DECISION
The applicant applies for amnesty for his involvement in the elimination of the KwaNdebele 9 and his involvement in a hand grenade attack on the house of Reverend Allan Hendrickse in Port Elizabeth.
During the hearing it transpired that he was not involved in the killing of the KwaNdebele 9. He was under the impression that information about youths visiting a hotel, the Bundu Inn, related to the youths killed. There is, however, no evidence and it seems improbable that they were the youngsters killed at Vlaklaagte.
The incident referred to as a handgrenade attack on the house of Reverend Hendrickse is dealt with in Bundle 7 page 64-84 of the papers submitted at the hearing. It prima facie does not seem to be an incident involving a gross human rights violation and should be dealt with in chambers.
The applicant, according to the evidence, was not involved in the planning and execution of the murder of Piet Ntuli. He was the branch commander at Bronkhorstpruit. In this capacity he also served the KwaNdebele National State as the area was known at the time. He was fully aware of the involvement of the late Mr Piet Ntuli in Imbokotho who conducted a reign of terror in the area.
On the day of the murder, while he was on a routine visit, he fortuitously met brigadier Cronje, Hechter, van Jaarsveld, Oosthuizen and Gouws at Siyabuswa opposite the government buildings. Cronje asked him whether he knew anything about the whereabouts of Ntuli. At that time he had no knowledge where Ntuli was but was later informed that he was visiting the Prime Minister and was requested by Cronje to take him to the Minister's house and to introduce him to the Minister. While driving to the Prime Minister's he noticed Hechter sort of hiding in the back of the car and became suspicious that this might not be a ordinary investigation and possible arrest by the murder and robbery unit Mr Ntuli.
Cronje entered into a conversation with the security guards whilst Hechter remained behind in the car. It later became known that Hechter fixed a bomb to Ntuli's car.
After meeting the Prime Minister they drove back to where the other members were waiting.
Cronje told them that "everything went well" and they then started to talk about the bomb. He then realised that they planned to eliminate Ntuli. He left them and on the road to Bronkhorstpruit heard about the explosion on the police radio. He turned around, went back and at the scene identified Ntuli's mutilated corpse. He didn't disclose what he knew about the incident to the unit who later investigated the murder.
He however was not aware of the plan to eliminate Ntuli and offered his assistance to Cronje with locating Ntuli's whereabouts not knowing that he had been targeted for elimination. He only became aware of the elimination after the bomb had been planted and in fact exploded a few minutes after he had parted company with Cronje.
In the circumstances, the applicant did not plan nor commit the murder of Ntuli. Consequently he does not qualify for amnesty for this killing save for being an accessory after the fact.
Amnesty is
GRANTED: in respect of
a. being an accessory after the fact for the murder of Piet Ntuli;
b. malicious damage to property;
c. contravening Acts 75 of 1969, 71 of 1968 and 26 of 1956 insofar as the offences are directly related to the abovementioned murder;
d. defeating the ends of justice and any other offence directly connected to the above incident including that being of an accessory after the fact.
SIGNED ON THE 21ST OF MAY 1999.
