Amnesty Hearings — Pietersburg — 1997-07-01

ADV VISSER: Mr van der Merwe could I ask you to tell the Committee in your own words what your involvement was and the information that you received. If you just would point to it every time whether it was information which you received and whether it was something which you were involved in personally.  Just tell us your version as you know it of the incident of the 10th of July '86 and you can start right at the beginning.

WILLEM JOHANNES VAN DER MERWE: I hear what you say Chairperson, I would like to state that it was 11 years ago and since I left the Force and I can't everything as clear but what I can remember, and perhaps I should just say that how we worked, we had teams and they had certain offices and they worked in the field to gather information and there we had for example Koos van der Berg and Matthew Sehlwana and they were working in their area of Botswana right up to the border and sometimes across the border.  And I can remember during May '86 , Brigadier Nick Coetsee told me that there was information that there were people who wanted to come in from Botswana.  They wanted to cross the border into the Republic.
	Now this kind of information, and we really suffered under the fact that there were so many illegal immigrants from the North in the country and we had to sift when we got information of this nature to determine whether it was clean, illegal immigrants or were they perhaps terrorists under the cover of immigrants.  But during may via Sehlwana and Koos van der Berg and Brigadier Coetsee, I got information that there were possibly three people who wanted to come in and they asked for assistance with regard to crossing points and transport into the Republic from Botswana.
	Now usually we do a follow-up on the information and then as it develops and then also the seniors in the structure are also then informed about the information. 
	I could perhaps summarise it by saying that this information continued.  It was monitored by these people and these three people wanted to come in, and at some stage, I think it could perhaps be in June, it seemed as if because of what was said by the contact person to our informer in Botswana, that these people spoke Afrikaans and he noticed that they were speaking Afrikaans and he thought that they could be people who actually originated in South Africa.   Then the suspicion was created that it could perhaps be terrorists who wanted to come in, and keeping that in mind the necessary attention was given to this case and it came to a stage where these people specifically asked that they be assisted with transport from the border into the country.
	At this stage we had reason to believe that these would be insurgents of a political nature.  We treated it as such and then we came to a point where a specific date was given.  Now I'm making an apology for the fact that I can't remember the specific date but it was in June that it was planned that these three would come through and that they would need transport. We then planned that as Security Branch members we would get a vehicle that we would give to Sehlwana which he would use to transport the people.

ADV VISSER: Could I interrupt you.  What kind of vehicle was it?  Can you remember?

WILLEM JOHANNES VAN DER MERWE: I know it was a red vehicle.  I can't really think of the make, the model, it was a passenger vehicle, and he would then transport the people and the idea was at that stage that they would go to Seshego the township next to Pietersburg. And what we wanted to do with these three people and then also properly controlled from the road from where they were coming up to where they said their destination was, that we would place security branch members and then monitor the situation and we would also have liked it so that we could determine the destination at the end of this journey and had it been terrorists, it would also have given us an indication of where they would have stayed over, that there would be any safe houses or helpers.
	Everything was put in place for the operation. That in fact didn't realise and at a further opportunity certain steps were taken to repeat the same situation, in other words bringing the people in when they said that they wanted to come in again.

ADV VISSER: Can you remember which month?

WILLEM JOHANNES VAN DER MERWE: I'm of the opinion it was late in June. It also didn't realise.

ADV VISSER: If I could interrupt you. We know the Defence Force assistance was requested at some stage.  Just keep that in mind when you continue with your story to just at the point as you can remember it you made contact with Commando Northern Transvaal just to mention that at the correct place.  You can continue.

WILLEM JOHANNES VAN DER MERWE: Chairperson I should have mentioned it, it is true because we wanted to be quite safe and that was also our policy at the Joint Management System that we would immediately, even if we didn't have confirmation that they were real terrorists, that we would inform each other so that we are in fact informed about this. I attended meetings frequently and then right from the start I mentioned this during meetings. That is so

ADV VISSER: You're at the end of June and you said when the people would come in and it didn't take place, you can continue from there.

WILLEM JOHANNES VAN DER MERWE: Chairperson it must have been in the region of the 8th of July where our man and his network then determined that there was a possibility that these people wanted to cross the border.

ADV VISSER: If you refer to our man, who do you refer to?

WILLEM JOHANNES VAN DER MERWE: I refer to Sehlwana who monitored the situation with his informer?  And during that time, I think it must have been the 8th or so, information from Sehlwana who made a contact with the informer and the people who had to come in, it then seemed that there would be six people who had to be brought in.  And at this stage we had to change our plans because the vehicle that we had in mind to use in this instance would have been too small to transport the people, and then also six people and we also at that stage had reason to believe that they were terrorists and also were armed. We then had to plan for a bigger vehicle and also did some more planning in order to be able to apprehend a larger number of people without suffering any damages.
	It was then made known that these people would come in on the 10th of July, the morning of the 10th of July and as a result serious planning was done and I decided that we did have a vehicle that we could use and that was a combi and we also discussed this with Sehlwana, van der Berg and Coetsee as to how this had to be done. We knew it was six people, they were armed and they wanted to enter the country, they needed transport, we're going to give them this transport.

ADV VISSER: Colonel just for a moment, you refer to us or we discussed it.  Do you imply that you yourself?

WILLEM JOHANNES VAN DER MERWE: No as I'm trying to state it, in the company of van der Berg, Sehlwana and Brigadier Coetsee.

ADV VISSER: Were you present yourself and were they all present? Or are you referring to a broader planning?

WILLEM JOHANNES VAN DER MERWE: We were together when we did this planning.

ADV VISSER: Thank you.

WILLEM JOHANNES VAN DER MERWE: The eventual planning and I should perhaps just say this now, when this situation became a certainty we also informed the Commander of the situation and he offered that he would give a group of his people ...(intervention)

ADV VISSER: Please forgive me, I just want to interrupt you.  It's logical in this context that I ask you the question, can you remember the person with whom you made contact at Commandment Far North?

WILLEM JOHANNES VAN DER MERWE: Now it's not good for my memory but I'm not quite sure, I think it was General Meiring at that stage.

ADV VISSER: Did you ask him for assistance.