DECISION
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The Applicant applies for amnesty in respect of the murder of Petronella Johanna Barnard and Willem Kasselman Fick, the attempted murder of Jacobus Johannes Christiaan van Meyeren and Hezekeil Mbelaphonsi Malinga and five robberies with aggravating circumstances.
All of these crimes were committed by the Applicant together with other co-perpetrators on 15 May 1991 when they carried out a robbery at the First National Bank at Witbank.
The Applicant at the hearing of this matter stated that at the time in question he was a supporter of the Pan Africanist Congress (the PAC). He became a card carrying member of the PAC on 8 July 1997. The Applicant's testimony relating to the incident may be briefly summaries as follows:
During April 1991 he was approached in Soweto by one Monde Hadebe who was a member of the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army (APLA). Hadebe asked the Applicant for money to purchase weapons with. The Applicant, who was a taxi owner and the proprietor of a tavern, informed Hadebe that he could not give him any money. Hadebe returned two weeks later and told Applicant that he must assist him in an operation to "repossess" money. The Applicant, Hadebe and one Chris Khumalo then went to Witbank and carried out a reconnaissance of the First National Bank.
About two weeks later, Hadebe telephoned the Applicant and told him to go and get a get-away car from one Lucky Makane. This he did. On 14 May 1991 the Applicant, Lucky Makane, Delan Mpoya (who was with Lucky Makane when the Applicant went to fetch the get-away car) and Joseph Malinga and one Elimo (who Hadebe told the Applicant to fetch) proceeded to Witbank in two motor vehicles. They all spent the night at the place of Solly Mopedi. The next morning they planned the robbery and Hadebe issued all of them except the Applicant and Mopedi with firearms.
They all then proceeded to the bank. The Applicant and Mopedi acted as drivers and after dropping off the others drove to a predetermined place some distance away from the bank where they were to wait for the others to come to them after the robbery.
While waiting the Applicant heard the sound of shots being fired. He waited some time for the others to return but they did not arrive. he then went to Solly's place where he met them.
He was informed by the others that "an accident" had happened at the bank and that there had been cross-fire and that they only managed to get away with approximately R28 000.00. The money was not divided amongst them and all of it was taken by Hadebe.
The Applicant was the first of them to be arrested. He states that he was tortured by the police and made a statement in which he named most of his fellow perpetrators. He states further that he told the police that the money was divided between all the perpetrators as he wanted to protect the PAC and APLA.
The Applicant, Joseph Malinga, Lucky Makane, Chris Khumalo, Delan Mpoya and Solly Mopedi were all arrested. Save for Lucky Makane, who was found not guilty and discharged, they were all convicted and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. Hadebe and Elimo were not arrested in respect of the incident.
As stated above, two people were killed during the robbery, both of whom were bank employees and two people were shot and injured. Four people were robbed of personal items and three other bank employees who had money belonging to the bank in their custody were robbed of cash in the amount of R28 244.71. Monde Hadebe is since deceased.
The Applicant was not a satisfactory witness. He was evasive and on a number of occasions only answered questions which had to be repeated. Contradictions exist within the testimony that he gave at the hearing and there are also serious contradictions between his testimony and a previously made statement by himself. The Applicant's explanation as to why he did not apply for amnesty in respect of two robberies for which he was convicted and sentenced which he also alleged were "repossession" operations was unimpressive and confirmed his untrustworthiness as a witness - (his explanation was that he did not apply for amnesty for these robberies as he was of the view that applying for amnesty for the Witbank robbery would cover all other robberies).
The Applicant did not state who of his co-perpetrators, other than Monde Hadebe, were APLA cadres. we are therefore not in a position to find that any of them were., We do know, however, that Joseph Malinga was not a member of APLA. He too applied for amnesty. His application was dealt with desperately for this application. In his application Malinga stated that he was a member of QIBLA.
In statements which were admitted as evidence at their trial, the Applicant, Malinga, Khumalo, Mpoya and Mopedi all stated that the money they robbed was shared. We are also of the view that it is improbable that an APLA repossession unit would include non-members of APLA such as the Applicant and Malinga in an operation.
The evidence given by Mr Thamsanqa Buthelezi to the effect that he was a member of APLA and knew Monde Hadebe to be an APLA cadre does not take the matter any further - he was not in a position to give any evidence relating to the Witbank incident.
After careful consideration of the evidence and documentation before us, we are not satisfied that the Applicant has made a full disclosure of all relevant facts. We are also not satisfied that the Applicant acted with a political objective when he committed the crimes.
The application for amnesty is therefore REFUSED.
DATED at CAPE TOWN this day of 2000
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JUDGE S MILLER
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JUDGE N J MOTATA
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MR J B SIBANYONI
