Amnesty Hearings — Boksburg — 1998-06-22

MR LANDMAN: What will they be doing, what will they do?  Will they march up and down the streets?

JAN B DE WET: Submissions would have been made to the government of the day and I believe if a bomb exploded, Terreblanche would have said to the government, if you do not listen to us, there will be another bomb, and there will be a bigger one and that is how I saw it at that stage.

MR LANDMAN: Is this something which you understood from Mr Terreblanche's statements that this is what he intended doing?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, with his speeches he made on stage, this is how I understood it.

MR LANDMAN: For how many years were you Mr Terreblanche's bodyguard?

JAN B DE WET: For the six months that I was in Ventersdorp I was personal bodyguard, and I accompanied him everywhere.
	In the Ystergarde you are both a bodyguard and instructor and when I was in his area, I would have been his bodyguard.  That is in the six months that I was in Ventersdorp.

MR LANDMAN: When did you first attend a meeting addressed by Mr Terreblanche, was it years ago?

JAN B DE WET: From the very first meeting I can remember was in the early 1980's, Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: Was he then talking about war?

JAN B DE WET: Yes Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: That was at the time of P.W. Botha?

JAN B DE WET: It was still in P.W. Botha's time, yes.

MR LANDMAN: And then when Frederick took over, he then also talked about war against Mr De Klerk?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: Mr Terreblanche just talks about war all the time, doesn't he?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: It is a lot of hot air, isn't it, this war that he keeps talking about?

JAN B DE WET: In his speeches people got whipped up.

MR LANDMAN: Mr De Wet, you are obviously an intelligent person, didn't you understand that this is a man who talks about war ten years ago and ten years on, he is still talking about this war that never takes place?  Isn't that so?

JAN B DE WET: That is so Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: You didn't believe him when he spoke about war, did you?

JAN B DE WET: I believed that there would be a revolution, I believed that there would be a war Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: The best that he ever did, the best attempt that he ever had at war was going to Bophuthatswana on the back of bakkies and shooting at people there, isn't that so?

JAN B DE WET: I cannot give comment on that Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: But you know about that incident?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, I carry knowledge of that.

MR LANDMAN: You know that he was eventually chased out there?

JAN B DE WET: I do not know the circumstances that well, I do not want to testify to that Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: I want to understand how you felt.  This Bophuthatswana business happened in about February 1994, is that correct?

JAN B DE WET: Can you repeat the question.

MR LANDMAN: The so-called invasion into Bophuthatswana happened in about February 1994?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: Weren't you working full-time for Mr Terreblanche at that stage?

JAN B DE WET: No Mr Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: What did you think of that invasion, did you think it was a success?

JAN B DE WET: Sir, what I saw in TV, I can't say it was a success.

MR LANDMAN: Did you after that, could you have faith in Mr Terreblanche and his organisation?

JAN B DE WET: Yes Mr Chairperson, because what happened in Bophuthatswana was not the AWB's goal or purpose, they had their own Volkstaat and Mr Mangope wanted to help them.

MR LANDMAN: Surely Mr De Wet, as an intelligent person, you could see that Mr Terreblanche was full of hot air and nothing more?  He never came to visit you at the game farm, did he?

JAN B DE WET: That is true, I also did not expect him to come and visit us because he had other tasks to do and other duties to do.
	The Generals were there.

MR LANDMAN: Do you know  of any other duties he performed in furtherance of this war, the revolution?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, Mr Chairperson.  At meetings he addressed the people.

MR LANDMAN: This is the same speeches he was giving when P.W. Botha was in power, isn't that so?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: Isn't it so Mr De Wet, that ...

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Landman, without wanting to stop you, last week we called Mr Fourie out of order in an attempt as I understood, to cut down lengthy cross-examination unnecessary.  I am not saying your cross-examination is unnecessary, but where are we getting to with this?

MR LANDMAN: Mr Chairman, if I can just move on to the next point.

CHAIRPERSON: I am making the point that each representative was going to deal with an incident and if he wasn't representing anybody who was interested in a particular incident, he would just go by.

MR LANDMAN: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: I don't know, maybe I misunderstood the whole plan.

MR LANDMAN: Mr Chairman, it became quite difficult to do it on that basis, but I am not going to be much longer with this witness.
	The thing is he said he associated himself with the Bree Street bomb, I am not quite sure whether that entitles him to amnesty or not, but that is an issue for the Committee at a later stage.
	I have just one last aspect.  Mr De Wet, do you know of an organisation or a philosophy called the Israeli Vision?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, Mr Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: Were you part of that?

JAN B DE WET: No Mr Chairperson.

MS VAN DER WALT: Mr Chairperson, with respect, you just made mention about cross-examination, but what has the Israeli Vision got to do with all the application?  Because in all the applications they say that they did it out of some religious stand point, if it was the Israeli Vision or any other church.

CHAIRPERSON: I am not saying that the question cannot be asked, it could have been a relevant question, I do not know.

MS VAN DER WALT: Then the relevance must be indicated.

CHAIRPERSON: He says no, so ...

MR LANDMAN: Mr Chairman, I take the point.  He said no, and I am not going to take it any further.  I have no further questions.

MR LANDMAN: .

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: Thank you Mr Chairperson.  I will get a word in.
	Mr De Wet, just a few aspects.  How far did you get in school?

JAN B DE WET: I beg your pardon?

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: How far did you get in school?

JAN B DE WET: I've got matric and I qualified myself in N6.

CHAIRPERSON: I am sorry, I did not hear.

JAN B DE WET: Mr Chairperson, I qualified matric and after school I qualified with an N6 certificate.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: Thank you.  You say that you were at the mine just before you took a package.  What type of work did you do at the mines?

JAN B DE WET: I was an electrician.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: Did you know anything about explosives?

JAN B DE WET: No Mr Chairperson.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: Did you deal with any explosives?

JAN B DE WET: No, at the mine where I worked I only saw some of the explosives around there.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: Did you know about the dangers of explosives?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, I did.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: Koper Myburgh, what rank did he have within the Ystergarde?

JAN B DE WET: In the Ystergarde, if I can remember correctly, he was a Lieutenant.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: So you had a higher rank than him?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, that is true.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: Was it Koper Myburgh who arrived at the game farm and specifically asked for you?

JAN B DE WET: No Mr Chairperson.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: If you will just give me a moment Mr Chairperson.  You see paragraph 17, page 77 you say specifically on the 23rd of April, Koper Myburgh arrived at the game farm and he asked me to go to his father's farm in Koesterfontein?

JAN B DE WET: That was after I was called into the meeting where they asked me if I wanted to join him in going to Koesterfontein.  Maybe I did not put it correctly.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: So it was not Koper Myburgh who requested you specifically?