Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 1999-10-28

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Hendricks can you just - this limpet mine that you talk about, can you describe it for us?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: The limpet mine that we used was a mini limpet mine, the colour was brown.  Yes, it's some time ago that we used the mini limpet mine.

CHAIRPERSON: How would it be detonated?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: How would it be detonated?  First you have your ...(intervention)

CHAIRPERSON: No, I'm talking about that one.

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: The mini one?

CHAIRPERSON: That particular bomb.

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: I'll explain.  First you have your detonator and then you have your fuse and then you put in a plate, that would be your timing device and you slip in your plate and then you screw a detonator in, we usually for safety measures, we would pull the detonator to see that there's nothing faulty with the device, with the detonator and then we would screw in our fuse and then at the scene at the last minute then we place the detonator in the mini limpet mine, that is how we would go about it.

CHAIRPERSON: And how long was the, what size timing device, or what colour timing device was inserted?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: I think that we have used the timing device that it should have gone off quite late.  I think we used the thickest plate, I think that was the red one, but I'm not quite sure, but I think that device had to be detonated some early time the next morning.

MR PAPIER: In the early hours of the morning?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: Proceed.

MR PAPIER: Thank you Judge.  Now, what was your overall objective in executing this operation?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: As I have said, our objective was politically motivated, it was to further, to carry out the objectives of the ANC Military wing, MK, it was to spark off a rent boycott and we have seen the Rent Office as an oppressive structure in our area and we felt that it had to be destroyed and it was also to make our areas more ungovernable and to bring the struggle closer to the people because we had lost a lot of comrades in the Bontheuwel area that were detained and we wanted to stay there.

MR PAPIER: Yes.  Now you subsequently established that Mr Bartlett was injured.  Have you been to visit the family at all?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: Yes, we have been to visit the family.  We have spoken to them.

MR PAPIER: When was that?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: That was about two years ago.

MR PAPIER: 1997?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: 1997 yes.  We spoke to them and we told them that it was us that placed the limpet mine at the Rent Office and that we deeply regret that Mr Bartlett was injured in the incident and we have come to ask their forgiveness and they said that they are going to forgive us and we have made our peace with them.

MR PAPIER: Yes.  Do you know how Mr Bartlett got injured?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: From newspaper reports and what I've heard from on the radio.

MR PAPIER: Yes.  And it is on record that Mr Bartlett apparently picked the carton up and threw it away and  then it was detonated, is that your understanding of the position as well?

MR PAPIER: I think so, but I can't say for sure how he got injured, but I think that he must have tampered with the device or something.

MR PAPIER: Yes.  Thank you Judge, thank you Commissioners I have no further questions.
NO FURTHER QUESTIONS BY MR PAPIER

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, before I interrupted you, you had asked a question which required the applicant to stand and display something.  Am I correct?

MR PAPIER: No, Judge, I think he misunderstood me.  I was in the process of, it wasn't my request to get him to demonstrate something.  Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Hendricks, I want you to explain something.  Were you trained in the use of explosives?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: I was trained in the use of explosives.

CHAIRPERSON: To what extent?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: I was trained, the military engineering, that was how to activate a limpet mine, I was trained how to defuse it again.  I was trained in the inside mechanisms of the device, how it worked.  That we call military engineering.  I was trained in firearms.  I was trained politically.  I was trained.

CHAIRPERSON: In your training, did you come across a device which was planted, for example, in the sand and would only explode by detonation at the release of a plunger of some sort?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: No.

CHAIRPERSON: You don't know what you call that?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: That would be called something that you set, a mine that you set off by stepping on it.

CHAIRPERSON: You don't know or you can't remember?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: I can't remember.  But I wasn't trained in ...

CHAIRPERSON: Now who was the person that trained you?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: I was trained by the late Anton Frans and Melvin Bruintjies.

CHAIRPERSON: And in respect of the explosives that you explained today, you know what they taught you.

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: Yes.  I also ...

CHAIRPERSON: Carry on.

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: I also had a training kit, like I had a whole survival pack, a training kit, AK, a Makarov and hand grenades which were in my possession.

CHAIRPERSON: ...survival kit to mean.  Anything else?

MR PAPIER: I have no further questions.

MS PATEL: Thank you Honourable Chairperson, I'll be brief.

MS PATEL: You say that "We took the decision to identify the target".  Who specifically is we?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: We would be the unit, that's me, Colin and Vanessa and then we had to report it to Aneez Salie, who had to give the overall.

MS PATEL: And was this done prior to the operation?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: Yes.

MS PATEL: Can I just ask you if, you say the limpet mine was placed in a milk carton.  If somebody picked it up, would it detonate, or would it have to fall, or how?  Can you just give us more detail on what would cause it to go off?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: Like I said, if somebody tampered with it, it could go off.  If somebody dropped it, it could also go off.

MS PATEL: Alright.  Here Mr Bartlett says he picked the carton up and dropped it and as a result of that it exploded.  Thank you Honourable Chairperson.
NO FURTHER QUESTIONS BY MS PATEL

MR PAPIER: Thank you, Judge, I have no further questions.  No re-examination.
NO RE-EXAMINATION BY MR PAPIER

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Hendricks was that your first experience at setting up a device like that?

MR PAPIER: No.

CHAIRPERSON: How many times before have you done so?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: I can't remember, but I've been actively, from 87 I've been actively, I can't say how many operations I carried out before, but I've been actively, for the whole period I've been actively involved in carrying out operations.

CHAIRPERSON: I want to ask you something.  I don't know to what extent the answer will affect the decision.  When you planted, or when the three of you planted this device in a carton and left it there at the front door, surely you must have realised a child or someone could come pick it up?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: Your Honour, as I've said that we had made sure that nobody used that area.

CHAIRPERSON: And if, well it is hardly likely in terms of your reconnaissance, someone did come pick it up.  Do you follow what I'm saying?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: Let me lead on to where I'm getting to.  Why didn't you think it necessary then to put it somewhere you could do as much damage as you wanted to to the building without risking somebody picking it up?  Stick it somewhere else, not at the front door, where it's easily accessible to the public.  Did it not cross your mind?

SIDNEY HENDRICKS: We wanted to do maximum damage to the building.  If we had suspected that anybody could have gotten injured, I know what you're saying, that anybody could have gotten injured, we would have aborted the mission, if we had seen that that night there were too many people around in the area, then we would have aborted the mission.