Amnesty Hearings — Welkom — 1998-11-16

CHAIRPERSON: I apologise for the late start in this matter but it was due to circumstances beyond our control.  I am informed we are now in a position to proceed.
CHAIRPERSON EXPLAINS TRANSLATION EQUIPMENT TO PUBLIC

CHAIRPERSON: Before we start I would just like to introduce the panel to you.  On my right is Doctor Tsotsi.  Doctor Tsotsi is an attorney, he comes from Port Elizabeth.  On my left is Mr Sibanyoni.  Mr Sibanyoni is also an attorney who comes from Pretoria and I am Selwyn Miller, I am a Judge from the High Court of the Eastern Cape, attached to the Transkei Division of the High Court there.
	The applications that we'll be dealing with today are those of Messrs Fokazi , Ndabene, Makhura, Mofokeng and Mokoena.  I would just like at this stage to ask the legal representatives please to place themselves on record.

MR MHLABA: Thank you, Chair, my name Booker Mhlaba.  I am acting on behalf of the five applicants.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr Mhlaba.  Mr Mapoma?

MR MAPOMA: Thank you, Chairperson.  My name is Zuko Mapoma, I'm the Evidence Leader for the Committee.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr Mapoma.  Mr Mhlaba?

MR MHLABA: Thank you, Chair.  I realising that the applicants have not been brought here I wanted to start by calling the third applicant being Steven Donald Makhura.

CHAIRPERSON: Are the applicants not here?

MR MHLABA: They are here.  I think Correctional Services are supposed to bring them down.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, I think that they must be present, it is afterall their applications that we are hearing.

MR MHLABA: Thank you, Chair, I beg leave to call the third applicant being, Steven Donald Makhura.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Mhlaba, we can see that there are four applicants here whereas according to the documentation there ought to be five, is it Mr Mokoena who is not present?

MR MHLABA: Indeed Chair, the other applicant has not been brought here from some reasons unknown to us.  In any event I wanted to indicate to the Chair that the application of Simon Mofokeng and the application of Tshokolo Joseph Mokoena, being the fourth and fifth applicants, I was considering withdrawing them for the reasons that they were not involved in this unlawful act which forms the subject matter of this application today.
	My instructions are that they were not in the company of the first, second and third applicant when this crime was committed and they were falsely implicated and subsequently convicted.  They are also serving prison terms in respect of the very offences but the gist of the matter is that they did not commit the offence.

CHAIRPERSON: You're appearing for all five, Mr Mhlaba, is that correct?

MR MHLABA: That's correct, Mr Chairman.

CHAIRPERSON: So do you propose that we proceed with the applications, well subject to what you've said about Mr Mofokeng, that we proceed with the hearing of the applications of, we'll call them just for convenience, the first, second and third applicants, Messrs Fokazi, Ndabene and Makhura?

MR MHLABA: That is correct, Mr Chairman.
CHAIRPERSON EXPLAINS TRANSLATION EQUIPMENT TO APPLICANT

CHAIRPERSON: What language will you be testifying in?

STEPHEN DONALD MAKHURA: English.

CHAIRPERSON: English?  Thank you.

STEPHEN DONALD MAKHURA: (sworn states)

MR MHLABA: Thank you, Mr Chairman.
	Mr Makhura, you are the applicant in this matter, you're applying for amnesty for a crime committed on the 2nd of April 1992 and this crime was committed while you were in the company of Mandla Wellington Fokazi, Thozamile Clement Ndabene, is that correct?

STEPHEN DONALD MAKHURA: That's correct, Sir.

MR MHLABA: Mr Makhura, are you able to briefly give this Committee your personal circumstances, where were you born?

STEPHEN DONALD MAKHURA: I was in Pietersburg in 1964, on the 5th month, the 24th.

MR MHLABA: And the application you're bringing, Mr Makhura, it's an amnesty for those offences already mentioned, and you are applying for amnesty on the basis that these offences were committed with a political motive.  I want you to explain to the Committee whether you belonged to a political organisation and how you joined the organisation and when.

STEPHEN DONALD MAKHURA: Thank you, Sir.
"I will briefly outline my political background.  I left this country sometime after 1986 to Botswana.  I stayed at a refugee camp called, Dukwe which was under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.  That is where I joined the African National Congress.
	After staying there for some few weeks I left for Zimbabwe where I stayed in a suburb near Harare, called Hatfield.  During that time I became interested in politics.  Together with other comrades we proceeded to Zambia in Chelston. In Chelston its where we made a choice to undergo military training in Angola.  
	We left for Angola together with more than nine comrades.  In Angola I trained Enikakulama(?) at a base called "Richard's Bhani Molokwani".  I stayed there until 1989.  As a result of Resolution 435 of the United Nations which compelled all the foreign forces to leave Angola, we left for Tanzania.
	Some of our cadres went to Uganda and some went to Tanzania.   From Tanzania at Eringa Place I again left to Tanga near the Indian Ocean where I further my military training.  
	I came back to Eringa where there was this influx of young comrades running away from political violence, that is black on black violence inside the country.  I was appointed a commander and a commissar at the same time to train those young comrades to come back inside the country to defend themselves and the people.
	I came to South Africa in 1992 on the 27th of February.  It must also be noted that during our stay in exile we used to discuss a lot about political violence taking place in the country, especially between the IFP and the ANC, and the young comrades whom we were training in Tanzania related to us the horrors of political violence inside the country.  
	We sometimes listened to the radio stations like BBC, Duchavel, VOA and other stations relating the fierce violence taking place inside the country.  Then on the 27th of February I returned to the country as a former exile.
	I stayed in Thokoza, that is where the violence was taking its toll.  I found the situation unbearable.  People were dying there.  As a cadre of Umkhonto weSizwe I had to act my role ..."
...(intervention)

CHAIRPERSON: Sorry, you say that that violence at that stage that was taking place in Thokoza was so-called black on black violence?