Amnesty Hearings — East London — 1999-03-23

ADV PRIOR: Thank you.  Mr Chairman, a lot of what Mr Mbandazayo has said is common cause.  Certainly the King William's Town Golf Club matter before was a matter where we heard more detail than in any other APLA related matter, to which I've been connected.  It certainly had all the trappings of a military style operation very similar to, if not on all fours, with the St James Church operation where the modus operandi was to get a bunch of, or identify targets where innocent and defenceless people were gathered and to first of all throw in handgrenades, M26 grenades and/or firebombs and then machine-gun the people in the confusion that ensued during the explosions.  That was alleged to have occurred with a political objective, it was to bring home to the white people that they weren't safe in their areas.  And that, we've heard evidence, is that that was purely unrelated to any racist feeling or feeling of hatred towards whites per se.
	Now having said that, the Committee has got to be alive to the other ingredients required for amnesty, it's not just an argument that they were carrying out orders because those orders must also be seen against the background proportionality.  I think it was said on behalf of the victims, Ackerman and Smith in the St James massacre, in their Heads of Argument that was put up by Mr Brembridge, that it must be made clear that not every act committed in a political context is an act of a political nature or one associated with a political objective, nor is every politically motivated act or every act committed in the name of a political party such an act.
	Now one has understanding to the evidence of Mr Xundu who was very articulate and I think to that end one must accept that he is a man of above average intelligence, apparently he serves in the new South African National Defence Force in a very high position, he is a man who is clear in his thinking and clear in his actions.  
	Now having referred the Committee to the nature of the operation and the result of the operation which led to four deaths and seventeen persons severely injured and other people shocked and what have you, the situation that concerns one is the motive of the attack, what was the political motive?  Now it may be completely fortuitous that Mr Radie had decided to sponsor a golf day on the 28th of November, yet that was the very reason that the applicants put up as being the driving force, it was to make more than just, it was more than an attack, it was a statement, a symbolical statement, an attack against, a day where political people, for example members of the National Party, high-ranking officials of the Defence Force and the police would be present.  And that was the intelligence, that was the information that the Lembede Unit had gained.  And seen in that context then one has a better understanding of why Mr Xundu and his comrades then attacked the golf club as they did.  Yet it would seem that when the information note or the operational record, at page 65 of the original bundle which is bundle B, was referred to by, was it Mr StClair, I'm not too sure, Mr Stanford, it almost as if Mr Xundu, and this is just an observation that I made when I recorded it, Mr Xundu started to falter in his stride, the confidence that he had exuded earlier on seemed to fade.  And Mr Chairman, he had grave difficulty in explaining the rather innocuous statement in his note which he conceded in evidence that it was in his hand, was that the operation had had to be postponed due to the weather.
	Now Mr Radie's evidence, as correctly conceded or stated by my learned friend, Mr Mbandazayo, was that the golf day was scheduled for the 28th of November.  So in other words, if the attack had to have been postponed, the original attack must have been intended for some earlier day, some earlier time before the Ray Radie Golf Day.  Then if that is the case, with respect, Mr Chairman, then the golf day as such per se could not have been the target of the Lembede Regiment's attack.  In other words, the political motivation falls away, then it is purely in the realm of an attack on a soft target or a civilian target.  It was maybe fortuitous that on the very day that they attacked, that Mr Radie happened to have sponsored the golf day and he happened to have been a member of the Nationalist Party.
	Mr Radie's evidence was also unchallenged when he told the Committee that it wasn't a political event, it was not an event at which a political party, for example the Nationalist Party, was to make any mileage, it wasn't such an event.  And in any event when the attack occurred the golf day had ended, the majority of the members playing golf had left, there were one or two left behind in the bar and the function that was affected by this attack was the King William's Town Wine Tasters function Xmas party at which senior members of the community were present.
	My submission is that simply to argue it away as being doctored or a falsified report, I submit cannot carry the day and must raise in the Committee's mind some doubt as to the credibility of Mr Xundu and whether in fact he has made a proper and full disclosure as required of him in terms of the Act. 
	Mr Chairman, may I just make mention of certain other aspects before I conclude.  Mr Xundu was at pains to describe to you and to your fellow Committee Members the pain and the degradation that he felt at being treated as a caddy.  Now with respect, there was evidence regarding the caddy system, the manner in which caddies were engaged and to my view appeared to be a democratic way, there was a caddy leader, and the question of caddy fees would be discussed and there was a proper tariff.  And in fact the evidence from Mr Stanford was that if the fees were not paid there was a complaints procedure which could be introduced.

CHAIRPERSON: The tariff was hardly one that was recognised in golf clubs elsewhere, was it, Mr Prior?

ADV PRIOR: Yes.
MACHINE SWITCHED OFF