Amnesty Hearings — Boksburg — 1998-06-22

JAN B DE WET: No, they asked me.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: This war to which you at various times refer to, when would this have started?

JAN B DE WET: Sir, when we gathered at the game farm, after we left the women, we accepted that the war started.
	When I arrived at Leon van der Merwe, he said it was war now, it was the 21st and the 22nd of April.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: So before that there was no war?

JAN B DE WET: No, there was a run up to the revolution, yes.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: The war started on the 21st/22nd and not before that?

JAN B DE WET: No, not before that.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: You said that you are willing to give you life?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct yes.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: For that which you believed in?

JAN B DE WET: For God, country and nation.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: That is now the third time that you use those words, but you are not willing to give your vehicle?

JAN B DE WET: I made my vehicle available.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: No Sir, you made it conditionally available.

JAN B DE WET: If I am not the driver, I will not give my vehicle, because I do not know what they will use my vehicle for.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: But you will give your life?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, I would.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: This coalition that you refer to in paragraph 7 of your application, this Afrikaans Volksfront, if I may use the word, is that the vehicle of Constand Viljoen?

JAN B DE WET: Please repeat.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: This Afrikaner Volksfront in paragraph 7, was this the party or Constand Viljoen, was he part of that?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, he was.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: And I accept that you believed that with General Constand Viljoen's people you would have been able to succeed?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, that is correct.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: If I understand Constand Viljoen correctly, he said that he will take part in the elections at about the 12th of March 1994?

CHAIRPERSON: He made the decision at that time, he took part in the election on the 27th of April?

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: Yes, I accept that but on the 12th of March he said I will not go into a war, but I will take part in the election, is that correct if I put it that way?

JAN B DE WET: I agree, yes.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: That was already the 12th of March when Viljoen decided not to take part in the war?

JAN B DE WET: I do not know if he decided that completely, I cannot answer for him.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: But Sir, it was very clear, there were boards up various parties that would take part and amongst them, Viljoen's party of the Freedom Front was also up.

JAN B DE WET: Chairperson, when we gathered in Pretoria, all the right wing people said that we will not vote and I believed that Mr Constand Viljoen would also not vote because he was part of the meeting.

CHAIRPERSON: Did you know that he was going to take part in the elections?

JAN B DE WET: He talked about him taking part in the elections, but what was said there at the meeting, this is my personal opinion, at that stage that he had a hidden agenda with that.

CHAIRPERSON: When did you find out that he was going to take part in the elections?

JAN B DE WET: I cannot say.

CHAIRPERSON: Was it before the march up or after?

JAN B DE WET: I would say it was before the march to Ventersdorp, when the people were called up to go there.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: You accept that approximately the 12th of March Viljoen would have decided to take part in the election?  When was the meeting in the Skilpad Hall?

JAN B DE WET: That was in January/February 1994.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: So the talk about war was before the 12th of March?

JAN B DE WET: Mr Chairperson, as I said already the run up to the election, things took place before that and talk about war, occurred before that.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: But the person who would give you the most support, withdrew?

JAN B DE WET: It was not the impression that I got, that he would completely withdraw.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: In other words in the Western Transvaal, Constand Viljoen did not tie any placard against a pole for the election?

JAN B DE WET: For me it was a set, a plan, it was a hidden agenda.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: If I understand Mr Fourie correctly on Friday, you went to the game farm in order to protect the borders of the Volkstaat, is that correct?

JAN B DE WET: Yes Mr Chairperson, that is how he gave evidence.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: Do you agree with what he testified?

JAN B DE WET: No, I do not agree with him.  There are certain things I do not agree with.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: So why did you go to the game farm?

JAN B DE WET: Because they told me that it is a war and you do not only protect the Western Transvaal's borders, you protect the whole country.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr De Wet, surely on the 27th of April 1994 it was then not a set or a plan, you had to realise that they were going to take part in the elections?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct.

CHAIRPERSON: When did you realise that he is telling the truth, that he is going to take part in the elections?

JAN B DE WET: Sir, I cannot say when I realised this, but it was after I was arrested that I realised that Mr Constand Viljoen did take part in the elections.

CHAIRPERSON: When were you arrested?

JAN B DE WET: It was two, three months after the 27th.

CHAIRPERSON: But on the 27th you had to have realised that he is taking part in the elections?

JAN B DE WET: Mr Chairperson, on the 27th, when they arrested the people at the shooting range, I started fleeing, I was on the run because our people were arrested.  For a few days I did not watch the news, I cannot say what happened there.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: Just to follow up on the question of the Chairperson.  During the period of the 12th of March up to the elections, did you have a television in your house, did you buy a newspaper?

JAN B DE WET: No Mr Chairperson, I did not have a television and I was also not a person who read newspapers.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: Were you also part of the HNP?

JAN B DE WET: No Mr Chairperson.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: You say that the war was declared around the 21st or the 22nd of April 1994?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, they said that we are going to make war.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: Who chose the target in Germiston?

JAN B DE WET: I do not know.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: Did you discuss it at any time with your fellow men?

JAN B DE WET: No, I was only at Koesterfontein the evening, and the next afternoon ...

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: Did you ever discuss things or talked to each other at Koesterfontein?

JAN B DE WET: I was not at Koesterfontein, I only went to go and drop off the pipe bombs.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: And then you went back the next morning?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, to go and get the trailer.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: And didn't you talk with your fellow soldiers?

JAN B DE WET: No, the morning we got the instructions that this is going to Germiston and how we must transport this trailer.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: Sir, did you see the bomb in the trailer?

JAN B DE WET: No Chairperson.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: At what stage did you see the gas burner?

JAN B DE WET: The evening when I was at Koesterfontein, it was on a table and explosives were stuck around it.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: The next morning, where was that explosive and gas bottle?

JAN B DE WET: I do not know, I was not in the building again.  I got Mr Le Roux's vehicle with a trailer along the road.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: Are you saying now that you did not know what was in the trailer?

JAN B DE WET: They said there to me that the bomb was in the trailer.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: And didn't you receive any further instructions to put sand in the trailer?

JAN B DE WET: Before I got there, they were busy to load sand into the trailer.

ANDRIES STEPHANUS KRIEL: How do you know that?