Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 2000-09-27

LEON A MAREE: No, I assumed that they were happy that this was done.

MR P DU PLESSIS: That it was going well?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: You've already referred to the course that you did for a month.  Was it a full-time course?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And that was for the month of May?

LEON A MAREE: Yes, it was during May.

MR P DU PLESSIS: So that brings us to the end of May 1989.

LEON A MAREE: That is correct.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Which is five months on from January at that point.

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: After the completion of this course, which you did with the good blessings of the CCB along with their finance, what happened furthermore with regard to CCB activities?  Were you still involved with the blue plan?

LEON A MAREE: Yes, I was.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And were there any other projects, so to speak, which came to your side, or any other instructions that you had to execute for the CCB?

LEON A MAREE: Yes, there were.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Could you explain this to us?

LEON A MAREE: I had to do a placement of a person in Namibia.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Who was this person?

LEON A MAREE: Donald Aitchison.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Do you have personal knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the recruitment of Mr Aitchison?

LEON A MAREE: No.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Did you regard Mr Aitchison as an aware or an unaware, or unconscious member?

LEON A MAREE: An unconscious member.

MR P DU PLESSIS: From whom did you receive the order?

LEON A MAREE: From Mr Burger.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Very well.  If we examine the time schedule surrounding Aitchison's placement, can you recall more or less when it would have been?

LEON A MAREE: Approximately June, July or August in 1989.

MR P DU PLESSIS: July or August?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Just to view this in context, during these periods did you often travel abroad?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: With reference to African countries, that is?

LEON A MAREE: Yes, that is correct.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And in this period of June, July and August, during this time, did you visit any European countries?

LEON A MAREE: Yes, I did.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Which country specifically?

LEON A MAREE: Greece.

MR P DU PLESSIS: With what purpose?

LEON A MAREE: Once again, the expansion of a company, to try to promote my blue plan, with a businessman, I went with a businessman to try to establish this.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Did you only go to Greece at that stage?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Who financed this?

LEON A MAREE: The CCB.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And so it was official business in promotion of the blue plan?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And nobody complained about it?

LEON A MAREE: No.

MR P DU PLESSIS: You stated that you also visited Namibia and that indeed you incorporated Lema as a company in Windhoek.

LEON A MAREE: That is correct.  I could not do or practice the company as a singular unit, that is why I had to establish Lema B in Windhoek.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Can you recall precisely when this was?  We can use a general time period if you want.

LEON A MAREE: It was approximately with my return from Greece.

MR P DU PLESSIS: So it would have been in July or August as well?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: More or less the same time when Aitchison was placed?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.  The company was registered before Aitchison was there.

MR P DU PLESSIS: So it was shortly before that?

LEON A MAREE: Yes, because I had been there previously to purchase a company in Namibia.

MR P DU PLESSIS: What sort of company?

LEON A MAREE: It was just to look for a company to acquire in Namibia.  I knew what I was doing at that point, because I wanted to establish Lema there.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And did Lema in Namibia do any good business?

LEON A MAREE: No, it didn't, it was registered, but it didn't.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Was this particular company incorporated with Aitchison in mind?

LEON A MAREE: No.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Did it not have anything to do with that?

LEON A MAREE: No.

MR P DU PLESSIS: It was still a bona fide expansion of the blue plan?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: This trip to Greece and the examination of Europe, upon whose initiative was this done?

LEON A MAREE: The CCB.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Once again, the question originates that originally you were told to examine KwaZulu Natal and the next thing you find yourself in the Greek Islands, which is a little far from KwaZulu Natal.  How did this happen?  Was this the long term vision regarding the activities?

LEON A MAREE: At that stage I didn't know, now I know that there was.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Were you told to expand to Europe?

LEON A MAREE: Mr Burger told me, and that is what I tried to do.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Very well and eventually you went to Germany as well?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: When was your first time that you visited Germany, can you recall?

LEON A MAREE: August, approximately, I cannot recall precisely, it was August 1989.

MR P DU PLESSIS: You went to Germany?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And was this once again an instruction?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: To do what?

LEON A MAREE: To do a pre-study for a transfer to there.

MR P DU PLESSIS: So at that point it was the vision that you would ultimately settle in Europe?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.  Mr Burger called me in and asked me how I would feel about settling permanently in Germany, about being stationed there and I was in favour of it.  They sent me to Germany to expand the blue plan of Lema once again, to give me movement room to contact German companies and that is what I did.  I placed advertisements in newspapers, made contact with business people, I examined the schooling systems and went to establish office space and to obtain housing.  I went to examine the scene for this.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And you did it in the end?

LEON A MAREE: Yes, I did.

MR P DU PLESSIS: So at that stage the entire focus of your activities was actually from the internal side to the external side?

LEON A MAREE: That is correct.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And during this same period of time that we have referred to, you received an instruction to handle Aitchison?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And did you indeed physically meet with Aitchison?

LEON A MAREE: Yes, I did.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Where?

LEON A MAREE: The first time was at a hotel in Norwood, thereafter in Swaziland and then again in Namibia.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Very well.  And was funding made available by the CCB for the establishment of Aitchison?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: In Namibia?

LEON A MAREE: Correct.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Mr Chairman, unfortunately I will have to deal with the whole Lubowski/Aitchison saga in view of the questions that have been put here to different witnesses, so although Mr Maree did not ask for amnesty in this regard, there's nothing in terms of my instructions he  had to ask for amnesty for.  I have to place this within the bigger picture, when we're dealing with Mr Gavin Evans, so at this stage I'm dealing with this.  Therefore you say that you went to establish Aitchison there?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And did you also meet him personally in Namibia?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And did you conduct the establishment there?

CHAIRPERSON: Sorry just before you proceed.  This word establishment, what did it entail to establish Aitchison?  Was that just to recruit him as an unaware member, or did you employ him at Lema, fix him up with a job, or what are you talking about when you say you had to establish Aitchison?

LEON A MAREE: He was already recruited Sir, so I had to establish him in South West, in Namibia, by settling him in, getting him housing and seeing if I could get him a job and a motor vehicle and moving his family there.