Amnesty Hearings — Johannesburg — 1999-02-09

MR SHANE: Mr Chairman, before you are two affidavits which were put on your desk, it is affidavits of a certain Penwell Nkosi and an affidavit of Vicor Jeremiah Mngomezulu.  These affidavits are before you Mr Chairman, in response to the affidavit of Sotole Khanyile and others, which was placed before you yesterday.
	I think that deals with that matter of the opposition to, and Mr Chairman, I have one more affidavit which I have in front of me.  If I could hand them up, unfortunately they were written in my hand, I didn't get a chance to have them typed, Mr Chairman, but they have been attested to.
	It is also in regard to the same opposition to the amnesty application of Mngomezulu and Mbatha, relating to the death of Bekhi Khanyile.
	These affidavits have also been handed to the Attorney for the family of Bekhi Khanyile and to Mr Steenkamp.

MR SHANE: Mr Chairman, are we ready to proceed with the next applicant?  The next applicant is Molefe Michael Selepe.
	His application is on page 1118 to 124.   He doesn't have an ID and he doesn't know his number, he doesn't have his identity document, he doesn't have an ID number.

CHAIRPERSON: Didn't you tell him to bring it?

MR SHANE: Mr Chairman, he is in prison, he doesn't have it in prison either.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Selepe, what language would you choose to use?

ADV STEENKAMP: Mr Chairman, if I may be of any help, I would get the prison records, and because if there is previous convictions, there will be fingerprint records, I will make sure that you get that.

CHAIRPERSON: What language would you prefer to use?

MOLEFE MICHAEL SELEPE: I will use English.

CHAIRPERSON: Are you sure?

MR SHANE: May I just have a word with him Mr Chairman, on this?

MOLEFE MICHAEL SELEPE: Yes, I will use in English, if I don't understand properly, I will use the interpretation.

CHAIRPERSON: Of what, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho?

MOLEFE MICHAEL SELEPE: Sotho.

CHAIRPERSON: I suggest the language that you are most comfortable in, which one would that be?

MOLEFE MICHAEL SELEPE: Sotho, Southern Sotho.

CHAIRPERSON: Very well.

MOLEFE MICHAEL SELEPE: (sworn states)

CHAIRPERSON: Yes Mr Shane?

MR SHANE: Before we proceed with the actual acts for which you seek amnesty and before we deal with the affidavits that are before this Commission, can you please go through your political credentials, in other words, can you explain from the beginning of your life, when you became involved in politics, up until now?

MOLEFE MICHAEL SELEPE: Thank you.  Basically I was the member of COSAS during 1983 ...

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Selepe what language are you going to talk now, you cannot talk both languages.  Either it is interpreted into Southern Sotho or you stick to English.

MOLEFE MICHAEL SELEPE: I will rather use Sotho.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes.  I want to point out to you too, Mr Selepe, that you are now under oath, you are on your own.  Your Attorney will lead you, which he is entitled to do, and object to any matters that may prejudice you, but you can't seek his advice every time a question is asked.  Do you understand that?  To that extent, you are on your own now.  Please proceed.

MOLEFE MICHAEL SELEPE: I was a member of COSAS, which is a student wing.  I was also a member of ERAPO, East Rand Peoples' Organisation.  During those years, that is in 1985, COSAS was banned.
	As I was a member of the Executive Committee in COSAS, many members were detained.   I had to leave school and leave my area, the community where I lived.  Then I left school.  I went to hiding.  At that time, I was staying in Tokoza, but I was attending school at Letutula Secondary School.  I looked for employment.  In the township I was a member of Tokoza Youth Congress as from 1987, 1988. 
	I was compelled to look for employment as to support my family.  I found employment at Early Bird TV Services.  Whilst I was working there at Early Bird, I was detained by members of the Security Branch.  It was during the time of the state of emergency.
	After I was released, I was restricted.  I was confined to my house, so that I should not roam around in the township without notifying the police.  I was not supposed to be amongst people who were more than three, unless it was at church or members of my family.  
	Before I leave Tokoza township, if I go to my relatives or wherever I go, I've got to give them an address of where I will be going, and the telephone numbers of the place I was visiting.  They would verify before I leave.
	That happened for a month.  After that, I defied those restrictive orders.  I didn't go to the police station to sign weekly.  I defied those orders and moved freely.
	From 1988 up to 1989, it happened that whilst I was in Early Bird TV Services, members of the Security Branch went there to bribe my girlfriend so that she will lay a charge of rape.
	I was prosecuted for rape.  On the final day in court, she exposed the members of the Security Branch that they bribed her, and that she was lying, that she must lay a charge, therefore I was acquitted by Magistrate Van Wyk in Germiston.
	When I returned to Early Bird where I was working, my employer told me that because I was arrested for rape, I am working with female employees, therefore they terminated my services.  I worked in the township with Tokoza Youth Congress.  I was a member of Tokoza Civic Association at that time.
	I was taken by Bishop of the Anglican Church, who is Bishop Mokoene.  Because I did not have a steady place to stay and was not able to stay with my family, he got a scholarship from Britain so that I should go and further my studies there.
	I stayed with him in Benoni, I was working as a driver and as a field worker in the church until he died.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Selepe, were you a member of the Self Defence Unit in Tokoza?

MOLEFE MICHAEL SELEPE: Yes, I became a member of the SDU.

CHAIRPERSON: Now tell us when and how that happened.

MOLEFE MICHAEL SELEPE: I started to be a member of the Self Defence Unit when the war started in 1990 in Tokoza.   After the Bishop died, I returned to the township.

MR SIBANYONI: We are interested to hear about your SDU activities, not the lengthy historical background of your political background.