Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 2000-06-23

CHAIRPERSON: Morning everybody, I apologise for the late start.  We heard yesterday that we'll be starting today with the evidence of Mr Basson.
	Mr Basson, do you wish to take the oath, or would you prefer to make an affirmation?

WOUTER J BASSON: (sworn states)

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.  Mr du Plessis.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Thank you, Mr Chairman.
	Mr Basson, you're also one of the applicants in this matter and you're applying for amnesty for four matters and they're known to us now as the Dullah Omar matter, the Gavin Evans case, the Early Learning Centre bomb incident and the baboon foetus at the home of Bishop Desmond Tutu.

WOUTER J BASSON: That's correct.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Is it correct that in your case as well you have already in respect of the Indemnity Act, lodged an application for indemnity which is dated 28 March 1991, is that correct?

WOUTER J BASSON: That's correct, the application is the same as that of Mr Burger.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And you were also notified thereafter that that matter, in terms of the further Indemnity Act 151/92, had been referred for hearing of argument on the 9th of December 1993 at Bloemfontein before the National Council on Indemnity, is that correct?

WOUTER J BASSON: That's correct, yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: But the Indemnity Act - or no publication in the Government Gazette took place to state that you ever acquired indemnity under the Indemnity Act.

WOUTER J BASSON: I didn't see anything.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Thereafter the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act 34/95, was promulgated and you applied for amnesty in terms of your involvement and it is that application which is currently serving before this Committee, is that correct?

WOUTER J BASSON: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Your application in this respect appears in bundle A, dated 4 December 1996, is that correct?

WOUTER J BASSON: That's correct.

CHAIRPERSON: On page 33 of bundle A.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Thank you, Mr Chairman.
	And to corroborate this application you've attached to your original application, in terms of the Indemnity Act, you've attached an affidavit dated 28th March 1990, is that correct?

WOUTER J BASSON: That is correct.

MR P DU PLESSIS: We won't deal with that document any further at this stage, I would just like you to continue and in your words to describe to the Committee what led to your involvement in the four incidents with which we're here concerned.  These four offences for which you're applying for amnesty.
	Now just to start off with I would just like you to sketch the background as a member of the South African Defence Force and Special Forces in particular and I would like you to just sketch that briefly.

WOUTER J BASSON: I was raised in a home where the Defence Force featured prominently, my father was in the Defence Force and immediately after school, in 1977, I joined the permanent Force and I was at 1 Parachute Battalion and in September I went to Oudtshoorn where I did my junior leadership ...(intervention)

MR P DU PLESSIS: Of which year?

WOUTER J BASSON: '77.

MR P DU PLESSIS: You're referring to training as an officer?

WOUTER J BASSON: No, a junior leadership course, that is training to become an Instructor.
	That lasted for about a year and thereafter I was placed as an Instructor at the 2nd Infantry Division at Walvis Bay and I was involved with instruction in some very minor way as an Instructor.  I was there only for three months and I then applied to join Special Forces.  It was in the middle of '78.  I passed the selection processes and Committee and I then was utilised in Special Forces as an Operator initially, and later also to some extent, I was involved in instruction until the end of 1986.

MR P DU PLESSIS: So you served in Special Forces as one would understand it in practice, you were utilised as a soldier?

WOUTER J BASSON: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Until the end of '86.  What happened then?

WOUTER J BASSON: Myself and one other person received a request - at that stage I was at 1 Reconnaissance Regiment in Durban, we received a request that Col Verster wanted to see us and we had to go to Pretoria for an interview.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Was Col Verster at that stage known to you?

WOUTER J BASSON: The name of Col Verster was known to me, but I had not had any contact or co-operation or operations with him in my time at Special Forces.  I had an interview with him.

MR P DU PLESSIS: You say his name was familiar to you at that stage, as somebody attached to Special Forces?

WOUTER J BASSON: Yes, I was aware of his Special Forces background at another unit, a different unit to the one where I was.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Very well.

WOUTER J BASSON: He explained to me that the CCB was an organisation which had now been established and that its objective was to destabilise the enemy and attack them in a more covert way, because the existing methods proved to be no longer successful at that stage.  So it was a branch of Special Forces, the difference being that where I would in the past have been used to act directly, this would be action or conduct in a more indirect way.  He explained the objectives very briefly, of the organisation and then he said I had a week to make up my mind.
	He also mentioned to me that I would have to sacrifice my career in the Defence Force if I was interested.  I then went back ...(intervention)

CHAIRPERSON: Sorry, Mr Basson, what was your rank at that stage?

WOUTER J BASSON: I was a Captain at that stage, Chairperson.
	And after consultation with my wife I made a decision and we moved to Pretoria.  I then - well I'm not sure exactly which month it was but it was early in '87 that I started at the CCB.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Now you say that your career in the Defence Force, that you were told that you would have to give it up, but if I understand correctly, you didn't actually resign from the Defence Force at that stage, because the CCB was actually part of the bigger Defence Force structures?

WOUTER J BASSON: Yes, at that stage the planning was such or to the effect that the members who were still active in the South African Defence Force, in terms of remuneration and rank, that we would enter a process in which we would uncouple ourselves from the State and that in fact took place end of '87, beginning of '88.  We were uncoupled and we distanced ourselves from the Defence Force and we no longer had the facilities of the Defence Force in terms of Special Forces Headquarters, we couldn't use that any longer.  We moved to premises where we could operate in a civilian capacity.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Now this uncoupling that was necessitated due to the covert action by the CCB, but you were still paid by the State and were contracted to the State?

WOUTER J BASSON: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: So ultimately it was the tax-payer's money that was used to pay you, it wasn't a private business?

WOUTER J BASSON: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And that's how you understood it?

WOUTER J BASSON: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: You understood it that you were still acting for an on behalf of the State?

WOUTER J BASSON: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Now I just briefly want to go back to what Mr Joe Verster told you in motivation of the application.  At a stage, end of '86/beginning of '87, when you went over to the CCB, was it conveyed to you at that stage that there was an internal region or would be an internal region and that you would serve in that region?

WOUTER J BASSON: No, at that stage there was no mention of an internal region or internal methods or utilisation, the emphasis was primarily or exclusively on foreign external operations and to look at covert methods to attack the enemy.  The issue of the internal region only became relevant after I was introduced to Mr Burger and his people, this was in the middle of '88.