DECISION
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The applicant applies for amnesty for two counts of murder and one count of robbery on 27 May 1993 at Dilston Farm, Umkhomasi in the district of Ixopo in KwaZulu Natal. Seventy one year old Mrs Vetela Joyce Ferrero and a sixty year old farm worker, Mbhabhama Mtolo, were shot and killed. The owner of the farm, seventy five year old Mr Edward Ferrero, was injured in the attack but died later of an unrelated cause.
The application was opposed by the daughter of the late Mr and Mrs Ferrero on the basis that the acts were not committed with a political objective.
The applicant testified at the hearing. He called no witnesses and explained that one of his two companions who had been charged with him has since passed away. He did not know what had become of the other one who had been acquitted at the criminal trial on account of a lack of evidence.
The applicant testified that he became a member of the UDF in 1989 and a member of the ANC Richmond branch in 1990. During 1991 unrest broke out between the ANC and IFP in the Umkhomasi area and members of the IFP from the Patheni area used to cross the river and attack the ANC members in his area. Self-defence groups were formed to attack the IFP. The ANC members were aware that farmers were IFP sympathisers and that they inter alia obtained firearms from Ferrero, a coloured farmer in the area, who the Chairperson said was "an AWB". He testified that prior to the day of the incident some ANC "boys in the group" broke into Ferrero's house and stole five firearms. (This incident was confirmed in the evidence given by the daughter of the Ferrero's.) They believed that some firearms remained on the farm.
On the day of the incident the applicant and his two companions went to the farm to go and look for more firearms. They found Mr and Mrs Ferrero and their farm worker Mr Mtola at the house,
held them up with home made guns and demanded firearms. Mr Ferrero showed them where firearms were kept and they found one firearm, a pump gun and some ammunition.
At the scene the applicant's one companion, Mduduzi, called him and according to the applicant gave him a pump gun and told him to shoot Mrs Ferrero since she knew Mduduzi and would cause him to be identified by the police. The farm worker, Mtolo, was shot by mduduzi allegedly because he was offering resistance. He killed Mrs Ferrero because he was scared of Mduduzi and could not "stand up to him".
In cross-examination the applicant conceded that the victims were elderly and that it was not necessary to kill any of them.
The daughter of the deceased Ferrero's testified that all three of the victims were old and weak and had no political affiliations. The weapons on the farm were weapons that had been in the family for many years and were passed down from generation to generation. She confirmed, as previously mentioned, that a prior robbery of firearms had taken place.
The Committee accepts that applicant and his companions went to the farm to look for firearms to use in their conflict with the IFP and that the robbery was politically motivated. There is nothing
to gainsay the evidence of the applicant that he bona fide believed that Mr Ferrero supplied the IFP with firearms, although the Committee does not make such a finding. The killing of Mrs Ferrero and Mr Mtolo, however, was quite unnecessary on the applicant's own Version and did not take place with a political objective as required by the Act.
Accordingly, the applicant is GRANTED amnesty for the offence of the robbery committed on 27 May 1993 at or near Dilston Farm, Unkomaas Valley in the district of Ixopa..
The application for amnesty in respect of the murder of Vetelo Joyce Ferrero and Mbabhama Mtolo is REFUSED.
SIGNED AT ............... this .... day of ................ 19....
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JUDGE D POTGIETER Adv N SANDI
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Adv F BOSMAN
