Amnesty Hearings — Welkom — 1998-11-17

SOLOMON SERA: Yes, he lied whilst he was under oath.  It happened that before our trial began he came together with Captain van Staaden to the jail where I was.  They brought some money, they wanted to buy me out so that I should be a State witness against my co-accused.  I rejected their offer, and then when he received in Court, Captain van Staaden agreed that he was in prison with me but he disputed that he came with money to buy me out so that I should be a State witness.  But the books showed that Captain van Staaden came in prison together with a certain person.

MR MHLABA: Thank you, Chair, that concludes the evidence-in-chief.
NO FURTHER QUESTIONS BY MR MHLABA

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr Mhlaba.  Do you have any questions, Mr Sesele?

MR SESELE: Thank you, Mr Chairman.
	Mr Sera, you say you were recruited by Mr Mohomane into the SDU, did you know at that time that there was a criminal case pending against him?

SOLOMON SERA: No, Chairperson, I didn't know that.  I only learnt of that while I was in jail.

MR SESELE: Was that before the trial against you, when you learnt of the case against Mr Mohomane?

SOLOMON SERA: The case against Mr Mohomane, I heard about it while we were already on trial with this case.

MR SESELE: How many members were there in the SDU?

SOLOMON SERA: We were four.

MR SESELE: Did you have any contact with any other person from the higher command structure except Mr Mohomane?

SOLOMON SERA: No, he was the only person that I had a contact with, so we received everything or the instructions from him.

MR SESELE: On the 5th of June 1993, the date of the incident, did you know that the ANC was involved in negotiations with the then government?

SOLOMON SERA: That's correct.

MR SESELE: Did you also know that the armed struggle was then suspended?

SOLOMON SERA: That's correct, I knew.

MR SESELE: Mr Mohomane has said he did not support the suspension of the armed struggle, and as your commander did you also not agree with that suspension?

SOLOMON SERA: Yes, that is correct, I was against the suspension of the armed struggle because our people were being killed.  There were other killings while the previous government and the ANC were still involved in the negotiations.

MR SESELE: Are you then saying that you acted outside the policy of the ANC?

SOLOMON SERA: Yes, what we did we did outside the policy of the ANC.

MR SESELE: Isn't it probable that you came involved in this shooting for the sake of Mr Mohomane who had a criminal case against him?

SOLOMON SERA: Like I've already explained, I only learnt of it while I was on trial.

MR SESELE: When you were on trial and you heard the evidence by Mr Kele that was against all four of you in Court, didn't you ask for an opportunity to contradict that evidence?

SOLOMON SERA: Because I did not recognise that government I did not request for an opportunity to oppose his evidence.

MR SESELE: You didn't oppose the evidence but all the same you at the same time pleaded not guilty, is that right?  Not guilty in Court.

SOLOMON SERA: That is correct, we did not plead guilty.

MR SESELE: Wasn't it explained to you that in order to substantiate your plea of not guilty you had to give some evidence if you don't agree with what was said against you?

SOLOMON SERA: No, Chairperson, that was not explained to us.

MR SESELE: Just to go a little bit backwards, who identified the two deceased policemen at Matsidiso(?) Restaurant?

SOLOMON SERA: That is Phillip Mosia.

MR SESELE: And where was Mr Mohomane then?

SOLOMON SERA: The three of us together with comrade Jack were outside.

MR SESELE: You said you knew the two deceased before the date of the incident, is that right?

SOLOMON SERA: Who said he knew the two accused before the incident?

MR SESELE: You personally said you knew them before the incident.

SOLOMON SERA: That is correct.

MR SESELE: Did you harbour any grudges against them?

SOLOMON SERA: The only thing that I was against was the way they were used against the people by the government of the day, that is to harass the people.

MR SESELE: I put it to you, Mr Sera, that all what you were involved in at the scene of the shooting was a matter of personal gain for Mr Mohomane.

SOLOMON SERA: That is not true.

MR SESELE: I further put it to you that since you also agree that you were acting outside the, outside what the ANC said regarding the armed struggle, you did this for your own purpose and you were not politically motivated.

SOLOMON SERA: That is not correct because after the suspension of the armed struggle the SDUs were formed in order to protect the communities because negotiations were still going on between the government and the ANC, while on the other hand the killings were continuing.  So the SDUs were formed after that, after the people were being killed, in order to protect the people.

MR SESELE: After the shooting what happened to the firearms of the deceased policemen?

SOLOMON SERA: I took both firearms to the place where I lived.

MR SESELE: And regarding firearms, what was the instruction of your commanders?

SOLOMON SERA: We kept the weapons where we were training but that day I had the weapons.  I was going to load the weapons.  We kept our weapons where we used to conduct our training.

MR SESELE: Were those your instructions, to disarm the policemen?

SOLOMON SERA: The instruction that we got was to kill the police and not to take their arms on that particular day.

MR SESELE: But all the same you took the weapons along?

CHAIRPERSON: I think there might have been some misunderstanding, Mr Sesele, perhaps you can clear it up but my understanding was that he took the weapons that were used in the shooting, not the weapons that the police had on them.  But perhaps you can clear it up.

MR SESELE: Thanks, Mr Chairman.
	Mr Sera, I'm referring to the weapons of the two police officers, what did you do with those weapons immediately after shooting them?

SOLOMON SERA: We did not disarm them, we left those weapons there.  We only took with us the weapons that we used on the scene.

MR SESELE: Thank you, Mr Chairman, I have no further questions.
NO FURTHER QUESTIONS BY MR SESELE

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.  Mr Mapoma?

MR MAPOMA: Thank you, Sir.
	Mr Sera, after you completed your application for amnesty did you submit any letter in support of that application to the Amnesty Committee?

SOLOMON SERA: I will explain it this way.  When we were filling these forms we didn't get any assistance as to how these forms should be filled.  That is after we had filled these forms and we realised that there were mistakes and omissions that we made, that is when we decided that we should write letters to the Committee to give all the details that were missing or omitted from our application forms.

MR MAPOMA: So are you confirming that you did write a letter to the Amnesty Committee in support of this application?

SOLOMON SERA: That is correct, I agree that I wrote a letter and I gave it to comrade Mohomane.  He is the person who took this letter to the office where they were supposed be sent to.

MR MAPOMA: And do you confirm that this letter that you wrote is the one which appears on page 24 up to page 29 of the bundle of documents, paginated bundle?

SOLOMON SERA: That's correct, that's the letter that I wrote.

MR MAPOMA: And in your evidence you have told the Committee that you did not have any contact with any other ANC member except, the only instructions you received were from Mr Mohomane, do you still confirm that?

SOLOMON SERA: Yes, I agree because we received everything from comrade Mohomane.

MR MAPOMA: And you did not have any contact with comrade Craig Khumalo?

SOLOMON SERA: Comrade Craig Khumalo was unknown to me.  I was supposed to meet him after the operations together with comrade Mohomane but he was the person unknown to me then.