Amnesty Hearings — Pretoria — UNKNOWN

MR BOTHA: It seems strange to me that a person who spent many years in military service that in that situation of war he would start tampering with his car, fixing his car, starts drinking, he has a braai.  I put it to you that it was extremely improbable that a person who has this vision of a political war, an imminent political war, that he would actually commit these acts and do these things?

JAMES WHEELER: We didn't know when and where it would start and on the mine, we had a public holiday and up to the stage when we started making our arrangements for ourselves we didn't know anything.  It was only afterwards that we heard of the bomb explosions.

MR BOTHA: In the months preceding there were also bomb explosions is that not so?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes.

MR BOTHA: And isn't it so that members of the right wing parties or leaders of the right wing parties admonished people and asked them to please be calm?

JAMES WHEELER: That's not the impression that I got.

MR BOTHA: Tell me, you say you attended AWB meetings?

MR BOTHA: Were you a member of the armed wing of the AWB?

JAMES WHEELER: No.

MR BOTHA: If you weren't a member of the armed wing why did you think that you should arm yourself and shoot people?

JAMES WHEELER: Because our leader called us up to arm ourselves. In making these judgements and statements he wasn't actually referring to his armed wing because they were already armed.

MR BOTHA: So you, the ordinary AWB members, had to take up arms for self-protection and self defence?

JAMES WHEELER: No, it was expressly stated that a situation of war would be created and that we should also lay in emergency supplies such as food and water.

MR BOTHA: But you decided on this day that the war was about to start, that you were going to have a nice day, that you would fix your car, work on your car and when you'd had enough alcoholic drink, you then started your political discussions and you said that it would be easy to use explosives, to plant it at the United Bank?

JAMES WHEELER: That's correct.  I was looking at certain ideas and options whereby we could make a contribution.

MR BOTHA: You wanted to derail the elections?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes.

MR BOTHA: If you wanted to derail the elections why did you only on the day of the elections think about explosives and think that you could obtain it from the mines?

JAMES WHEELER: Well that was an option that we had.

MR BOTHA: So it wasn't actually planned at all the whole thing?

JAMES WHEELER: The reason why we spoke about the explosives was because we could obtain it quite readily, there would be no problem to get hold of it.

MR BOTHA: Sir, I put it to you that the mine where you were working, I practice in that area so I know, that it is not at all easy to get hold of explosives?

JAMES WHEELER: I must correct you on that - it is in fact quite easy.

MR BOTHA: One other aspect, paragraph 9 of your statement, you say: "specially Afrikaners who were generally speaking the most conservative component of the Whites"  Is there any factual basis for making this kind of statement?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes.  If we look at the people in South Africa, that is in fact the case that our Afrikaner people in the past have been conservative in any context and as far as anything was concerned, we were conservative.

MR BOTHA: I will leave the point there except to say that you have no factual basis for making such a statement.  At what time did you fire the shot in which my client's son and brother was killed?

JAMES WHEELER: It was approximately quarter to eight to ten to eight that evening.

MR BOTHA: Wasn't it a little bit later such as for instance ten past eight perhaps?

JAMES WHEELER: I'm not sure.

MR BOTHA: The polling booths closed at 20.30 that particular evening?

JAMES WHEELER: Correct.

MR BOTHA: Why twenty minutes before the election was to be a thing of the past and after virtually everybody had voted, why shoot a person then?

JAMES WHEELER: I put it to you that the election was to continue the next day.

MR BOTHA: Are you talking about the postal votes?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes and the right wingers tried to disrupt the elections but nothing happened after we shot these people.

MR BOTHA: When you attended AWB meetings how many people were at these meetings where it was said that you should take up arms?

JAMES WHEELER: I can't specifically give you - or I can specifically refer you to the leader of the AWB who said explicitly and repeatedly.

MR BOTHA: How many members of the AWB were there?

JAMES WHEELER: There were many but I'm just mentioning one.  I didn't go to all the meetings.

MR BOTHA: So there were thousands even tens of thousands of people who according to you heard these words?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes and it appears that they also interpreted it in the same way judging by the panic which existed just before the elections in South Africa.

MR BOTHA: And of these thousands and tens of thousands of people, you, Mr Pyper, was virtually the only one apart from the armed wing who planted bombs, who decided to embark on such a tragic mission?

JAMES WHEELER: There were other incidents but that is what happened.

MR BOTHA: Can you tell me why you and Mr Pyper were the only amongst those ten thousand who decided to take up arms and to kill people on your own initiative?

JAMES WHEELER: Because we believed in what the leaders had told us.

MR BOTHA: And did the leaders preach that you should go out and kill black people?

JAMES WHEELER: That's where the statements came from, that's how I interpreted it.

MR BOTHA: If the Honourable Commission would just give me a moment so that I can look at my notes?  I put it to you that this act which you committed was not politically motivated.

JAMES WHEELER: Well, according to me it was a political act because ninety percent of the country's blacks were ANC members.

MR BOTHA: From the records of the Supreme Court proceedings  it appears that you and Mr Pyper had drunk quite a lot of alcohol?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes we drank.  It was a public holiday.

MR BOTHA: And as the drinking progressed the political temperature of your discussions increased?

JAMES WHEELER: Well I could put it to you in this way, before we started drinking we had already discussed politics here and there and in the course of the afternoon we did start talking about it more and more.

MR BOTHA: And this act of yours was motivated by the bravado of a drunkard, if one could put it like that and aimed at black people and not for any political motive?

JAMES WHEELER: I don't think you can put it like that because we weren't drunk.

MR BOTHA: Very well, you were the person who supplied the firearm?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes.

MR BOTHA: You cocked the firearm?

JAMES WHEELER: Yes.

MR BOTHA: You handed it to Mr Pyper and said "shoot".

JAMES WHEELER: I cocked the firearm and handed it to Mr Pyper and I moved so that I was right next to the taxi.

MR BOTHA: Tell me, afterwards, did you have any remorse, did you - or it seems that you simply quite at ease went to your brother and went and visited him and you made a joke about having shot somebody in a mini-bus, a black person and he said that he didn't believe you?

JAMES WHEELER: That is true.

MR BOTHA: So at that stage you had no remorse?

JAMES WHEELER: At that stage I didn't even know that anybody had been killed or wounded.

MR BOTHA: But it was your purpose when you left in the Ford Sierra?

JAMES WHEELER: Correct.

MR BOTHA: The next morning you were still of quite a peaceful state of mind that you were watching television?

JAMES WHEELER: Correct.

MR BOTHA: Amidst this war, you had now done your bit, you had fired a shot at a mini-bus and now as far as you were concerned, the war was over?

JAMES WHEELER: No, I was watching television to try and find out whether there had been any other events and in that way I realised that we were the only ones who had actually done something.