Amnesty Hearings — Boksburg — 1998-06-22

MR LANDMAN: Were you told at some stage that you must not ask questions?

JAN B DE WET: Chairperson, when you are in a war situation, there are times when you do not ask questions, you just do as you are told.

MR LANDMAN: But were you told not to ask questions?

JAN B DE WET: In the training that I have had, I was taught that Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: On the television, or rather let me ask you this, how many times did you see a report about the Bree Street bomb on Sunday night?

JAN B DE WET: Mr Chairperson, if I can remember correctly it was on the news twice, about seven/eight o'clock news and also later that evening, it was on CNN.

MR LANDMAN: Did you hear that night that the BKA accepted responsibility for the bomb?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: Did you know who the BKA were?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: Who were they?

JAN B DE WET: It was an organisation of which Constand Viljoen was the leader and other right wing parties such as Mr  Terreblanche, Ferdi Hartzenberg, Agricultural Unions as well as the Mining Unions, they all belonged to it.
	What the objective of the organisation was, I do not know.

MR LANDMAN: Wasn't it meant to protect the farms, the farming areas?

JAN B DE WET: Please repeat?

MR LANDMAN: Was it not meant to protect the farms in the area?

JAN B DE WET: I do not know if that was the purpose.

MR LANDMAN: Did you ever attend any meetings of the BKA?

JAN B DE WET: No Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: Did the BKA have its own constitution?

JAN B DE WET: I do not know Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: Did you ask anybody whether they knew what the BKA was doing, seeing that they have accepted responsibility for this bomb?

JAN B DE WET: No Mr Chairperson, I didn't ask anyone.

MR LANDMAN: You have already mentioned another organisation called Boere Ordevolk, is that right?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: Is it led by Mr Piet Rudolph?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct, yes.

MR LANDMAN: Does it have its own constitution?

JAN B DE WET: Certain points of his constitution is the same as the AWB, because we all wanted to get our own Volkstaat.

MR LANDMAN: But it is a separate organisation from the AWB, isn't it?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, Mr Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: The BKA was also separate from the AWB, wasn't it?

JAN B DE WET: It had to be but it was still part of the AWB for me, because Terreblanche was involved with it.

MR LANDMAN: All right.  Was the Freedom Front part of the Volksfront?

JAN B DE WET: Was the Freedom Front part of the Volksfront?

MR LANDMAN: Yes?

JAN B DE WET: No Mr Chairperson, it was a group that splintered away from the Volksfront.

MR LANDMAN: So are you saying that when the BKA commits an act, it is actually the AWB who is committing that act?

JAN B DE WET: No Chairperson, I do not say that.

MR LANDMAN: Is it not possible Mr De Wet, that Mr Barnard could have been a member of the BKA?

JAN B DE WET: It is possible Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: Likewise Mr Le Roux, Ettiene le Roux?

JAN B DE WET: It is possible Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: And this might have been a small cell of people at Koesterfontein making bombs on behalf of BKA?

JAN B DE WET: If you make the statement that way, I must accept that all the Officers who were at the game farm, must also have been part of the BKA.

MR LANDMAN: It is possible, isn't it?

JAN B DE WET: It is possible Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: This may have nothing to do with the AWB at all, this bombing campaign?

JAN B DE WET: No, I wouldn't say that because all of us who were there, we gathered together there for the AWB, we did not belong to any other organisations, I didn't belong to other organisations.

MR LANDMAN: You can only talk for yourself?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: Assuming it was the BKA who planted that bomb in Bree Street, do you associate yourself with what the BKA did?

JAN B DE WET: Yes, Mr Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: I understand that your amnesty application is based on a belief that that bomb was planted in support of the AWB's political struggle, is that correct?

JAN B DE WET: That is correct Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: Do you know what struggle the BKA was involved in?

JAN B DE WET: No Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: Mr De Wet, at the time that you went to Ventersdorp to find out what the instructions were, did you at that stage have any idea as to whether or not you would get a Volkstaat, did you believe that there was still a chance that that might happen?

JAN B DE WET: Chairperson, if you looked at the politics at that stage, the chances for us to obtain a Volkstaat, was impossible.

MR LANDMAN: Mr De Wet, so did you understand at that stage that the only way to get a Volkstaat, was by way of violence?

JAN B DE WET: No Chairperson, to wage a war.

MR LANDMAN: What form would this war take?

JAN B DE WET: By planting bombs, by taking up weapon and to shoot for what you want.

MR LANDMAN: In connection with the Germiston bomb, what was the motive behind planting that particular bomb in that area where it was planted?

JAN B DE WET: To stop the election and to stop chaos.

MR LANDMAN: What would you achieve by stopping the election?

JAN B DE WET: Then there would have been further negotiations with the National Party for a Volkstaat.

MR LANDMAN: But you knew by that stage that you weren't going to get one, were you not convinced that no matter what you did ...

JAN B DE WET: You asked me what we wanted to achieve by it and I told you what we wanted to achieve.

MR LANDMAN: Mr De Wet, let me ask you this.  By the time you planted that first bomb, did you believe that you could stop the election?

JAN B DE WET: Yes Mr Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: Did you want people to rise up and oppose the government?

JAN B DE WET: Yes Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: How was that going to come about?

JAN B DE WET: Because of the chaos in the country and the bomb explosions and the people who do not go to the voting polls Chairperson.

CHAIRPERSON: When people were arrested, the people at the shooting range, or wherever, did you then think that the election could still be stopped?

JAN B DE WET: No Chairperson, the arrests which took place made or ensured that the elections would be successful.

CHAIRPERSON: But did you realise that the elections could not be stopped when the arrests were made?

JAN B DE WET: Chairperson, if they weren't all arrested at the shooting range, the group who was involved, there would still have been acts committed.

CHAIRPERSON: But the question is, you heard the people were arrested at the shooting range, did you then realise that the election cannot be stopped?

JAN B DE WET: No Chairperson, I did not realise it then because I still believed that the other people who were still in the area in the Western Transvaal, that their actions or plans would also help.

CHAIRPERSON: When did you realise that the elections could not be stopped?

JAN B DE WET: After the election took place and nothing else happened Chairperson.

MR LANDMAN: Mr De Wet, getting back to what we were dealing with, if the elections didn't take place, who would revolt, who would take part in this revolution, would it be black people who would be revolting so that they can ...

JAN B DE WET: No Chairperson, it would have been the people who reconciled themselves with the Volkstaat idea.

MR LANDMAN: How were they going to revolt, can you describe what you anticipated would happen?

JAN B DE WET: Chairperson, because bombs were already exploding before the elections and at meetings and marches which were held in towns, I believed by means of that, people would have started revolting.

MR LANDMAN: So people would be leaving their houses in Primrose and in Homestead in Germiston after this bomb, and because they can't vote, and what would they be doing in the streets?

JAN B DE WET: That is how I saw it Chairperson.