Amnesty Hearings — Potchefstroom — UNKNOWN

MR VAN STRAATEN: That is correct, Mr Chair.

BERNARD MAKGABO NGOEPE: You remember that?

MR VAN STRAATEN: Yes.

BERNARD MAKGABO NGOEPE: In your letter of the 9th of January 1993 to Captain Schoonbee, you said the same thing?

MR VAN STRAATEN: That is correct, Mr Chair.

UNKNOWN: In your evidence you have stated that the white people who were unemployed and could not get any position even though they had applied for employment in some of the positions, and in this case we are talking of a company which had been employing two night watchmen who were given a baton and a torch to facilitate their guarding of the premises...

MR VAN STRAATEN: That's correct.

UNKNOWN: Now, are you able to tell us of any white people who had probably approached this company in question with a view of placing themselves for employment as night watchmen?

MR VAN STRAATEN: I don't have particular names or witnesses who could confirm this.

UNKNOWN: Do you know if there were any whites who had applied at Terblanche Transport for a position of a night watchman?

MR VAN STRAATEN: That is correct, I knew of people, but as
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I say, I cannot give you names or refer you to any witnesses in this regard.

UNKNOWN: Now basically your purpose was that you had to do something that would unequivocally show the glaring incompetence of blacks in their positions of employment.   What I fail to understand is, what was so fundamental and unique about stealing a truck of a private concern that would have driven the message home about the incompetence of blacks in this case?

MR VAN STRAATEN: With the fact that we would have succeeded in removing the vehicle, as I say it was not the intention to kill them.

UNKNOWN: But would any of the people who had previously applied for positions, would they have been employed by the company, would you have succeeded in getting them employment?

MR VAN STRAATEN: I don't know.

CHAIRPERSON: Do you wish to re-examine your witness?

<UNKNOWN>: Mr Chair, I only have two remaining questions to address to the witness.   Mr Van Straaten, if this action which you planned and carried out in June 1989, if this had happened in the way in which you'd planned, that you would have tied up the night watchmen and removed the vehicle, would this cell or organisation then have had any particular plans for the future?

MR VAN STRAATEN: I would then have continued possibly to register it as a political movement and I might have received further instructions from Robbie Coetzee.

<UNKNOWN>: Secondly, after you were imprisoned, have you had any further contact with the AWB, or did they contact you to prove their support?
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MR VAN STRAATEN: /...
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MR VAN STRAATEN: On several occasions I wrote to them, amongst others, with the application for exemption which I made at the end of 1992, and on several occasions members visited us in prison, and I received Christmas cards from them.

<UNKNOWN>: A moment please, chair.   I have on such a Christmas wish in my possession, is this, if you look at it, one of these cards?   Mr Chair, I request permission to hand this to you.

MR VAN STRAATEN: This is correct, this is one of the Christmas cards which I received from them.

<UNKNOWN>: I have no further questions, Mr Chair.

CHAIRPERSON: Do you wish to hand this in as an exhibit?

<UNKNOWN>: Yes, chair.

CHAIRPERSON: This card will now be handed in as EXHIBIT A.
CHRISTMAS CARD HANDED IN AS EXHIBIT A

MOKOTEDI MPSHE: Mr Chair, it may be convenient to take the adjournment at this stage.

CHAIRPERSON: Ja, we'll adjourn for 15 minutes.
COMMITTEE ADJOURNS
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ON RESUMPTION

<UNKNOWN>: Mr Chair, I'm calling Willem van Straaten next, he is the eldest of the four brothers.

WILLEM VAN STRAATEN: (sworn states)

<UNKNOWN>: Could you tell the commission, briefly give us the story of your childhood years, where you grew up and the relationship between yourself and your father?   You are, I believe, the second eldest of the nine children, is that the case?

MR VAN STRAATEN: Yes.   I was born in Rustenburg, the 5th of the 3rd month of 1958.   We lived in Rustenburg until I
was about five or six years old, and then we moved to Vereeniging in the Vaal Triangle.   I grew up in a home that was extremely conservative, Christians, and from a very young age it was impressed on me that black people are subjects, that our cultures are not the same.    Through the course of time, as I grew up, this impression became all the stronger.   With regard to my school years this remained the same, through primary and secondary school years.   I finished standard eight in school.

<UNKNOWN>: Where did you go after school?   Where did you go after completing standard eight in school, where did you go after that?

MR VAN STRAATEN: I worked for a year and then I went to the army for a year.

<UNKNOWN>: Briefly where did you do your National Service?

MR VAN STRAATEN: In Pretoria, in Voortrekkerhoogte.  That was at 5 Military Works Unit.   5 Military Works Unit was like a construction unit in the army, people who built bridges and roads and that kind of thing.

<UNKNOWN>: Through the course of your basic military, did
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you get basic training?

MR VAN STRAATEN: Yes, we had arms training, weapons training, training for border duty and we learnt how to combat the enemy.

<UNKNOWN>: Who would be your enemy?

MR VAN STRAATEN: We were taught that black people were the enemy.   I spent the last six months of my military service in Bloemfontein, and there I guarded various black prisoners who worked on the army properties.

<UNKNOWN>: On what year did you clear out from army?

MR VAN STRAATEN: When I did military service it was only for 12 months.

<UNKNOWN>: So in what year did you clear out from military service?

MR VAN STRAATEN: It was the end of 1977.

<UNKNOWN>: Where did you go subsequently, what did you do after your military service?

MR VAN STRAATEN: I then returned to the firm where I was doing my apprenticeship as a panelbeater.   I served a five year apprenticeship at this firm, and then in 1980 I qualified as a panelbeater.

<UNKNOWN>: What did you do after this apprenticeship?

MR VAN STRAATEN: In 1981, because I had worked for the firm for such a long time, I went to look around at other firms, how they went about their business, just to gain a slightly different routine.   I worked for two other firms.   I was not happy at these two firms, and then I returned to the firm where I served my apprenticeship.   At this firm I remained for a number of years, and then I opened my own business.

<UNKNOWN>: In what year was this?
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MR VAN STRAATEN: /...
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MR VAN STRAATEN: This must have been, say, the beginning of 1982.   I then had my own business from that time until October 1986.

<UNKNOWN>: What then happened to your firm in '86?

MR VAN STRAATEN: How would I put this?   I mismanaged the business in a careless manner and went bankrupt.

<UNKNOWN>: What, at this time, would have been your political views, did you belong to any organisations?

MR VAN STRAATEN: I was a registered member of the Conservative Party and a supporter of the AWB, but not a member of the AWB, only a supporter.

<UNKNOWN>: Briefly, what were your political convictions during the years from your qualification, after your apprenticeship in 1983 to '89?

MR VAN STRAATEN: We continued to fight for our own volksreg, ethnic self-determination.   In my view, every person, because of our skin colour, people differed, their cultures differ, I should live in my own area and they should live in their own areas.

<UNKNOWN>: Would you say that the principles which you learned as a child provided the backdrop against your adult views, with regard to your political views?

MR VAN STRAATEN: I would say that we always used these people as slaves, the people to do the dirty work.