Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 2000-09-27

MR P DU PLESSIS: At that stage, that is September 1989?

LEON A MAREE: That is correct, yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Then I have to deal with that.  There is a quote from evidence or a testimony of Rich Verster with reference to certain people that I'd like to ask if you know them.
"When I got into Pretoria, I was summoned to go and see Koos Louw and also Tolletjie Botha, head of DCC. I explained to them what had happened.  They went to an office with me.  He, Botha, picked up the telephone and he phoned South West Africa, the Head of the Prison Department and also the police and he said:  'We'll have to use the old boys network.'  They phoned up the Brigadier in South West Africa and asked what happened.  'Have they got Aitchison?'  They said yes, they have."
Now resulting from this, we've already dealt with Koos Louw, Tolletjie Botha, the former head of DCC, did you know him?

LEON A MAREE: Yes, I knew him, not then, later when I was transferred.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Is it correct if I say that he is dead?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Was he also the Commander while you were there?

LEON A MAREE: That is correct.

MR P DU PLESSIS: But in September 89 you did not know him?

LEON A MAREE: No, I did not know him, also not Koos Louw.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Here they make mention that immediately after Lubowski's death, DCC or Rich Verster's evidence was aware of Aitchison's existence as well as his arrest, or certain information was sought after his arrest.  Do you know if DCC knew about Aitchison?

LEON A MAREE: No, not at all.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And you did not do anything that would make that information available to them?

LEON A MAREE: No.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Then lastly, on this aspect, it is possibly so that Mr Aitchison was indeed responsible for the death of Adv Anton Lubowski.  Were you at any stage aware of this?  Did you contribute to it in any way?

LEON A MAREE: No.

MR P DU PLESSIS: There are other aspects that I'm not going to go into now, where Aitchison's apparently said that he had to kill Gwen Lister and for that he had poison, do you know anything about this?

LEON A MAREE: No, not at all.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Did you at any stage have poison or tablets in your capacity as a member of the CCB?

LEON A MAREE: No.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Do you know if any poisonous materials were found at Aitchison?

LEON A MAREE: No.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Nothing was said about it?

LEON A MAREE: No, I never heard about it.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Very well, I think this concludes this whole situation, concerning this, placed in context as well as with your business activities.  To then come back to the whole matter, the reason why you are here, the whole matter around Gavin Evans, we've already placed it in perspective that these events surrounding Gavin Evans were in March 1989, is that correct?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: You've already said to us what your instructions were, what you received from the co-ordinator Mr Christo Brits, real name Wouter Basson, who already testified.  At that stage were you aware of what the final project would entail concerning Gavin Evans?

LEON A MAREE: No, not at that stage.

LEON A MAREE: Out of your involvement in the CCB, did you consider the possibility that what you are doing may lead to the project concerning Mr Evans, that may include his elimination?

LEON A MAREE: Yes, I did realise this.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And this is now also why you indeed applied for amnesty?

LEON A MAREE: That is correct, yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Maybe, while we're dealing with this point, with regards to the other projects that we dealt with, the other members and the whole situation around the planned death of Mr Dullah Omar, the Athlone Bomb and the Apie project, did you know anything about that?

LEON A MAREE: No.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Then just to come back to Evans, the name that was given to you, what was this?

LEON A MAREE: It was Gavin Evans.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Was the name Michael Evans ever given to you?

LEON A MAREE: No, it was only Gavin Evans.

MR P DU PLESSIS: So did you know what information you had to get and how you had to deal with the situation?

LEON A MAREE: Yes, it was around Gavin Evans, I knew he was a journalist at the Weekly Mail.  He was a sports writer and that's how I identified him.  I could not - because I did not have people on ground level, it would be really difficult to do it yourself, you have to use other people to do it.  I could not personally make inquiries concerning his address.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Just on that point, you say that this person was a sports writer.  Was he known to you beforehand during that time?

LEON A MAREE: No.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Were you aware that he was a sports writer?

LEON A MAREE: No, after I made certain - I found this out at a later stage, actually.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Did you have a physical description?

LEON A MAREE: Yes, there was a photograph available.

MR P DU PLESSIS: A photograph?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: So you could then identify this person as Gavin Evans?

LEON A MAREE: That is correct.

MR P DU PLESSIS: After your information functions, what did you do with the photograph?

LEON A MAREE: I gave it back to Wouter Basson.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Is it possible that this is the photograph that was then at a later stage made available?

LEON A MAREE: Yes, I'm sure it was the same photograph.

MR P DU PLESSIS: We are now talking about March 1989, you said that you could not go and look for the address yourself, why is this?

LEON A MAREE: I could have done it yes, but I saw it as a covert operation and it would not work if I did it myself.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Did you have anybody to assist you?

LEON A MAREE: No, I couldn't use anybody to go in, to find out where he worked and to monitor his work.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Were you willing to take the same risk as what Mr Botha ran and not be caught out?

LEON A MAREE: No, but what I did - I was not aware that Mr Botha did this.

MR P DU PLESSIS: But this was only at a later stage?

LEON A MAREE: Yes, but what I did was that I pretended over the telephone that I was a friend of his, because he did not want to give his address.  This was at the newspaper where he worked.  I then got somebody else on the line and I asked them where he lives and this lady gave me his address and that is then the address that I gave to Mr Basson.

LEON A MAREE: Could you inquire about further facts that surrounded him?

LEON A MAREE: No, it was not that I thought that it was a very small project, but at that stage I was quite involved in my blue plan and that is why I didn't really give more attention to it.

MR P DU PLESSIS: So you did not physically do any monitoring to gather more information concerning his movements?

LEON A MAREE: No.

MR P DU PLESSIS: This address that you found out, did you then give this to the co-ordinator?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR P DU PLESSIS: And were you then in any way further involved in this project?

LEON A MAREE: No that was the end of my part.

MR P DU PLESSIS: There was evidence of Mr van Zyl that he thinks, he's of the opinion that you were present when he received the instruction to bring the people from the Cape.

LEON A MAREE: That is not true.

MR P DU PLESSIS: To execute this project, he then later under questioning said that he's not quite sure about.  Were you there?

LEON A MAREE: No, I wasn't.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Did you have any contact or role in the execution of the project concerning the planning of the death of Mr Gavin Evans?

LEON A MAREE: No, not at all.

MR P DU PLESSIS: Did you at any stage make a pre-study concerning Mr Gavin Evans in the formal sense of the word, concerning the CCB and how they functioned, how they planned his death, that he would be killed with a knife, that it would look like a robbery, etc?