbelaar and Brazelle?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Correct.

MR BOOYENS: And these other police vehicles were spread out and the policemen all spread out in this area marked "bushes", surrounding the crossing, the intersection there were people in camouflage uniform?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Correct.

MR BOOYENS: And there were also other vehicles stationed in other turnoffs or other roads?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct.

MR BOOYENS: You have already said that the bus crossed the intersection, nothing happened, you waited a bit longer and nothing happened.  What then happened with the vehicle in which you were?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: We also withdrew into one of the side streets and I think when we crossed NY1, went into the direction of Guguletu Police Station, we received a message on the radio, I do not know who it was, and they said they are here, come back, and later I heard that Constable Mbelo, applicant number two, had identified some of them there, had pointed them out to the people in the vehicle with him.  We then turned round.  In other words, Grobbelaar was the driver, Captain Brazelle was left, the left front passenger and I was sitting in the back of the car.  We then moved back into a northern direction, NY1, and turned right into an easterly direction in NY111.

MR BOOYENS: Please go a little bit slower.  Just to make it very clear, there are no, so it was not actually a northerly direction.  So, let us just refer to the top side of the plan, towards the N2, that is towards the top end of this plan?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct.

MR BOOYENS: So, from the side street you drove around off the map, in fact, and moved up in NY1 and turned right in NY111?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct.

MR BOOYENS: In other words, you drove in the direction of where the vehicle marked "A" is standing?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Correct.

MR BOOYENS: Did you see any people who looked suspicious there in the crossing?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: There were people in the crossing, they wore long coats and some instinct just warned me that this did not look good and we drove down NY111.

MR BOOYENS: When you were about 80 to 100 metres down NY111 you saw Mr Maluleka.

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: I saw Maluleka on the left-hand side, the one askari, and I asked Grobbelaar just to stop there.  I asked him what was going on and he said in English, Sergeant, watch out, they are in the area and I tried to keep some of the weapons and they are lying behind a bush.  We made a U-turn after I got back into the vehicle.  I cannot recall whether Brazelle was inside or outside the vehicle, but I told him, Charles, get out.

MR BOOYENS: So, you made a U-turn and you returned in the direction of the crossing?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Yes.

MR BOOYENS: When you approached the crossing what did you, Mr Bellingan, see?  You saw somebody looked suspect and you stopped.

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: There were Black men in the road in front of us, they looked suspicious, we stopped on the left-hand side of the road.

MR BOOYENS: Now, tell us what you can recall from that point onwards, after you stopped on the left-hand side?