Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 1999-10-19

JOHANNES AFRICA MASWENG HLAPO: Thank you.
"My name is Johannes Africa Masweng Hlapo.  I am an adult male, currently 39 years of age, with ID number 6010160540881.  I currently reside at 12782, Ravel Street, Delft South.  My telephone number is, though Your Worship it's not working presently, is 955-3761.
		I am currently employed as an organiser in the organisation known as Kumbula, the Centre for Healing, an organisation charged with the duties and responsibilities of the exhumation of the bodies of freedom fighters who were killed in and during the struggle for the liberation of South Africa, which bodies are currently buried in various African States.  
		I am competent and authorised to make this affidavit and the facts deposed to herein are within my personal knowledge and belief and are true and correct.
		I am domiciled and resident within the area of jurisdiction of the Province of the Western Cape.  My application for the granting of amnesty in terms of Section 18(1) and Section 20(1), the exhubic ...(indistinct) of my criminal record in terms of Section 20(10) of the Act of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, number 34 of 1995.  
		The act stems from the gross violation of human rights committed by me together with a number of others, though the killing of two adult white males, namely Mr Henry George Beeton, Mr Beeton and Mr Frederick Casper Jansen at Klipfontein Road, Crossroads on the 11th of August 1980.  
		The facts and circumstances which are set out herein below are a true copy of the court record, together with the sentencing record, will be furnished to the Committee and collated with the bundle of documents submitted to the Amnesty Committee, for ease of reference.
		At the time of the death of Mr Beeton and Mr Jansen, I was a supporter of the political organisation and a liberation movement known as the African National Congress (ANC), and acted at all times bona fide in furtherance of a political struggle which was waged by the African National Congress against the former State.
		I associated myself with the acts and omissions committed for the purpose referred to in (a) of Section 20(2) of the Act.  The motive, context and legal and factual nature, objectives and relations between my act, omissions or offence and the political objective pursued will be set out herein below.
		In and during 1976, I joined the struggle against the former State of the Republic of South Africa, at the age of 16 years, Your Worship, and I was more inclined towards the aims and objectives of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).
		In and during the early part of 1979, I changed my allegiance from PAC to the ANC, due to the fact that I believed that the political objectives of the PAC was stagnant.  I did not support their broad and radical objectives to send all white people back across the sea from whence they had allegedly come and the fact that the PAC assumed that all white people were oppressors, which belief I found to be unacceptable.
		Arising out of the killing of Mr Beeton and Mr Jansen, I was arrested on the 5th September 1980 and imprisoned pending and during the course of my trial, together with 18 others in the then Supreme Court of the South Africa Cape of Good Hope Provincial Division, before the Honourable Mr Justice and assessors.  In the trial I was named accused number 12.
		I was found guilty of three counts with I was charge and sentenced to the below-mentioned terms of imprisonment -
Charge 1 - The participation in terrorist activities and contravention of Section 2(1) read with Section 1.2.2 and 4.5 and 9 or Act number 83 of 1967, as amended.
		In that charge I got five years imprisonment, Your Worship.
		Charge 2 - Murder of Mr Beeton. 
		For the murder of Mr Beeton, I got 20 years imprisonment.
		Charge 3 - The murder of Mr Jansen.  
		I also got 20 years imprisonment.  Which sentences were ordered by the court to run concurrently.
		A true copy of the court record, together with the sentencing record will be filed of record and collated with the bundle of documents submitted to the Amnesty Committee, for ease of reference.
		Pursuant to my conviction and sentence as set out above, I was in prison on Robben Island, under prison number 26/83.  Where I served as a prisoner until May 24, 1991, when I was released from prison.
		Just to remind the Commission or the Commissioners, that during my release we were on hunger strike, the hunger strike that took us almost 24 days and I was released from Somerset Hospital and then we were on Robben Island.
		The historical and political facts and circumstances preceding, during and surrounding the death of Mr Beeton and Mr Jansen, are summarised broadly in the judgment of Mr Justice Williamson at the trial.
		However, I refer herein and highlight certain facts and circumstances relevant to my application for amnesty, in order to illustrate and comply with the requirements of Section 20(1) and 20(2)(a) and 20(3) of the Act.
		At the time of the incident in which Mr Beeton and Mr Jansen were killed, there were bus boycotts, school boycotts as well as ...(indistinct) boycott in Guguletu, Nyanga and the surrounding townships. 
		At that time, Your Worship, I was living at NY112, number 149 at Section 3 in Guguletu.  At the time, as a result of the aforesaid boycotts, there were no buses operating from Nyanga East.
		On 11 August 1980, I first attended the Nyanga East bus terminus in order to assist people to board private taxis in furtherance of the bus boycott.  Thereafter, together with certain other supporters of the ANC, we proceeded to the Assembly of God in Nyanga East where we were to hold a commemorative service in commemoration of deaths of certain supporters of the ANC who were killed on August 11, 1976 in the Cape Town area.
		Whilst we were waiting at the church, the priest refused to open the church in order to allow the crowd to have the commemorative service.  I approached the priest, a Reverend Werner, and I remonstrated with him and told him that his refusal to allow the crowd to commemorate the death of comrades who were killed on August 1976, showed sympathy with the apartheid regime.
		Thereafter he relented and gave the crowd permission to hold a commemorative ceremony.  The commemorative service was held and there were many speeches by supporters of a number of organisations, including the ANC, the PAC and AZAPO.  I also spoke at the service.
