Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 1999-10-28

FUMANIKILE BOOI: In Pango in Angola.  It's an ANC special camp in Angola.
I was further in the same year after 6 months specialising in Pango.  I was instructed to go and specialise in military engineering Yugoslavia military academic school, in Yugoslavia.  I went to Yugoslavia in 1986, I specialised in military intelligence and counter intelligence, camouflage tactics, firearms as a company commander.  I finished my training in 1987 and I returned to Angola.
		On my arrival in 1987 in Angola from Yugoslavia, I was deployed in Vienna, that is a transit camp in Angola, in Luanda.  I was deployed there as a political commissar on the kitchen platoon, the platoon which was responsible for the food and all those things, so I was residing as a political Commissar.  
		Later that year, when  a number of soldiers, 31 battalion, UNITA rebels, other sinister forces which were mobilised by the then apartheid regime were sent to attack our basis in Angola in the Northern part of Angola where some of our new arrivals who'd come for training, were being trained in the camp of Kabashe and also in the camp of Pango and we had our camp known as the Quatro, which was also situated in the northern part of Angola.  
		I was given instructions with other comrades to go and defend those camps in the northern part of Angola.  On arrival there I was deployed as an Engineer Commander and in the headquarters platoon and I fought in Angola in that battle for the whole year of 1987 to 1988.

CHAIRPERSON: By 1990 what rank had you attained?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: Unfortunately we in the MK, because we were guerrilla armed forces, we were not given our ranks until we were properly given in 1994 when we went for integration.

CHAIRPERSON: Okay.  Let me ask you this then.  In the operation in which Mr Els died, how did you fit into the structure then?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: I was a Commander of the unit.

MR PAPIER: Now if we could just contextualise that, Mr Booi, you say that on the 7th of July 1990 which is the date of the incident, you were back in the country and in particular in Cape Town?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: Yes, I was already back in the country.

MR PAPIER: Is it correct that you met with the late Chris Hani on that night?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: Yes, I met with Comrade Chris Hani.

MR PAPIER: What was the purpose of the meeting?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: Comrade Chris Hani arrived in Cape Town on the 6th of July.

MR PAPIER: Yes.

FUMANIKILE BOOI: He assembled all the underground units of MK to ...(indistinct) for a debriefing because of the pending talks of the ANC and the then government.

MR PAPIER: Yes, it was also the first time that he was going to be making a public address, delivering a public address in Cape Town, is that correct?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: Of course, it's correct, so the following day he was going to do a public address at NY47 in Guguletu.  So Comrade Chris asked, gave us instruction to meet with him.  After the meeting where we were later being given a mission to carry on.

MR PAPIER: What was the - I understand that you were appointed as the Commander of that unit.

FUMANIKILE BOOI: Yes, I was.

MR PAPIER: Who were the operatives in that unit?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: It was myself, it was Lincoln, pseudo name Lincoln, his real name Monde, it was Wiseman, pseudo name Wiseman, his real name Papama.  Mabuya, I don't know his real name, but his pseudo name is Mabuya.

MR PAPIER: And where are these operatives now?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: Unfortunately all three of them have passed away during this course.

MR PAPIER: Yes.  What was the purpose of the unit and what was its brief?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: The unit was briefed that there is information that there are askaris which have been instructed to assassinate the late Comrade Chris Hani before his address in Guguletu at NY49, while he's in Cape Town.  Now my mission was to command this unit to counteract those askaris, if possible to kill them when I met with them.

MR PAPIER: What did you do as a result of this briefing?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: I was immediately ordered that I have to join the three other unit members, who were already in their car, then I was ordered to join them in that particular car.

MR PAPIER: Yes.

FUMANIKILE BOOI: To be as a Commander of the unit.

MR PAPIER: You proceeded, or before we get there, were you armed?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: Yes, all of us were armed.  I was armed with Soviet made automatic pistol, five ammunition magazines, two hand grenades.  Lincoln was armed with an AK47, Wiseman was armed with a Makarov pistol, Soviet made and Mabuya was also armed with a Makarov pistol, Soviet made.

MR PAPIER: I understand that you then proceeded ...(intervention).

ADV SIGODI: Sorry, can you just state what you were armed with, I couldn't get all that.

FUMANIKILE BOOI: I myself, I was armed with an automatic tasking pistol, Soviet made, Lincoln was armed with an AK47, Soviet made, Mabuya was armed with a pistol, a Makarov pistol, Soviet made, Wiseman was also armed with a Makarov Soviet made pistol, 9 mm.

MR PAPIER: Mr Booi, I understand that you then proceeded to Khayelitsha, is that correct?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: Yes, the information we had is that these askaris were based in Graceland in Khayelitsha then I joined the unit and we proceeded to the area in Khayelitsha to investigate their presence there.

MR PAPIER: Yes.  I understand that you went there, they were not there and you received information that led you to Guguletu, is that correct?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: Yes.  We went there, we found the house closed, we investigated, we found some information that the policeman who was staying here had left for NY47 in Guguletu, NY47.  Then I commanded the unit to proceed immediately to NY47 because Chris was actually going to sleep around Guguletu that evening.

MR PAPIER: Yes.  Can you tell the Committee what happened on your way to NY47 in Guguletu?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: We decided to take the Lansdowne road from Khayelitsha to cross through Nyanga East, ...(indistinct) on our way to Guguletu.  When we got into Nyanga East, entering ...(indistinct), we just passed one street on our left-hand side, a second street, there was a riot police van parked next to the stadium.

MR PAPIER: At about what time was this, Mr Booi?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: It would have been probably past 12, past 1.

CHAIRPERSON: In the night?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: In the night.

MR PAPIER: The morning.  Yes?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: This van's lights were put off.

CHAIRPERSON: Tell me that stadium, would that be the same stadium where it was intended that Mr Hani would address the public?

FUMANIKILE BOOI: No, that was the stadium in Nyanga East, he was going to address in Guguletu.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes.

MR PAPIER: You proceeded past this riot police van and what happened thereafter?
MR BOOI
Yes, when we passed this van, it's lights were put off, we couldn't see the occupants of the van, but we could see the structure of the van itself.  Immediately when we passed we were about in the middle of the T junction, the van put on its headlights, brightening the car we were occupying with its headlights, but we continued, we proceeded and it immediately followed behind us.
		We found out that we were not the only cars which were on the street at that particular time, so we were not even sure whether they were following us or not but for precautionary measures, I ordered the driver of the car who was Wiseman, to turn left to see whether the car, the van is following us or not and then we turned left into the Turf Street, branching out of ...(indistinct)