Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 2000-09-28

FERDINAND BARNARD: Chairperson, I met Mr Slang van Zyl some time before the Omar incident, during the same year, I would say it was in the beginning of 1989 when I met him at the Witwatersrand Police Rugby Club.
	At a certain stage I contacted him upon numerous occasions, we had telephonic conversations, ultimately we met in a restaurant if I recall correctly.  It wasn't clear to him, but from the discussion we realised that both of us were working for the CCB.  I also told him that I was working for them, and I told him that sometimes I would receive information which was favourable information and what basically happened, we decided to assist each other when we could.
	Then it happened at a certain stage that Mr van Zyl requested me, and I don't know if this was his evidence, I think his evidence was that I approached him, but he approached me with regard to the Omar incident.  I cannot recall where I saw him, but we discussed it and he told me that such a project had been registered, and it had been approved as a CCB project on the highest level, and that Adv Dullah Omar had to be assassinated.
	At this point he also informed me that the persons who had already been tasked, had been provided with a Makarov pistol, fitted with a silencer and that the project had been pending for quite some time and that there had been problems in executing the problems and he wanted to know if I would be prepared to assist with the project.
	I was never asked to monitor Dullah Omar, as has been the evidence here by Mr van Zyl.  I was requested to go and kill Dullah Omar because the other persons had proven ineffective.
	Arrangements were made between me and Mr van Zyl and I flew down to Cape Town, and booked in at the Inn on the Square.  Shortly afterwards Mr van Zyl joined me in Cape Town, he briefed me further.  A meeting took place with the coloured gang member, one Peaches Gordon.  I think it was at the Cape Sun Hotel or some place nearby, it was in the evening.  
	Peaches Gordon departed after we had the discussion and he returned and in my presence he handed over a firearm to Slang van Zyl, a Makarov pistol with a silencer which he removed from a box.  Slang van Zyl gave the Makarov and the silencer to me, I hid it in the ceiling of my hotel room.  There was a later rendezvous later that night, or at least, it was the following day, I beg your pardon, the following day.  There was another meeting between me, Gordon and van Zyl.
	Peaches Gordon was instructed by van Zyl to take us to the residence of Adv Omar, which he did.  He took us and identified a residence in Athlone to us.  We were four persons, another person drove, a coloured person who was unknown to me, he was never introduced to me, then it was Slang van Zyl, me and Peaches Gordon.    From that point onwards, I would be tasked with the murder of Adv Omar.
	I established my own liaison with Peaches Gordon and asked him to steal a vehicle for me which I could use for the incident.  I paid him R500-00.  He undertook to have the vehicle available by the following day.  The following morning, at approximately 10 o'clock, I rendezvoused with him a few blocks away from the hotel, in a parking area.  He identified a vehicle to me, it was a Nissan product, cream coloured.  
	I gave him the R500-00 for the vehicle, but I first inspected the vehicle.  It had an original key.  When I climbed into the vehicle, I saw that the vehicle only had 2 600 kilometres on the speedometer.  It smelt new on the inside.  I saw that the speakers and the radio of the vehicle had been removed, which then necessitated me to ask Peaches Gordon where he had obtained the vehicle from.  He told me that he and somebody else had taken the vehicle from a garage which sold vehicles, they took the vehicle on a test drive and kicked the driver of the vehicle out under way.
	This didn't suit me for two reasons.  Firstly I knew how the police surveillance system functioned, this was a hot vehicle, it wasn't a regular vehicle, because it was a stolen vehicle, and also because it was brand new and it would be easily identified.  However, I took the vehicle from him and gave him the money and left him to go.
	Later that afternoon, I took the same vehicle to  Cape Town airport, I entered the airport parking area with that vehicle and parked it.  I did this so that I could get the exit ticket for the vehicle, hung around there for a while until I found a suitable vehicle, I stole a Ford station wagon with a roof-carrier.  It was in a reasonably good condition.  I stole this from the parking area in the airport and departed back.  I had done prior reconnaissance and I used a block of flats approximately one and a half kilometres away from the hotel where I was staying, because there were vehicles moving in and out day and night, I parked the vehicle there.
	Once again I contacted Peaches Gordon.  After I had obtained a vehicle which was similar to the vehicle in my movements, I found another vehicle of the same colour and the same fabrication and took the registration number and wrote it down.  I found Peaches Gordon and when he arrived at me, I asked him to have a set of number plates made according to the number that I had given him.  for this I gave him R300-00.  He had them made and gave them to me.
	I went and equipped the vehicle that I had stolen from the airport with the plates that I had ordered.  Then the vehicle was operationally prepared.  All of this took place during the first excursion to Adv Omar in the Cape.  It was during July 1989.  
	I had consistent contact with Mr van Zyl via the telephone, I gave him reports of progress and so forth.   When I commenced physically, I drove to the premises.   The first journey before it became dark, was during the afternoon.  I conducted a thorough reconnaissance of the area and examined the area for possible escape routes, I checked to see what the situation would be with regard to traffic, with regard to light and when I say light, I mean traffic lights and the possibility for traffic jams and so forth.
	Due to the location of the premises, and the movement around the premises, this was not something which could be performed during the morning or during the day.   It would have to take place after hours when it was dark and after peak hour traffic had subsided because in the morning one would have the situation, I thought that the morning would have been a suitable option, because anybody that is a professional person such as Adv Omar would have to go to the office, so if I monitored him in the morning, I could see he would leave home at quarter past seven or whatever the case may be, but the traffic discouraged me completely.
	There was a high level of visibility in the area, and if you drove in that area in the morning, it was bumper to bumper traffic, which did not prove conducive to an escape route.  That is why I knew that it would have to take place during the evening, after peak hour traffic.  I told this to Slang van Zyl and continued with the project.  During the first excursion to the Omar residence, and I am referring to the first times that I was in the Cape, but I visited the place several times.   During all these times, I did not visually observe Mr Omar.
	I had problems from the very first day with my observation in the area.  It was a predominantly coloured, Malay or Indian neighbourhood.  The people in the environment would pick up rather quickly if there was a vehicle or a person who didn't belong there.  Perhaps I could explain as follows because I experienced this in the police quite often.  It was an area which had its own rhythm and pulse.  Anybody who didn't belong in that area, would stick out like  sore thumb.  
	People in the neighbourhood would pick it up very quickly, and I had the problem that I was going with a vehicle which was stolen and fitted with false number plates, with ten litres of petrol on the back seat with which I would burn the vehicle after I had left the scene of the murder.  I was also in possession of a Makarov with a silencer.
	If you put the Makarov and the silencer together, it was about this long, it would hang some distance above my ankles.