Human Rights Violation Hearings — Cape Town — 1997-06-11

TREVOR GRIFFITHS VERMEULEN: Thank you very much.  I will start with page 1 and we'll go through it.
"I, the undersigned, Trevor Griffiths Vermeulen, declares as follows
 On the 13th of May 1997 I was, by virtue of Section 29 of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, Act 34 of 1995, I was notified in writing that I would be called upon to answer questions on the 4th of May 1997 relating to events which led to the violence in KTC and the surrounding areas, namely Crossroads, Nyanga Bush, Nyanga Extension and Portland Cement on the 9th of June 1986. 
2. To further elucidate this notification I was also notified by letter dated 14 May 1997 that the following specific information would be required from me.
 2.1 My role in the Western Province JMC, Joint Management System as Secretary of the body vis a vis community organisations such as the Crossroads Committee or the Committee of the Fathers during the period January 1985 to October 1987.
 2.2 The type and level of information which I dealt with in my abovementioned capacity in this abovementioned period;
 2.3 Any other information relating to the events referred to above.
 3. During the morning of the 3rd of June 1997  my legal representatives were handed a number of documents which apparently formed the basis of the Committee's investigation insofar as it relates to me.  Further documents were also given to my attorneys in the afternoon of the 3rd of June 1997.
 4. The aspects mentioned in paragraph 2 above, are answered below, taking into account the documents to which I have already referred to, and in relation to the available time to which to be able to do so.
 5. To enable you to understand my position in the JMC, it is necessary to provide a brief explanation of the structure in which I performed my tasks.
 6. The Western Province Joint Management System, hereafter called the Western Province JMC was part of a Joint Management System which was operated during that particular time from the national level right down to the ground level.  The Western Province JMC obviously served the then Western Province.
 7. As infrastructure of this Western Province JMC there was the Western Province Sub JMC, or Joint Management System, hereafter called the S-JMC which served the Peninsular's four police districts, namely Cape Town, Wynberg, Bellville and Athlone.  The S-JMC during this particular period, was under the chairmanship of a senior police officer and a deputy chairperson was appointed from time-to-time.  To the best of my knowledge the JMC, right down to the mini-JMC level, to which I will still refer, consisted of four components.  
 7.1 A component for constitutional, economic and social matters, or CEM and the State departments and all role players from the private sector who were involved.  
 7.2 A Communication Committee (KOM) which consisted of police liaison officers as well as all liaison officers involved in paragraph 7.1 above.
 7.3 A Joint Information Committee or JIC consisting of a so-called information family, namely National Intelligence, the Security Police and Military Intelligence.  
 7.4 The Security Component or VEIKOM, consisting of South African Police, South African Defence Force, the then Railway Police, the Provincial Administration, Divisional Councils, Civilian Protection, Traffic Departments and other role-players needed from time-to-time.
 8. The Sub-JMC infrastructure consisted of the four Peninsula Police districts, and each one in turn was a Mini-JMC with a district commissioner of police as chairman.  Underneath this structure fell also the Local Management System (LMC) which was attached to the various police station areas.  The role players here were also city councillors, the traffic chiefs, local police inspector, the local detective branch, reservists, taxpayers associations and whichever institution had a particular interest in the activities of the JMC or had an interest in matters dealt with by the JMC.
 The Divisional Commissioner also had the services of the Divisional unrest unit at his disposal and under his command.  This unit had it's own operational room where the unit's planning was done.
 In my capacity as secretary of the Sub-JMC I received copies of the unit's written planning and information regarding the outcome of these events was also given to me.
 The commanding officer of this unit also sat on the Sub-JMC.
 9.1 It is important to understand the intention with this Joint Management System, as far as my knowledge went, was in the first place to act as a forum which could identify and resolve problems in the communities in order to also eliminate the basic causes for crime and unrest.  Gradually these structures became more focused on unrest.
 9.2 The objective was also that the system should work from the bottom upwards and not the other way round.  Problems which arose on the ground level had to be solved on the local level by the particular role players, or if that was not possible, by the intervention of the Mini-JMC or the Western Province Sub-JMC.
 10. I point out that during the period of January 1985 to October '87 I was the secretary of the Sub-JMC and not of the Western Province JMC as it was stated in the Section 29 notice.
 During this period my rank was that of a Captain but I was promoted to a Major in this period.
 11. During this period my duties and functions as secretary were the following:
 11.1 To, in a written way or in whatever other way, to promote effective communication between all role-players and to inform them on a continuing basis regarding the functioning of the JMC system at the level of the Sub-JMC and lower down in the hierarchy.  I also point out that the intention and objective of the JMC in the first place was to ensure an effective and coordinated practical working within the State dispensation right down to the lowest level.  It was therefore necessary that all involved parties and role players had to know which role players had to be involved from time-to-time.  Amongst these were not only State departments but also as mentioned above on occasion, bodies such as the Chamber of Commerce, the Community Organisations, Religious and Church Organisations etc, depending on the nature of the problems experienced on the ground.
 11.2 Secondly, it was my function to keep the minutes of the JMC meetings and of the Mini-JMC meetings, to receive these minutes and to identify the matters which require the attention of the Sub-JMC in order to submit it to the Sub-JMC.
 11,3 It was also my duty to, on a daily basis, to keep up-to-date the incident reports received from the Stations and to then submit a consolidated report of all incidents which took place during the previous 24 hours in the area of the S-JMC and to send it to the Police Headquarters in Pretoria.
 11.4 I was also tasked with drafting a joint pre-planning for instance for dealing with marches, riots, gatherings of people, patrols, joint crime prevention operations and joint  exercises.  The information came from the Security Police in the form of daily security reports which normally covered matters such as the following:
 a)   funerals;
 b)   marches;
c)  meetings - normal meetings to be protected, and illegal meetings;
 d) attacks on security forces and related matters.
 These security reports were duplicated by me and given to the chairpersons of the Mini-JMCs who also had sitting on the S-JMC.  They then had to take care of the planning for the events mentioned in the reports in cooperation with the relevant stations.  Each Mini-JMC for instance had its own unrest prevention platoon so to disrupt as little as possible the normal policing functions.  
 11.5 The commanding officer of every station and his district commissioner had to submit their planning to me in writing and I then had to coordinate the planning also relating to the South African Defence Force, the then Railway Police, Traffic Authorities or whatever role players were involved by drafting a joint contingency plan.  The coordinated planning document was thereafter submitted to the Divisional Commissioner for approval after which the joint planning was liaised down to the level of the stations.
 12. I point out that detailed planning was not initiated by me as secretary of the S-JMC and thereafter enforced lower down the hierarchy, but I simply fulfilled a coordinating and liaison function in respect of planning which was done in the first instance at the ground level.
 13. As part of this coordinating function, I, after these joint operations, I would report to the various role players about the outcome of the operations.  These reports were based on radio, telephone and written reports which were received by the S-JMC Ops Room which was at that time under my command.  All the information was reactive information of events which had already taken place.  The only pro-active information with which I ever dealt was that contained in the daily security and safety reports to which I've already referred.