Amnesty Hearings — Pretoria — 1996-07-01

JOHAN VAN EYCK: (Duly sworn, states).

MEV VAN DER WALT: Mr Van Eyck, you were also sentenced on the 18th of February 19 ... to 18 years imprisonment which you are currently serving in the Zonderwater Prison in Cullinan, as a result of the murder of the deceased.

JOHAN VAN EYCK: Yes, that's correct.

MEV VAN DER WALT: Mr Van Eyck, you also joined the Police when you were very young. Is that correct?

JOHAN VAN EYCK: That's correct, I joined the 20th of March 1970, I served in Brakpan.

MEV VAN DER WALT: How old were you then?

JOHAN VAN EYCK: I was 16 years old.  I served in Brakpan before going to the Police College in 1971, where I received training.  I was then transferred to the Benoni Police Station. I was in the uniform branch.  In 1973 I received training at Groblersdal in the combating of terrorism.  Thereafter I was sent to the Caprivi, where I performed my border duties.
	During my training at Viljoenskop, we were made aware of the armed assault aimed against our country, and that was the reason why we were serving in the Caprivi, to avert this onslaught.
	In 1974, I performed border duty on two different occasions, in the then Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe. My duties were still the same, the combating of terrorism.
	  When I arrived back in the country I was transferred to another police station where I worked for a time.  Before I was approached by officers in the Police and asked whether I wanted to join Murder and Robbery. Initially I didn't want to, because I enjoyed my work, but they persuaded me and I joined the detective branch.  
	My duties entailed the investigating of crime and I there encountered the various methods of interrogation, amongst others, the use of shock machines, sacks pulled over the head, et cetera.  
	In 1976 I was also involved in the combating of riots in the Black townships.  We encountered violence on a daily basis.  Vehicles were damaged, burnt.  The people who were regarded as police informers were killed.

MEV VAN DER WALT: Mr Van Eyck, you are now testifying that you were involved in violence. Can you tell us whether this violence related to ordinary criminal activities or what was the case?

JOHAN VAN EYCK: Honourable Chairperson, the violence in the Black areas was aimed at the Government.  Various organisations were responsible for this; youth organisations as well as political groupings.
	I was appointed as branch commander in Witfontein.  That was quite an achievement for me at such a young age.  That was due to the work which I had performed. I could perhaps mention that I did not receive instructions from officers to make use of interrogation methods, but I believed that they approved of these methods, since in the time that I was there, certain charges of assault were made against me and I could refute the complainants' case by means of statements which I made and the result of that was that the Attorney-General declined to prosecute.  It was clear to me that these officers were well-aware of my actions and my conduct.

MEV VAN DER WALT: During that period, Mr Van Eyck, the period in which there was a lot of violence in the Black areas, were there any statements made by the leaders of the country, of which you were aware?

JOHAN VAN EYCK: Yes, that is correct. Chairperson, statements were made by the then President of the country, as well as by various Ministers, Ministers of Police. The statements made were that the onslaught had to be countered ruthlessly.

MEV VAN DER WALT: Are you now referring to which President?

JOHAN VAN EYCK: The President P W Botha, and the Ministers were Minister Louis le Grange, Hernus Kriel, Adriaan Vlok.

MEV VAN DER WALT: When these statements were made, that these assaults and onslaughts had to be tackled, very harshly, how did you understand that?

JOHAN VAN EYCK: I believed that these statements also supported the kind of methods that I used.

MEV VAN DER WALT: The organisations which you mentioned, who were involved in the violence, now were you aware what their objectives were?

JOHAN VAN EYCK: Yes.  The period which I am referring to is the late Seventies, but I wasn't then so closely involved with the riots, because I was then still in the detective branch.  In the beginning of the 1980s, a couple of us were told to go to Tembisa to help combat the riots and violence reigning at the time. I was there for a couple of months.  I then went back to Benoni.  	Approximately a month thereafter I received an instruction, myself and a colleague of mine, Warrant-Officer Kruger, to go to Daveyton.  Certain police dwellings had been burnt down. When we arrived there that afternoon, we were immediately attacked.  Our vehicle was damaged, the vehicle was stoned.  We had to make use of Land Rovers and quite a few homes of policemen were burnt down. We were told that very same night to stay in the residential area to investigate all incidents of violence in the area.
	There were also members of the Defence Force and the uniform branch operating in the area, but we were instructed to investigate these incidents of violence. As a result of our investigations we came into contact with many of these organisations and their members.  A state of emergency was declared at some point.  I attended various meetings where the Police, Defence Force and the various town councils were present and there it was planned how these riots and incidents of violence could be combated.  
	Amongst other things, instructions were given as to how funerals should be conducted in these townships. Prior notice was given to the family and the organisers of the funeral as to how the funerals should take place.  It happened that some people took no notice of these state of emergency regulations. On one occasion Archbishop Desmond Tutu was present as well.  On one of these occasions when people ignored the state of emergency, but after talks with 
the Archbishop buses for the people going to the funerals were arranged.  
	I also contacted Penny Moshoego, a secretary of the UDF, after she had resigned from the UDF, and she told me that their aim with the violence, boycotts, strikes, et cetera, was to paralyse the government, and to enable the UDF and the ANC to topple the government.

MEV VAN DER WALT: You then at some stage resigned from the Police?

JOHAN VAN EYCK: Yes.  I was on sick leave for nine months as a result of permanent headaches.  I believe it was as a result of the incredible stress under which I worked. I then decided to resign from the Police and I started up my own business.
	As a result of increasing thefts which took place at my place of business, I closed the business and went to work for Fidelity Guard as an investigating officer under Mr Gerber, he was my boss. I already knew him from the East Rand.

MEV VAN DER WALT: Was this during May 1988?

JOHAN VAN EYCK: Yes, that is correct.  Yes, that is correct, I started working for them in May 1988.
	It soon became clear to me that the same methods used in the Police during investigations and interrogations also applied here.  It was very clear that the co-operation between the investigating officers who were all former policemen and the Police, that this co-operation was very close and very good.  I also liaised with various divisions and branches of the Police and with various investigating officers.  I thereby could gain information just by picking up the phone. I could just phone Murder and Robbery with the information branch and just obtain the information which I needed.

MEV VAN DER WALT: Mr Van Eyck, when you say that there was close contact and liaison between yourself and the Police, could you tell us was that just liaison between yourself as a former policeman asking favours from the Police or did it actually involved Fidelity Guards?