Amnesty Hearings — Umtata — 2000-01-31

MR MALAN: Do you have any special request - should this Committee find that you fall within the ambit of amnesty application and they would grant it, do you have any special request for them?

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: I have one request to put forward, it's to have my fingerprints cleared because that is also a hiccup in my business and after that I left the Police Force because I could not see myself with them, therefore I tried my business, therefore that is a bit of a hiccup on my side, the fingerprints problem.

MR MALAN: In what kind of business are you involved?

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: I am in the company of Project Management in the rural development.

MR MALAN: Do you have anything further that you would wish to lay in the midst of this Committee?

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: I do not know how it came about for me to be found guilty, but though the situation is like that, but if the Commission can consider my application, at least if I can get rid of that criminal record.  And I'm even asking myself questions, how did the Magistrate come to that kind of a decision.

MR MALAN: Thank you, Mr Chairman.
NO FURTHER QUESTIONS BY MR MALAN

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr Malan.  Mr Nodada, any questions?

MR NODADA: Just a few, Mr Chairperson.
	Fundikile, when you were actually filling in your application form you were required in paragraph 9 to furnish sufficient particulars of the act, omissions or offences associated with a political objective in respect of which amnesty is sought, including dates, places and nature thereof and the names of any other persons involved and in (i), you stated that the acts or omissions or offences that you are applying for amnesty in respect of was high treason, do you remember that?

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: Yes, that is correct.

MR NODADA: And you were also required to fill in the date or dates on which you committed that offence, but you didn't do so.  Do you perhaps remember the date when you committed that offence of high treason?

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: The coup took place on the 22nd of November 1989.

INTERPRETER: I beg your pardon ...

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: Which is the 22nd of November 1990.

MR NODADA: And where were you on the 22nd of November 1990?

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: I was in prison in Mxandule.

MR NODADA: And how did you commit this offence whilst you were in prison on that date?

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: Even today that is still a myth to me but the Magistrate found me guilty.  I was associated with the act, that's what was said, I was associated with the act.

JUDGE MILLER: Sorry Mr Nodada, if I could just clear up something on this point.
	You keep saying that the Magistrate found you guilty, were you not a co-accused in the trial in the then Supreme Court, which was presided over by a judge, or were you in a separate trial before a Magistrate?

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: I was with Mtjali and Gobinxa at the Regional Court and the presiding officer was Mr Mgaju.

JUDGE MILLER: Yes thank you, I just wanted to clear that up Mr Nodada.

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: I was never called to appear in the Supreme Court, except for the appeal.

MR NODADA: So you noted an appeal against the finding of the Magistrate in the Regional Court.

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: Yes.

MR NODADA: And what was the outcome of the appeal?

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: Gobinxa was removed in the case, I was left with the first accused and myself as the co-accused and the sentence was confirmed.

MR NODADA: Alright.  Do you consider yourself to have committed the offence of high treason on the 22nd of November 1990?

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: I was never involved because I was in prison.  I never heard rumours, I never heard anything, I was not implicated.

JUDGE MILLER: Sorry Mr Nodada, I keep interrupting you, but I'd just like to clear up something while it's still in my mind.
	What Mr Nodada referred you to now was in your application you say that you're applying for amnesty in respect of high treason, now you've said that you were convicted in the Regional Court, are you saying that the Regional Court convicted you of high treason?  Or what precisely was the charge?  Because charges of treason go to the Supreme Court or the High Court, not to the Magistrate's Court.

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: Our case was held at the Regional Court by Mr Mgaju, it never reached the Supreme Court.  We were charged for treason and we were also sentenced to that effect by Mr Mgaju.

JUDGE MILLER: Thank you, Mr Nodada.

MR NODADA: Are you certain that this high treason relates to the incident of the 22nd of November 1990?

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: According to the charge sheet it was said that all the offences that took place from 1989 April, they culminate to the act of the 22nd of November 1990, while I was already in prison on the 22nd of November 1990.

MR SIBANYONI: It would appear there were two occasions where there was a planning for a coup in Transkei, is my understanding correct?

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: No, that is not true Sir, but what happened was this.  A certain group of people attempted the coup in April 1989 but nothing was every successful up until such time I was arrested in January 1990 and no people could be charged because of the evidence at hand.  But when I was in prison, 10 months in prison, November 1990, 22nd, that is when this aborted coup took place while I was already in prison, myself, Mtjali and the others.  Therefore we were associated with this attempted coup of the 22nd November, though we were already in prison when this attempted coup took place.

MR SIBANYONI: For what offence were you in prison?

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: They said it was treason, conspiracy to commit treason.

MR SIBANYONI: What type of treason, not to overthrow the Transkei Government?

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: It was never mentioned in details but when this incident, attempted coup of the 22nd took place, it was associated with this one.  And as the people who were arrested in January were only taken in court but after the people who were involved in the coup had already appeared in court, so we were the last people to go to court after the interdict was issued against the government.

MR SIBANYONI: Was Col Duli also arrested for the activities of April '89?

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: Yes, Duli was arrested in 1989 and I'm the one who took him to prison.

MR SIBANYONI: But not for this same offence for which you appeared in court, and for which you were convicted?

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: At the time, I think it was April on the 27th when we took him from his home to Lusikisiki, he was associated with the people who were attempting to overthrow the government.  I took him to Lusikisiki Prison, he was released on interdict, December 1989.  He was released and then he disappeared and I was arrested on the 26th of January, a month after his release.

MR SIBANYONI: Thank you.  I don't know whether it clears the picture or whether there's more confusion.

CHAIRPERSON: You were awaiting trial since your arrest on the 26th of January 1990, I assume.

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: I was just held there but nothing was said about a trial.

CHAIRPERSON: You were just detained?

FUNDIKILE BLACKIE NOMBANGA: Yes, that is correct.

CHAIRPERSON: And you were only charged and taken to court after the other coup plotters were tried in the Supreme Court?  There case was already finished when you were taken to the Regional Court, three of you?