Amnesty Hearings — Durban — 1999-10-18

DONALD SPENCER GOLD: I went back to the scene and saw the deceased lying on the ground, he'd been shot in the head.  I just saw a head wound.  We then wrapped the corpse up in a tarpaulin and I was totally numb at the time.  I remember seeing traces of blood on the ground and all I could think of was just covering it with sand to hide this thing.
	We loaded the corpse wrapped in the tarpaulin on the back of the Landrover and transported it to the edge of the dam.  I drove behind the Landrover.  I can remember being very worried at the time that the rear door of the Landrover would spring open and the corpse would fall out onto the road, but that didn't happen, thank goodness.  
	We drove to the edge of the dam and we found a, there was a large boat there, moored there, that's where we found Brig Visser and W/O Schoon waiting in the boat.  The corpse was transferred into the boat and I cannot remember, because time to me was total oblivion at that stage, but we did travel for a while on the lake until we got to an island.  It was quite some distance. 
	The explosives were also loaded onto the boat.  As I say, I can't recall who brought them, but it could possibly have been me.  Everybody was on the boat, the whole party was on the boat.  At the island we unloaded the corpse and took it into the middle of the island, more-or-less and the explosives were then packed on the body.
	Now in my training I'd been taught how to blow bridges, I'd been taught how to blow railway lines, I'd been taught how to do all kinds of things, but I'd never been taught how to destroy a corpse with explosives.  So what we did is we made quite a few flat charges of the explosive, which was a PE4 military explosive, white plastic explosive, and ran a detonating cord through it, commonly known as cortex.  
	We then took cover and with a controlled detonation, well of course it's a controlled detonation, I detonated the charges.  There was nothing left of the body, nothing at all.

MR WILLS: Now this is an area where Mr van Zyl seems to differ with you to a certain extent, that he indicates that there were possibly two explosions and that the pieces of the body were picked up and then a second explosion, or they were detonated or exploded to destroy them.  As I understand your evidence you are absolutely sure that there was just one explosion.

DONALD SPENCER GOLD: I realise the contention there, Mr Chairman, but I'm absolutely sure.  I had to make sure that this thing worked the first time and I was very careful that I had no misfires and the corpse was totally destroyed with the first, with one detonation.

CHAIRPERSON: You couldn't have made sure because you had no experience of what would be needed.

DONALD SPENCER GOLD: Well exactly, Sir, I just thought that if - I just actually used more explosive than I think was necessary, but I wanted to make sure.

MR LAX: Is it not possible that there was a second explosion but you've just blocked it out of your mind because of the trauma and the stress and everything else that went with it?

DONALD SPENCER GOLD: Mr Chairman, if I can just digress.  Since this incident I have studied extensively what happens to the human body during a fight(sic) or flight(sic) response, it's been part of my life, part of what I teach people to do, and there's definitely a period after such a shock where you have no comprehension of time, you have no comprehension of what you've done and it is possible, but no I doubt it.

MR WILLS: The fact of the matter is, Mr Gold, is that you admit like the other applicants that you were involved in the destruction of this body and that you certainly did.

DONALD SPENCER GOLD: There's no doubt about it, Mr Chairman.

MR WILLS: And it was you who detonated the charges and destroyed this body.

DONALD SPENCER GOLD: I detonated the charges, I destroyed that body.

MR WILLS: Can you tell us what happened thereafter.

DONALD SPENCER GOLD: Well as is customary after any controlled detonation we did a, under my instruction we did a 360 degree check to see if there were any un-detonated explosives lying around and if there were any remains of the corpse, but we were satisfied that we had left no trace of our deed.  So we all went back to the boat and travelled back to shore where our vehicles were still parked.  I still to this day cannot remember the boat trip back to the shore, I was totally numbed by this experience.  I think we all were.
	We then got into our vehicles and left the scene.  I remember waiting with Brig Visser at a picnic site below the bridge where the main road crosses the Pongola river.  I can't remember exactly what we were waiting for, but I think Apt van Zyl just wanted to make sure that there were no bad reports about the explosion in the area and that everything had gone off well.  He then returned and he reported that all was clear and then we split up.  
	I can remember then the shot exploder I used for this job was not the conventional commercial shot exploder that I'd been issued with, I used a military shock exploder that was used for detonating Claymore directional mines and to me at that time it was a symbolic gesture, I handed over that shot exploder, I think it was to Mr Schoon, in a manner of saying never again and we all left the scene.  I remember it was getting quite late at that stage and I drove and stopped overnight at Qwambenambe Police Station, where I knew there were single quarters.  I can recall it being a very, very hot night and it was a very sleepless one for me, I can assure you.  
	Through that same process of innuendo I mentioned right at the beginning and ambiguities, I indicated there was no way that I would ever get involved in anything like that again and I was never asked again.

MR WILLS: And you've never been involved in anything like this again.

DONALD SPENCER GOLD: Never, Sir.

MR WILLS: Now Mr Gold, there's possibly members of the deceased's family here, do you have anything to say to them?