Amnesty Hearings — Durban — UNKNOWN

MR BOTHA: When I refer to "we", when I heard of the attack, I immediately contacted Adriaan Smuts and Mr Eugene Marais and asked them whether they had heard about the attack. I must say that both Mr Adriaan Smuts and Mr Eugene Marais were members of my cell, the cell that I had established, a cell of the Orde Boerevolk. I could not immediately get hold of Mr Smuts, but I spoke to Mr Marais about it and he also felt that if this attack should just be allowed to take place and nothing be done about it without any counter-attack that we would not succeed in our objective of making people realise that this kind of attack would not be tolerated in future, or be allowed to happen with impunity.
I told Mr Marais to come to my home that evening, and at about six o'clock that evening I contacted Mr Smuts by telephone and I also ordered him to come to my home. We there decided  to travel to Durban by car and to launch a counter-attack, so that we could show the government and the PAC that the conduct by the PAC, the ANC and their communist allies and also the government's policy that this would not be tolerated without any conduct by the Orde Boerevolk. 
When we arrived in Durban, we drove in the vicinity of the bus ranks, but the area was very - quite quiet. The next day was the 10th of October, which would be a public holiday, Kruger Day, and perhaps that contributed to the fact that the streets of Durban were fairly quiet. We saw a minibus taxi driving past us, it was full of passengers, and we decided that we would attack this minibus. 
We followed the bus from the central area of Durban and the bus moved in - along the freeway in the direction of KwaMashu.   The bus turned off the freeway and entered a very densely populated area, and as a result of this, I aborted the attack. 
We then returned to the freeway and at the Evoko off-ramp we turned off there and turned back towards Durban. Because it was quite late at that stage, and it was very quiet, we considered perhaps returning to Richard's Bay.   We stopped at a garage and we bought some coldrinks and drank these coldrinks. Whilst we were busy doing that, a Putco bus full of people drove past from Durban in the direction of KwaMashu. 
	I decided that we would attack this bus and gave the instruction. We then followed the bus in our car, and near the Duff Road off-ramp, I was driving the car, I should say that, and Mr Adriaan Smuts sat in the back of the car on the left-hand side, and Mr Eugene Marais was sitting in the passenger seat.
We overtook the bus and I told my colleagues to fire in the direction of the bus. We used automatic attack rifles to fire at the bus as we passed the bus - as we overtook it.  Immediately after the attack we returned to Richards Bay. 
The following day, that is the 10th of October, the very next day, I contacted the news office of the SABC and told them that I was a member of the Orde Boerevolk and that the Orde Boerevolk accepted responsibility for the attack the previous night on the Putco bus. 
I don't know whether the person I spoke to took me seriously, but he was fooling around and asked me to furnish my name and address. I then put down the phone  and then contacted the news office of the Natal Mercury.  I spoke to somebody in the news office there.   I told them that I was a member of the Orde Boerevolk and that we accepted responsibility for the previous night's attack and I also furnished the reasons why we launched the attack. There was no report in any of the papers the next day regarding this incident and I realised that there was a state of emergency at the time in Natal and I  suspected that either the security police of the government or both had probably suppressed news of this kind.
I once again contacted the Natal Mercury offices, spoke to the same reporter and told him that I was aware of the fact that news of this kind would normally be suppressed by the government and I threatened that unless the news was published and unless they mentioned that the attack had been launched by the Orde Boerevolk and mentioned our reasons for doing so, unless this was published, I would launch a similar attack.
I later learned that at the time of the second call to the Natal Mercury , the security police were actually in the office and had spoken to the reporter during my phone call. 
	On the 17th of October 1990, I, Mr Smuts and Mr Marais were arrested by the police. We were detained in terms of Section 29 of the Internal Security Act whilst the case against us was being investigated. After that we appeared in court where we were charged with murder, attempted murder and illegal possession of fire-arms.

MS VAN DER WALT: Mr Justice Galgut was the presiding judge?

MR BOTHA: That's correct, Mr Chairman.

MS VAN DER WALT: And before sentencing what did the judge say?

MR BOTHA: He summarised the entire court proceedings and he said that he and the two assessors had to decide whether they were going to impose lengthy prison sentences or whether the death penalty would be introduced. He also said that, although he believed that we would not launch such an attack again, our political convictions were so deeply ingrained that they decided to impose the death penalty.

MS VAN DER WALT: Mr Botha, when you went for trial did you plead guilty?

MR BOTHA: That is correct, Mr Chairman.

MS VAN DER WALT: And you and Mr Adriaan Smuts were tried together? There was a separation of the trials as far as Mr Marais was concerned?

MR BOTHA: That is correct  Mr Chairman.

MS VAN DER WALT: In mitigation, you testified in mitigation?

MR BOTHA: Yes I did, Mr Chairman.

MS VAN DER WALT: And you also outlined the events for the court as you have done for us today?

MR BOTHA: I did, yes.

MS VAN DER WALT: So from the beginning you have never tried to conceal anything?

MR BOTHA: No I didn't.

MS VAN DER WALT: Listening to your evidence, it seems that you joined the Orde Boerevolk and then you established a cell in Richards Bay?

MR BOTHA: Yes.

MS VAN DER WALT: That cell - did they operate openly -or what was the situation?

MR BOTHA: No. The composition of the Orde Boerevolk was like this. When I took my oath, I was instructed to establish a cell. They told me they did not want to know who I was recruiting as members of my cell. The reason for this is that what one doesn't know about one cannot tell about - it was an underground movement. They also told me that each cell was independent of the others.
The purpose of this was that if something should happen as happened in my case, in which my cell was destroyed, I had no information which could endanger other cells which had been established throughout the country because I didn't know of their existence. And when I recruited my members for my cell, Messrs. Smuts and Marais met each other for the first time on the evening - eve of the attack.

MS VAN DER WALT: It is quite clear from your evidence that you summoned the other two members of the cell and that you gave the instruction to shoot on this bus. Is this correct?

MR BOTHA: That is correct, Mr Chairman.

MS VAN DER WALT: You took the decision. Was it your personal decision, or did you do so on behalf of the organisation?

MR BOTHA: I did so on behalf of  and in the name of the Orde Boerevolk. At the time that I had been sworn in, and considering the expectation that there was that violence was on the increase, and that violence would increasingly become not Black on Black, but Black on White. At that time they told me that I should hit back firmly and effectively so as to make it clear that such actions would not be tolerated.
Where attacks of this sort took place and where Whites lost their lives as a result of organised political violence we had to hit back firmly, to such an extent that ten Blacks should die for every White who lost his life.