Amnesty Hearings — Boksburg — 1998-06-22

UNKNOWN: You see, my problem is that the ANC had not taken over yet when you offered your car and when you went out on this particular mission, so where does your action on that day, fit into the call up to start this revolution once the ANC took over?  What was your understanding?

JAN B DE WET: Mr Chairperson, what I understood regarding this was that we already thought that the revolution against the National Party and the ANC/SACP alliance with certain speeches by the ANC that they will not give us a Volkstaat and the ANC leaders said Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer.  We were already in a revolution and in a war struggle with the ANC.
	It was not specifically targeted, or we did not specifically say that we were going to start today, it was a thing that had a long period of time, it came over a long period of time and because the ANC said we will not receive the Volkstaat.

MS VAN DER WALT: According to the question asked by the panel member, you said that the revolution already started.  Do you carry any knowledge with regards to any bombs which exploded before the explosions which were triggered by your members?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson.  In the Western Transvaal, and this already happened in 1993, there were bomb explosions in several places in the Western Transvaal, Free State and Mr Terreblanche said that he spoke to the National Party at meetings, that if they do not want to listen, he will plant another bomb the next day, tomorrow or the day after, a bomb did explode.

MS VAN DER WALT: The bombs you were talking about, did you know which group, which group was responsible for those bombs?

JAN B DE WET: I knew it was AWB members who were responsible, people who were involved with the AWB, it is them who planted the bombs.

CHAIRPERSON: Did the AWB by means of Terreblanche or someone else, did they admit that those bombs were detonated by the AWB or on behalf of the AWB?

JAN B DE WET: No Chairperson, Terreblanche himself did not admit it, but at a meeting he said tomorrow another meeting would explode if they do not want to listen.  So I accepted that it carried his approval.

CHAIRPERSON: That bothers me - the people, how would they have received the message if they did not know who was responsible for the bombings?

JAN B DE WET: Chairperson, every time when there was a group of people that were involved in bomb explosions, there was a splinter group, I don't know how to call it any other way, which worked under a (indistinct) name of the AWB.
	Think of the bomb explosion in Johannesburg, that was the BKA who accepted responsibility for it.  In Rustenburg in 1992 and 1993, there was also another bomb explosion which was The Boere Ordevolk people said they were responsible for it.
	At that stage it was people who were directly involved with the AWB and for me, it was the standard that as soon as there was a certain little group who do things within the AWB, they do not use the AWB's name, but they use, they are part of the AWB.

CHAIRPERSON: But I still do not understand, at that stage you were advised to prepare yourself for a revolution and you believe in this, because certain people in leadership positions, said certain things.
	In meetings of the AWB it is accepted that these bombs, were exploded by the AWB because they wanted this Volkstaat.  But how would the Nationalists at that stage, how would they have known that this bomb was exploded by the AWB because they wanted a Volkstaat?

JAN B DE WET: Chairperson, according to Mr Terreblanche's utterances, and I am going to try and remember his words when he said if they do not want to listen, tomorrow there will be another bomb.
	Because of what he said there, I accepted that it was his way of conveying it to the National Party.

CHAIRPERSON: How would the Nationalists have found out about it?  Everybody knows that the AWB's meetings were not the greatest meetings in this country?

JAN B DE WET: Because of the fact that right-wingers were involved in the explosions, the right wing organisations or splinter groups which accepted responsibility for it, because of that, I assumed that the National Party  would understand it as a right wing resistance.

CHAIRPERSON: And all these splinter groups, did they have one thing in common, one cause and that is to get the Volkstaat?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Mr Chairperson.

ADV BOSMAN: You spoke about splinter groups as you called it, which took responsibility for what happened, can you be a bit more specific with regard to the bombs that we are dealing with here in this trial?
	Which groups accepted responsibility for which bombs?

JAN B DE WET: Chairperson, the Bree Street, Johannesburg explosion, the first news report which came on TV was that the SACP took responsibility for it and that is facts that came from the news, from the TV news.
	With the second report, the SACP distanced themselves from the bombs and then it was said that the BKA took responsibility for it.  At that stage, all I knew of the BKA was that Constand Viljoen was at one stage part of that group.

ADV BOSMAN: When you talk about the SACP, do you mean the Conservative Party or the Communist Party?

JAN B DE WET: No, the Communist Party Chairperson.

ADV BOSMAN: And except for the Bree Street bomb where the report said that the BKA took responsibility for it, was there any other groups which you can specifically mention, who took responsibility?

JAN B DE WET: It was the only one that was made known on the news.

ADV BOSMAN: How did you regard the BKA?

JAN B DE WET: What I know about the BKA is that it was Mr Viljoen, Terreblanche, Ferdi Hartzenberg, the Mine Workers' Union and the Agricultural Unions, it was a group of 12 members.

ADV BOSMAN: Was it leaders - were they leaders or was it only them?

JAN B DE WET: No, it was only the leadership of the splinter group which served under the Freedom Front or operated under the Freedom Front and the AWB.

MS VAN DER WALT: You were asked about how the message would be conveyed to the National Party, but if you look at Exhibit F where the speech was made, where you were present, in the second paragraph, in a meeting where they received the Freedom of Lichtenburg, Mr Terreblanche referred to the bomb explosions in the Western Transvaal, Free State and said that they would increase if Afrikaners do not receive their Volkstaat.
	Is that how you remember the speech and how it took place?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson, and because of these utterance, we accepted that it was a basic instruction for us and for the groups who took part in the revolution, that there will be a war.

MS VAN DER WALT: If you listen to such a speech and it is taken up by the media, then it is quite evident, if you look at this report now, that the AWB was involved?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, that is correct Chairperson.

MS VAN DER WALT: Is that how you understand it?

JAN B DE WET: That is how I see it, that is how I understand it Chairperson.

MS VAN DER WALT: I want to take you back, you also said that Terreblanche said the AWB is responsible for the cities.  Why on the game farm at Magaliesburg, why did you gather there, do you know?

JAN B DE WET: Chairperson, I cannot say exactly why, but at that stage, we were informed that the game farm is very close to the Volkstaat's boundaries and to operate from there, and I am using the English expression, it is a hit and run.
	You can go from there, complete your mission and return and it was a very appropriate place.

MS VAN DER WALT: So, it is close to the cities?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, it is close to the cities.

MS VAN DER WALT: This hit and run, you are aware of the AWB's policy which you will find in a little book which was published and was given out by Oelofse and in the first phase, he talks about the first phase.  Did you study this booklet before you joined the Ystergarde?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Mr Chairperson.