DECISION
The applicant was convicted of the murder of Bothetsa Sekatame on the 25th of December 1991 at Kroonstad. He was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment.
The applicant testified that the deceased was a municipal policeman and was not, as far as he knew, a member of the Three Million Gang, who was at the time operating in Kroonstad against the ANC. He, however, alleged that the deceased was in the employ of the Town Council. The applicant himself was a member of the Self Defence Unit in the area and a member of the ANC Youth League. On Christmas Day he went to visit his girlfriend, but she was not at home. He found her at a restaurant/shebeen known as Jack Nose. He had an argument with her and the deceased intervened and grabbed and threatened him with a gun. As a result thereof, he fled from the restaurant. A while later the deceased also left the restaurant and the applicant and his comrades, waiting outside, followed him and stabbed him. The deceased ran away, but was pursued by the applicant and his friends. The deceased ran into a house, but was followed and killed.
The applicant advanced as reasons for the killing of the deceased that the latter was a policeman and that some of the policemen cooperated with the Three Million Gang, a declared enemy of the ANC. This animosity between the ANC and the Three Million Gang resulted in numerous killings of their respective members. There was a perception, perhaps well founded, that the police sided with the Three Million Gang against the ANC. Although the deceased was not a member of an opposing political party or the South African Police, he was a municipal policeman and the deceased and his comrades had lost all faith in the security people and members of the municipal council. They only assisted the Three Million Gang. The applicant knew the deceased, they lived in the same township and they never quarrelled before. It is difficult to ascertain what the motive for the killing was and what the political objective was that the applicant wanted to pursue.
It is further of importance to note that the applicant testified that the killing of the deceased was on instructions received from his Commander, Petrus Motshabetulo sometime in December 1990 in order to protect the community so that peace could reign. If this is accepted it would constitute a political motive.
It seems as though the conflict arose as a result of the deceased's high handed intervention in the argument between the applicant and his girlfriend. The reason advanced by the applicant for the killing, namely that he killed him because he was a policeman and collaborated with the Three Million Gang seems improbable. The Committee has, however, no other evidence before it in this particular case. The question therefore arises whether the applicant's version is so inherently improbable that it can be rejected. It may therefore be necessary to examine applicant's evidence more closely.
The applicant testified that all the policemen were perceived by the local community as the enemy. It therefore did not matter whether a policeman was a member of the municipal or South African Police Force. The applicant however admitted that he knew the deceased very well as they stayed in the same location. He in fact knew that the deceased was a municipal policeman since June or July 1991 but throughout that period till the 25th of December, he did not seem to perceive him as an enemy even though he knew him to be a policeman.
He also stated that during the period June or July to December 1991 he attended several meetings of the Self Defence Unit but never thought it necessary nor relevant to raise at any of these numerous meetings that the deceased was a policeman and therefore an enemy that should be dealt with in accordance with the instructions received from Commander Motshabetulo. He nevertheless testified that the deceased was killed in compliance with an order from his commander which was given in December 1990.
When questioned why he delayed for that long to execute an order given in December 1990 when he knew for seven months that the deceased was a policeman and therefore an enemy that need to be killed, he retracted and said that he did not take the deceased as an enemy for seven months because "we've never exchanged words with him." It seems that it was only after the altercation with the deceased in the presence of his girlfriend that the applicant believed that the deceased was a collaborator with the Three Million Gang. The reason advanced by the applicant for believing that the deceased was supporting and aiding the Three Million Gang was "according to how he acted, because I had no difference with him and the way he approached me in the Tavern is also the fact that gave that impression that maybe he also has a part that he played in this Three Million Gang's activities."
There is nothing in the advanced reasons that could have given the applicant any reason to reasonably conclude that the deceased was a collaborator with the Three Million Gang nor that he was perceived to be an enemy of the ANC and its structures by virtue of his office as a policeman and this evidence is accordingly rejected. The application
IS DISMISSED: .
DATED AT CAPE TOWN ON THIS THE 13th DAY OF MARCH 1997.
H MALL, J
A WILSON, J
N NGOEPE, J
ADV. C DE JAGER
MS. S. KHAMPEPE
