Amnesty Hearings — Pretoria — 1996-06-01

MR GERBER: Your Honour, at one stage I took some of the bluegum leaves  lying around there and I set them on fire  to cause smoke right underneath Samuel's head.  There were no flames at any stage, just caused a lot of smoke, and  I  did this to make  Samuel even more uncomfortable.  At about half past five, quarter to six, it was already starting to get dark and we decided  to remove Samuel from the tree.  It was clear that he was very uncomfortable as a result of being suspended from the tree all day.  I told him to walk up and down a bit to improve his circulation.  And after a  while he came and sat down a little distance a way from us.  I spoke to him again and I explained to him that all these things were totally unnecessary if he would just cooperate with us.  He made no comment.  In the next moment Oosthuizen took out his firearm and shot Samuel through the shoulder without any reason, without saying anything.  Samuel  immediately jumped up and charged Johan van Eck and grabbed him as if he sought protection from him.   My colleague pushed him away.  At this stage there was a lot of blood, he was also covered in blood and he ran in the direction of the bakkie which was parked not very far away.  He tried to jump into the bakkie.  He was presumably trying to protect himself, but they pulled him away before he could jump into the bakkie and then Samuel started running in the direction of the mind dumps, not very far away.  That was when I realised that we had big problems.  I took my firearm and I shot Samuel.  He fell down into a ditch and  - because it was nearly dark at that stage.  I went to my car to fetch my torch and started moving in the direction where Samuel had  run.  I found him, he was lying on the ground and when I shone the torch on him he jumped up again, grabbed the torch and started running again.  He ran further along the ditch.  I still had my firearm in my hand and shot two shots.  I heard him falling again and I moved in that direction.  (Inaudible) stomach.  I shone the torch again and I noticed that he had been fatally wounded.  I felt his pulse, I felt his throat.  There was no pulse any more, he was dead.
	At this stage we were in a panic because we decided whilst Samuel was still sitting on the ground to take him to a police station, probably Brixton, to detain him.    The very negligible injuries on his body we could explain away, but to arrive at a police station with a seriously wounded or dead person was a different matter altogether.  It  could have been fatal for myself and my investigators.   We decided to dispose of the body.  My colleague Johan van Eck offered to put him in his bakkie and to take him  to a forest area in Benoni which was known to him and to set the corpse on fire there.  Oosthuizen would accompany him.  As a result of the dust in the forest area we lost touch with each other on the freeway.  They weren't in radio contact with me.  The black investigators had the radio in their  car and I decided to return to my home where I would then later contact Van Eck.  At about quarter to ten that  evening I phoned Van Eck at his home and he told me that he had set the body on fire.  I told him not  to come to work the next morning, but to clean his bakkie and that I would do the necessary at the office.  
	The next morning, quite early, the two investigators came to me to find out what had happened.  I called them to my office and told them that Samuel Ranaka is dead.  They didn't seem to be very shocked.  Whilst we were discussing the matter they agreed to say that they had transported him from the forest area and that they had dropped him off (inaudible).  I contacted Samuel's branch manager, Mr Roos, and told him that we had dropped him off and that  he was supposed to report the next morning but that it had never happened. 
	After about a week there was still no sign of Samuel.  We are not quite sure why.   The incident was reported to   the Hillbrow branch that he was missing.  Brig Van Wyk took two statements under oath from the black investigating officers to the effect that they had directed an inquiry to a major at the Hillbrow branch.
	At this stage I should perhaps mention that for the last six or seven years I often received freedom charters during surprise investigations.  I found these in drawers, briefcases.  I even found slogans painted on the walls, ANC, PAC slogans in the building of the Hillbrow branch.

UNKNOWN: (The interpreter did not hear the question).

MR GERBER: A month or so after this  unfortunate incident Oosthuizen and myself and a former member of the Task Force met at a small bar near our offices.  Oosthuizen then reprimanded me for the way in which I was conducting my investigations.  He thought that he knew better because he was one of Eugene de Kock's men and they dealt with matters very differently, and he also tackled me about a written warning which I had given him, this is now after the murder, a warning regarding his conduct and his way of working.   He often disappeared and I wouldn't know where he was.  The next moment he pulled out his firearm.  I was standing  opposite him.  He aimed it at my head and cocked it.  I knew  that there was a bullet in the barrel.  That's the way we worked.  And myself and Mr John Cook reprimanded him and told him to stop playing these games.   He kept attacking me and tackling me about this letter which  I had sent him, a notice, and he once again aimed his firearm at me.  I then had my firearm behind my back and I removed the safety catch at some stage.  I also had a bullet in my firearm and I then - when he aimed his pistol at me I shot him through the shoulder.  I could have killed him if I wanted to.   He fell to the ground.  His firearm was in front of him and I removed it from him.
	He was later admitted  to a clinic in Johannesburg.  An emergency operation was performed on him.  I visited him but he was still in the operating theatre, and I decided to just leave matters as they were  until such time as  he contacted me and that is what I did.  
	He then contacted me on a Sunday after this incident.  The  incident itself happened on a Thursday evening.  At that stage I hadn't reported the incident  to my top management.  Upon my arrival at the hospital with Mr Cook, who had also been present that evening, Oosthuizen suggested that he was going to report the matter.  He was going to say that he had been attacked by an unknown assailant in a little quiet street in Hillbrow.  I told him to do what he thought best.  I then returned on the Monday and reported the shooting incident to my management.  As a  result of my senior  position in the company they decided to suspend and Oosthuizen as well.  I then later learnt that Oosthuizen had laid a charge of attempted murder against me at the Hillbrow Police Station.  I made a complete statement regarding this incident and as a result of this statement in which I had explained all the circumstances, the senior state prosecutor declined to prosecute. 
	I then broke off all contact with Oosthuizen.  After my suspension I resigned and I left Fidelity Guards.

UNKNOWN: Mr Gerber, in the criminal case itself did you testify in the criminal case in which you were charged?

MR GERBER: Yes, that is correct.

UNKNOWN: Your testimony today differs from the testimony in that case.

MR GERBER: Yes, that is correct.

UNKNOWN: Can you tell the Commission why that is so?

MR GERBER: Well, I wanted to save myself, I wanted to protect myself.  I was scared, I knew that I was in big trouble.

UNKNOWN: Mr Gerber, in that trial you denied that you had shot the deceased, is that correct?

MR GERBER: I blamed Oosthuizen and Oosthuizen blamed  me.
The Judge could not make a finding.