Amnesty Hearings — East London — 1999-04-30

CHAIRPERSON: Are you calling Mr Bonakele Bhayi?

MR KINCAID: I am Mr Chairman thank you.

BONAKELE BHAYI: (sworn states)

MR KINCAID: Thank you Mr Chairman.
	Bonakele, do you mind if I call you by your first name?

BONAKELE BHAYI: No I don't mind.

MR KINCAID: In June of 1992 you were convicted in the Supreme Court of robbing Mr Hansel of a shotgun, of damage to his property in that you cut his wires.  You were convicted of the attempted murder of Mr Cobus, of the crime of housebreaking, that you broke into Mr Cobus' house, of malicious damage to his property in that you cut his telephone wires.  You were convicted of the attempted murder of Mr Pretorius, of breaking into the home of Mr Senti, you were convicted of causing malicious damage to the property of Mr Senti, you broke his window and to the property of Mr Pretorius in that you cut his telephone wires.
	Do you concede that you were correctly convicted by the  Supreme Court or is it your contention that your convictions were improper or not founded in fact or in law?

BONAKELE BHAYI: Yes I do agree.

MR KINCAID: Do we not dispute the correctness and the properness of your convictions?

BONAKELE BHAYI: As I'm not a legal person I wouldn't know whether I was convicted properly or not.

MR KINCAID: The time of commission of these offences, Bonakele, you were seventeen years of age is that correct?

BONAKELE BHAYI: That is correct.

MR KINCAID: And you've listened to the testimony of your brother Rhandile of Mtzianda and Melvin?

BONAKELE BHAYI: Yes.

MR KINCAID: Do you confirm the manner in which Jimmy described the civil unrest, the tensions of the community in which you lived in for the period 1985 to 1990?  Do you confirm Jimmy's portrayal of every day life?

BONAKELE BHAYI: Yes I do confirm that, which was like that.

MR KINCAID: Bonakele, Jimmy mentioned the church meeting at the Matamela Hall and so did Rhandile.  Were you present at the church hall in December on the occasion that the security forces raided that meeting and caused that injury?

BONAKELE BHAYI: Yes I was present.

MR KINCAID: Were you present Bonakele at these meetings which were held in consequence of that shooting, consequence of that event?

BONAKELE BHAYI: Yes I was present.

MR KINCAID: And can you confirm that there was a decision taken by the community to target farmers living at Stutterheim and in that vicinity?

BONAKELE BHAYI: Yes I confirm that.

MR KINCAID: You were convicted of essentially what were three incidents and you apply for amnesty in respect of those incidents.  Firstly the Hansel incident.  Were you party to the group that attacked Mr Hansel?

BONAKELE BHAYI: Yes I was there.

MR KINCAID: Bonakele, we've heard through all the applicants what happened there and I don't want you to cover the entire sequence of events but I'd like you to tell the Committee what you did, your personal involvement there, what actions you took, what your role was?  The Committee has a fair idea of the broad perspective of the circumstances of the attack but can you tell the Committee just what your role was?

BONAKELE BHAYI: In Mr Hansel's, my role was to search in the rooms, I was searching for weapons that we were looking for.  When we still searched for further weapons, I didn't get the weapons that I was searching for.  We were then called to the room where Mr Hansel was and we were told that they had found a firearm there.  I asked how many, they said they found only one firearm so I just thought that that was not enough because there were a lot of us.  We wanted weapons for the whole group, we then searched again in other rooms but we didn't find anything.
	After that we heard a sound while we were still searching in the rooms.  We went there from that direction, we asked what was happening and we were told that they were testing this firearm and there was a poster that was hanging on the hall, a ...(indistinct) frame and they had shot at that poster on the wall.

MR KINCAID: There has been evidence that Mr Hansel was previously assaulted.  Rhandile says that he struck him on his back with a hammer.  Did you cause any injury to Mr Hansel?  Did you inflict him with injury, assault him?

BONAKELE BHAYI: No, I didn't assault him because I was not in that room where he was, I didn't manage to get into that room.

MR KINCAID: Did you have any personal dislike of Mr Hansel, did you bear him any ill will, any feelings of malice or spite?

BONAKELE BHAYI: No I didn't hate him as such but we just wanted him to give us weapons and to leave that area.

MR KINCAID: The next incident was the attack on Mr Cobus' farm and were you party to that attack as well?

BONAKELE BHAYI: In Mr Cobus' I didn't attack but what I did is to remove the net that was in the window, I was the one who removed that net from the window.

MR KINCAID: The evidence was that no one could get to Mr Cobus' because he barricaded himself behind a security gate.  Did your involvement in the attack on his home was you say to have broken into the house, was that the only role that you took, that you assumed or did you do anything else?

BONAKELE BHAYI: What I did again was to go round after the comrade had went inside the house through the window, we were just surrounding that house together with the comrades.  I was part of the people who were trying to let him out while the other comrades were inside.

MR KINCAID: Did you bear him any ill will any hatred or any malice?

BONAKELE BHAYI: I didn't hate him apart from wanting weapons from him and wanted him to leave that area to go and stay in town so that we can get places where we could stay.

MR KINCAID: The injury to Mr Senti and Mr Pretorius, that was the Pretorius incident, were you involved in the group which went to attack Mr Pretorius?

BONAKELE BHAYI: Yes I was there in Mr Pretorius'.

MR KINCAID: And what was your role, what specifically did you do during the attack on Mr Senti's house and then again later during the attack on Mr Pretorius?

BONAKELE BHAYI: I was at the back of that house as I was looking for people from the next doors, I thought they might come out of their houses and report us.  I was at the back of the house.

MR KINCAID: So you didn't injure Mr Senti in any way and Mr Pretorius, did you injure him in any way?

BONAKELE BHAYI: I didn't even get near Mr Pretorius' house.  When the comrades went from Joe Senti to Mr Pretorius we were left behind together with other comrades.  We were looking for people that might come out and report us as the comrades were going to Mr Pretorius' home.  Some of our comrades who went to the house of Mr Pretorius then we were left behind.

MR KINCAID: Likewise during the attacks on Joe Senti and Mr Pretorius, did you involve yourself in those attacks for any reason of a personal nature such as personal ill will or spite or malice?

BONAKELE BHAYI: No I had nothing against Mr Joe Senti, I took him as a black person who suffered just like me, I didn't have a problem with him and Mr Pretorius, I didn't have a problem with him as such, we just wanted weapons from him and we wanted him to move out of his farm.

MR KINCAID: Bonakele, the annexure to that charge sheet alleged that when you attacked Mr Hansel it wasn't just firearms, a firearm that you took from him but there were other items of a normal household nature, food, clothing, linen, did you take any of those items from Mr Hansel when you attacked him?

BONAKELE BHAYI: No I didn't take anything from Mr Hansel's.

MR KINCAID: Did you see any of your fellow comrades take anything from Mr Hansel which was not an arm or ammunition?

BONAKELE BHAYI: No I didn't see but except for the military uniform, I only saw the military uniform, the boots and the overall and a black panama.  Those where the things that we used to use to disguise as soldiers.

MR KINCAID: Who took possession of those items, can you recall?