Amnesty Hearings — Boksburg — 1998-09-14

MS VAN DER WALT: At one stage evidence was also led that Constand Viljoen also had certain meetings with the AWB, do you carry any knowledge of this?

MR SMIT: Yes, that is correct.

MS VAN DER WALT: Were you present at these meetings?

MR SMIT: Only one at the end of 1992, beginning of 1993.

MS VAN DER WALT: What was his attitude with regards to the Volkstaat?

MR SMIT: He supported the idea like Mr Terreblanche and everybody said after that that the Volkstaat would be the only thing that would save us now.

MS VAN DER WALT: At this stage I would just like to show at this stage a video of events that occurred, and I would like to lead on that.

MS VAN DER WALT: I am not going to show the entire video, merely bits thereof.  The video will of course be available to other members of legal teams.
	Perhaps I should just show the video entirely, and then we can lead the evidence regarding that.

VIDEO FOOTAGE: We ask our Chaplain General to open this meeting for us.  I am going to read a section to you from the Bible, we came to the land which you have sent us to, the land of milk and honey, the land of fruit.  But the people of this country had died, and the cities have been destroyed.  And we saw the children of the Levites, those in the southern land and the amorites in the mountains, and those living by the sea and in Jordan.
	The people were silenced and Moses said, let us withdraw because we can overpower them and take over their land.   But someone else said we cannot withdraw the nation and so the rumours spread through the children of Israel which said the country which we withdrew from, and the people we saw there, are great.  We saw giants there.  Children of the giant.
	Verse 30, let us withdraw and take occupation later, because we can surely overcome them.  It is wonderful for me that the media can have such an effect on people.  That is what the anti-Christian powers want, they want to influence the beliefs of the masses if we look at the press, the radio and the television, which has infiltrated our homes, and the masses have simply taken them up.
	My fellow people, our security does not lay in what the world promises our people, because your and my security lies in the safety of God, of Jesus Christ who died on the cross for us.
	We will not be those "bywoners" in South Africa, we will not be influenced by communism.  We do not have to make any apologies for our presence as white Boer Christians here in this southern tip of Africa.
	God's hand of provision has brought us thus far.  God has given this country to our people by means of two covenants.  God's Word says today that the Lord your God, gave the country to you to earn as your parents and your parents before them, have told you.
	The question is, are we prepared for this or are we getting cold feet?  The people must remember the promise that we will occupy the land.  The moment of glory has come.  We have been chosen to go and investigate the country and to report back.   We have investigated the country, it is a great country with rich cities and its occupants are giants, its cities are fortified.  We look like dwarfs in comparison.
	We cannot occupy this land.  We do not have the proper weapons with which to arm our people.  It is very dangerous and we are walking into trouble with open eyes.  We will be destroyed.
	Let us turn around, we cannot risk it.  Then Joshua reported and said the country which we have investigated is a good and fruitful land, the milk and honey overflows.  Let us withdraw and then occupy, because we can certainly overwhelm it.  That which the Lord will give to us, is good.
	But as usual, the report of the majority was accepted, and what a sad story.  A tragic story of a nation who had thrown ... (tape ends) ... Piet Retief, that the country had been explored.
	I want to ask you this, how are you and I in our attitudes, by means of our God given rights to this land?  How do we feel about our call as Afrikaners in this country as those who were chosen to take up this legacy given by God our Father?
	How do we stand towards this country which was given to our people by God.   God's country is there, we must just occupy it, God gave us this country.  We cannot negotiate about this land.
	I wonder if our people realise the seriousness of this choice.  People who have the enormous responsibility of preserving God's property, that is our responsibility.  That is the responsibility of the Boer volk, to reserve, preserve and develop this country which was given to us by God.
	Our people have been misled, thousands have died.  That is our exact problem, everything is at our disposal.  The riches and the words of God which are full of promise, this country with its possibilities which God gave to the people by means of a vow, what are we doing with it?	
	Do we take it up for ourselves or are we ruining our chances?  That is what Israel did.  They created a land of opportunity, but they lost it because they did not have faith.  Because they did not have faith, because they stood away, stood back from the cities and the giants, because they would rather chose the little that they had.
	Because they stood in opposition to these powers, but thank the Lord, that Joshua and his partners, did not agree with this view.  They saw the Hand of God which would lead them into this country.  It is the Hand of God which made the promise that you will occupy this country.  You and I must remember that we got this country by means of the vow.
	This is the country which our predecessors, our descendants left for us.  We must not fight and argue.  There are many women and children in this country, which was dipped in the blood of war.
	I want to say to you this morning that God has given us this country already.  You and I must occupy and conserve that which God has given us, even though the world says whatever it says.  We must remain thankful that I should never have to report to Mandela or De Klerk.  You and I will answer to God and we must answer to the question what did you do to the property that I gave you?
	What did you go with this country that I entrusted to you?  Did you cultivate it, did you create a legacy out of it for your descendants?  We must tell God today that we will fight for that which is ours.
	Let us fight then.  Let us fight for this country which God has given us and let us fight on the same side.  Let us take each other's hands.  Let us walk the path of faith.  Let our story never be the same as that of Israel.

MS VAN DER WALT: That is Mr Manie Maritz, I will only show the last portion of his speech.

VIDEO FOOTAGE: I could not believe how many we are, we are enough.  The first thing we must remember is that we are white people, but the most important thing of all is that we believe in God who helped us out of Blood River.
	I say that I am a descendant, I am a white man, I am a descendant and I am proud to be a white man.  I have nothing against the black man, but he is not my neighbour, he is not a member of my volk, and that is why I say to my people that we should take up each other's hands and the hands of those who must fight with us.
	I want to say to you today that the revolution is at hand, let us begin it, thank you.