Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 1999-10-26

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: No, there were no instructions in our unit, we used to take initiative taking into consideration the situation at the time.

MR RILEY: And what was your specific targets at that particular point in time?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: Our aim was to fight the police.

MR RILEY: Now did you in fact if you did decide to go on a particular mission or execute a particular task against the police and/or the authority, did you in fact tell Mr Ntamo or any of the commanders where you were in fact going to make a hit or execute a mission?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: No, I never used to tell him but whenever I was taking a firearm from him I used to tell him that I was going to patrol, that's all he knew.  I just said I was going to look for police because it was well known that the police were the enemy.

MR RILEY: And did he know what your attitude and feelings was towards the police?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: Could you please repeat the question?

MR RILEY: Did he know what your attitude was, what your feelings were to the police at that point in time?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: Yes I can say he was aware that I used to hate policemen because he knew what the police did to me when I was arrested.

MR RILEY: Now won't you be kind enough and tell us - so it would appear then that from what you're saying to us that you basically although Mr Ntamo was present there and there were various other commanders there within the area, there was no specific reporting to them about what was going on and you were basically operating in a very unsupervised fashion, would you say that would be correct?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: Yes that is true, I used to report after the incident, I never used to report before the operation.

MR RILEY: And what was the reason for not reporting before the incident?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: I was scared because he would tell a person about a mission and when you get there the police would be there waiting for you so I was trying to avoid that, that is why I did not want to report before the mission.

MR RILEY: Now you were provided with firearms or with a firearm by Mr Ntamo.  Is it correct that prior to the incident that resulted in the death of Mr Jack that you in fact were sent to jail for a period of time?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: Yes I was arrested in 1987.

MR RILEY: What was that for?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: For burning the house of a policeman in Guguletu.

MR RILEY: Who was that?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: Mr Fulani.

MR RILEY: And you were sentenced to five years imprisonment, is that correct?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: Yes it was five years but I only spent two years and six months inside.

MR RILEY: Now prior to your being incarcerated prior to you going to jail did you ever undergo any specific training for military purposes?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: No, not at that time.

MR RILEY: And after your release from prison how did you feel about what happened to you, the fact that you had been in jail, how did you feel?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: I was released and I had told myself that I was going to go ahead with my battle to hit the police.

MR RILEY: And where did you in fact go and stay after that?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: I went back to KTC where I used to stay before.

MR RILEY: Did you stay with anyone in particular?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: Yes I was staying with someone, Comrade Dax, but when I came from prison he had passed away and there was another gentleman who was staying with me.

MR RILEY: Now did you report to any particular person then, you know on a daily basis about your activities?  Did you see any particular person about what you would do within the course of the day?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: No, the only person that I would tell him about my activities was a comrade, the one that was staying with me, not anyone else.

MR RILEY: Now won't you tell us prior to the killing, death of Mr Buyiswa Jack were you involved in any particular missions of note that you can recall?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: Yes the other missions, I can still remember the other incident that took place in Khayelitsha.

MR RILEY: Can you explain to us today how it came about, what was the cause of you going out on the night in question which resulted in the Jack?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: We made a decision as for comrade, myself, Ntandaso and Michael and Tobani.

MR RILEY: Why was that decision made?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: It was after realising what was done that the police were harassing the SDUs looking for firearms and we were not satisfied.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Yekwani, just repeat those names please?  Yourself and who else?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: Tobani, Michael and Ntandaso.

CHAIRPERSON: And who are these other people?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: Tobani, Michael and Ntandaso.  I'm the fourth person.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes.

MR RILEY: Who are they?  Were they part of your unit?  What role did they play?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: Two of them, Michael and Ntandaso belonged to Brown's Farm branch, that was ANC Youth League.

MR RILEY: And Tobani?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: Tobani used to tell us that he used to belong to a unit in Paarl and when he came to the area and I also involved him in my own unit.

MR RILEY: Did you operate together?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: That was for the very first time for me and him to work together.  Yes it's the same with them also.

MR RILEY: Now did anything in particular happen at Khayelitsha immediately prior to the incident of Mr Pro Jack's death that resulted in you deciding to go out on that particular night?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: What made us to go out on that particular night, there was an incident in Khayelitsha, there had been an incident whereby people were arrested and we were awoken at Brown's Farm and we were told that Mr Toyise was arrested with a firearm.

MR RILEY: Anything else?  Did anything else happen?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: Yes there were other incidents, things that were done by police because ...(indistinct) about eight people who were shot in one day.

MR RILEY: Were they killed or were they just shot?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: They were killed by the police.

MR RILEY: Is it fair to say therefore that on the night that you then decided to go out again that you were going basically out to take revenge against the authorities, the police?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: As it used to be my duty to keep guard on police.

MR RILEY: I just want to check with you, after your release from prison, did you in fact receive any military training after that?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: I got training after shooting at police in Khayelitsha.

MR RILEY: Was that prior to the death of Mr Jack?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: Yes.

MR RILEY: Where did you receive your training?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: Transkei, Butterworth.

MR RILEY: And who was responsible for training you?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: Fatty who was an MK member, an ANC member.

MR RILEY: Now how long did you undergo this training?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: I told them that six weeks was enough because I had no time to go across the borders to acquire training.

MR RILEY: So if we can get back to the incident, can you tell us, it was yourself and Tobani, Michael and Ntandaso.  What did you decide to do on that particular night?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: We decided upon fighting the police who were arresting the people, disarming the people and shooting the people.  We realised that we had enough weapons.  Rather than waiting for the police to come and confiscate our weapons, we decided that it would be better for us to go out and fight them.

MR RILEY: What weapon did you have?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: I had an R4 rifle, Tobani had a 38 special.  Michael had a Mosback.

MR RILEY: What is that?

XOLA TEMBINKOSI YEKWANI: I do not know that firearm but it was used by the special police.

MR RILEY: Was it a rifle or handgun or what?