Amnesty Hearings — Pretoria — UNKNOWN

MR BOTHA: In the last paragraph of your affidavit you say: "I can't believe that I could have been so shortsighted."

JAMES WHEELER: That's correct.

MR BOTHA: I put it to you, that you were so shortsighted because the alcohol had actually made you that way and not politics.

JAMES WHEELER: No, that's not the case, we believed what the right wingers were proclaiming and we stood by our people and we were prepared to help them in this specific time.

MR BOTHA: Did you buy this 12 bore shotgun for the purpose of shooting a black man with it or was it the purpose to protect yourself?

JAMES WHEELER: That is correct.

CHAIRPERSON: To protect yourself or?

MR BOTHA: I've asked the question double, I apologise, he's got only one answer and I think that he must just clarify that.

JAMES WHEELER: That is correct.

MR BOTHA: Is it correct that you bought the firearm to protect yourself?

JAMES WHEELER: No.

MR BOTHA: I'm sorry I wasn't listening?

JAMES WHEELER: I also purchased the firearm to protect my family but that was not the exclusive reason why I bought it, there was more than one reason why I bought a firearm.

MR MOLOI: Just at that point, can you say what is the other purpose for which you acquired this firearm?

JAMES WHEELER: Because sometime before the elections it was said that we should arm ourselves and I also wanted to protect my family and that is why I bought the shotgun.

MR BOTHA: In your application you mention two political parties, you already mentioned that the AWB made certain calls and according to you, they said that you should go to war?  Is that also the case with the other party, that you apparently supported?

JAMES WHEELER: I will say that it wasn't so very applicable to that other party because there were also certain criticisms voiced against the election.

MR BOTHA: I see that you mention in your statement that you went to Mr Gert de Bruin's home that night?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes.

MR BOTHA: Was it to go and buy liquor?  Why did you go there?

JAMES WHEELER: No, we stopped there to find out whether he had heard anything more about the defiance and resistance campaign against the elections but he wasn't home.

MR BOTHA: And then you decided that you would simply continue on your own without the knowledge of this AWB officer?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: Sorry Mr Wheeler, at what time did you go to Mr de Bruin's home?

JAMES WHEELER: It was approximately half past seven to twenty to eight.

INTERPRETER: The speaker's microphone is not on.
ADV. BOSMAN: ...[inaudible]

JAMES WHEELER: That is correct.
ADV. BOSMAN: Was that at a stage when you already had the firearms in the car?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes, that is correct.

MR BOTHA: I would like you to sketch for us a picture of the situation at Mr Pyper's home where you were together as friends.  You mentioned that there were friends present and from the record it appears that there was a Mr Eksteen and his wife?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes.

MR BOTHA: Also a Mr and Mrs Skikkerling?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes.

MR BOTHA: And even in front of them you continued with your political talk?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes, we did.

MR BOTHA: Later that evening the Skikkerlings left?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes.

MR BOTHA: Mr Eksteen remained behind?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes.

MR BOTHA: Mr Eksteen then said to you or said to Mrs Pyper that she should see to it that yourself and Mr Pyper would not leave that night because he could sense that he was trouble looming?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes that's true, I think that's what he saw.

MR BOTHA: Later that night he left but he returned to just come and check to see that everything was okay?

JAMES WHEELER: I'm not aware of that.

MR BOTHA: I will leave that there.  You were working on your Audi car?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes.

MR BOTHA: And this vehicle was at Mr Pyper's home?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes.

MR BOTHA: It also appears from the record that some of the tools were still attached to the engine which indicates that you just decided at some point that you'd had enough and you left all the tools and the rags there?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes, we didn't have the necessary parts to continue with our fixing of the car.

MR BOTHA: You then took the car and you left to go and fetch the faster Sierra and the firearms?

JAMES WHEELER: Correct.

MR BOTHA: You know, this is simply another indication to me that this was an act flowing from your consumption of liquor.  The fact that you were so negligent that you simply left the engines and the tools and the rags there?

JAMES WHEELER: I put it to you like this that Mr Pyper and I didn't live very far apart and it wasn't necessary to remove these things.  Our homes were about 20 paces from each other.

MR BOTHA: So you drove with the engine and the keys and the cloths round the block to your home?

JAMES WHEELER: That is correct.

MR BOTHA: I put it to you that if you had committed this act out of political conviction then you would not at all have gone about it in such an unplanned fashion.  The unplanned modus operandi which you used indicates that it was alcohol instead of politics.

JAMES WHEELER: I put it to you that any person probably uses alcohol on a day off but that it played no role in our decisions.  We knew exactly what we were doing.

MR BOTHA: This is nothing other than a political assassination and if you had planned it in front of friends, people who would have tried to dissuade you from carrying it out, does that sound to you like someone who has a political objective or rather someone who is speaking in a drunken or out of a drunken sense.

JAMES WHEELER: It is so that Mr Eksteen probably wanted to prevent it but it came to my realisation that we had to make our contribution to this rightist resistance, to the takeover of our country.

MR BOTHA: Mrs Pyper also tried to dissuade you at one point, you swore at her?

JAMES WHEELER: I'm not aware of that.

MR BOTHA: According to the Supreme Court...[intervention]

CHAIRPERSON: Sorry, what aren't you aware of?  The fact that she tried to stop you or the fact that you swore at her?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes, that's right, no the fact that I swore at her.

MR BOTHA: It's not all that important but at a point she attempted to call the police?

JAMES WHEELER: That is correct.

MR BOTHA: And you knew that she was going to telephone the police?

JAMES WHEELER: That is correct.

MR BOTHA: At one point she also hid your motor vehicle keys so that you couldn't drive with this mission?

JAMES WHEELER: That's correct.

MR BOTHA: And if you wanted to execute this assassination, why proceed with it if it would be clear to you that she would phone the police and she did in fact contact the police - why did you continue with it?

JAMES WHEELER: It was, as they said, the quest for our fatherland and our Boerevolk and this quest inspired me to such an extent that I continued with this and that I believed firmly and was convinced that there were others who were also assisting in this freedom war which of course later would appear to be incorrect.

MR BOTHA: I put it to you that you were inspired by the brandy and I have no further questions.
NO FURTHER QUESTIONS BY MR BOTHA

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you Mr Botha.  Mr de Koning?

MR DE KONING: Thank you Chairperson.  If you would allow me, I'm going to ask a number of questions just for about five
minutes in order to clear a few aspects.
EXAMINATION BY MR DE KONING

MR DE KONING: Mr Wheeler, please correct me if I'm wrong, but my recollection is that the election of 1994 was scheduled in order to take place over two days.  Is that correct?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes.

MR DE KONING: Do I also understand it then in terms of your testimony that you and the second applicant, Mr Pyper, on the 27th April, attended or were at Mr de Bruin's house twice.  Once in the morning and once in the evening, shortly before the shooting?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes that's correct.