		The crowd at the church was excited and volatile.  During the service I reported back to the crowd as to my efforts in finding out what had happened to a number of comrades who had been tortured in prison in the Cape Town area.  I advised the crowd that the apartheid oppressors of the people were killing the liberators and that the people of South Africa should increase the struggle in order to liberate South Africa from the oppressive apartheid regime.
		After the meeting the crowd left the church and moved along ...(indistinct) Drive, towards Klipfontein Road.  There were supporters of many opposition political organisations, namely the ANC and the PAC and AZAPO and they were singing freedom songs.
		As they were walking along the road, when we reached Klipfontein Road and barricades had already been erected in Klipfontein Road, the crowd was stopping buses and all government motor vehicles and other unauthorised motor vehicles from entering Crossroads.
		At approximately (I will dwell on this, Your Worship).  At approximately 15H15, a white motor vehicle driven by Mr Beeton, appeared along the road and travelled towards the barricades.
		The motor vehicle stopped shortly before the barricades.  The driver did not get out.  The crowd, including me, began throwing stones at the motor vehicle, but the driver remained in the motor vehicle.  The stones damaged his motor vehicle extensively and a number of stones hit him, rendering him unconscious.
		Various members of the crowd pulled the driver out of the motor vehicle, however I did not help to pull Mr Beeton out of the vehicle.
		After Mr Beeton had been pulled out of the motor vehicle, the crowd dragged him onto the road.  After Mr Beeton had been pulled out of his motor vehicle, various members of the crowd, including me, threw heavy stones at him whilst chanting and singing freedom songs.
		After Mr Beeton was stoned, he was left for dead on the road.  Shortly after the incident in which Mr Beeton was stoned, a bakkie driven by a Mr Jansen, drove along Klipfontein Road towards the barricade.  The motor vehicle stopped a short distance before Mr Beeton's motor vehicle and the driver attempted to reverse and turn the motor vehicle around.  
		The driver of the motor vehicle appeared to miss a gear and the motor vehicle stalled.  Shortly after the motor vehicle stalled the chanting crowd surrounded his motor vehicle and the motor vehicle was stoned with heavy stones and bricks.
		The driver of the motor vehicle refused to get out.  I, and together with other members of the crowd pulled him from his motor vehicle and threw him to the ground.  Mr Jansen sat on the road next to the driver's door of the motor vehicle.
		The crowd including me, continued to stone Mr Jansen.  A member of the crowd opened the petrol cap of the motor vehicle and a paper was inserted into the opening of the petrol can.  Set alight, the petrol ignited immediately and set Mr Jansen alight, as a result of which Mr Jansen jumped up and ran and jumped into a pool of water near the road.  
		Shortly after Mr Jansen had jumped into the pool of water, an Army motor vehicle approached the barricade along Klipfontein Road.  The crowd also stoned the Army motor vehicle, using the trees next to the road as cover.  The Army motor vehicle then turned around and drove off without picking up the two men who had been stoned.  
		Mr Beeton and Mr Jansen were left in the road with Mr Jansen's burning motor vehicle and the crowd left the scene and proceeded to Nonxolo Lower Primary School in Crossroads, which was our meeting point for the making of petrol bombs.
		After we have made petrol bombs at Nonxolo Lower Primary School, groups of people moved out with the petrol bombs with the intention of stoning an petrol-bombing government motor vehicles in Lansdowne Road.
		I was arrested on 5th September and convicted in the aforesaid trial.  
		In participating in the death of Mr Beeton and Mr Jansen, I was acting as a supporter of the ANC, an organisation which was involved in a struggle for the liberation of the people of South Africa. My actions were bona fide in furtherance of such political struggle waged by the African National Congress against the State, with the objectives of establishing a legitimate government of the people of South Africa.
		I am truly remorseful for my actions which led to the death of Mr Beeton and Mr Jansen.  My actions were not motivated by criminal purposes and objectives, but were motivated by political reasons and objectives set out above.
		I have no way of knowing how painful it must be for the families of Mr Beeton and Mr Jansen to lose their loved ones.  I offer my deepest apologies to the families of Mr Beeton and Mr Jansen.  I ask for forgiveness for my actions.
		In the circumstances, I humbly pray that the Committee on Amnesty, grant my application for amnesty and the expunging of my criminal record as set forth in the application to which this affidavit is attached.
		Here it's my signature with all my names printed on this paper.  This affidavit was signed yesterday, on the 18th October 1999.
		I certify that before administering the oath as it is known to the Commission, so I am satisfied that everything that has been said here it's true, but nothing else true.
	And to just round up the whole thing.  It has been my wish and I have taken an initiative to ask for this amnesty to be granted for me.  I came to the TRC to meet the families of Mr Jansen and Mr Beeton because I believe that all South African people, we need to come together and be open to each other about what we did and we did not do.  
	So it has been my wish and hope that one day even before I die, that I should meet these two families and say to them honestly and openly that I apologise for all what happened.  And I want them to understand what I did, I did, not because I wanted to satisfied my ego, I did it because there was a pressure on our shoulders as black people who under oppression at that time, we were suffering at that time.  A black person was oppressed.  South Africa created two worlds, a white world and a black world right inside the country, within the same borders.   So therefore with this I would like to promote the spirit of reconciliation to the families and to every South African.  I thank you.