TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 3

Chapter 6

Subsection 11

POSSESSION OF ARMS, EXPLOSIVES AND AMMUNITION

113. The Committee received thirty-one amnesty applications for the possession of arms, explosives and ammunition. The offences included possession and storage of arms caches, theft of weapons, manufacture of weapons and explosives and distribution for the purposes of furthering the activities of right-wing organisations and the IFP. Twenty-nine of these applications were granted.

114. AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche [AM7994/97] was granted amnesty for the illegal possession of arms and ammunition inVenters burg in about 1982 [AC/1999/221]. Terre’Blanche testified that the weapons, which included a number of AK47s and two pistols, were obtained by his organisation from a Mr Kees Mouse, whom Terre’Blanche later established to have been an SAP agent. The intention was to store the weapons and keep them until such time as members of the AWB needed them to protect themselves. The AWB feared that the then government would hand power to a black government and that the same fate would befall South Africa as had befallen other African countries, where chaos had followed political change.

115. It was eventually decided to bury the weapons on a farm belonging to Mr Terre’Blanche’s brother until they were be needed. The weapons were later seized by the police and Terre’Blanche was arrested and convicted.

116. In another incident, AWB member Willie Hurter [AM 3613/96] was granted amnesty for being in possession of four shock grenades, a homemade shotgun and ammunition and an unlicensed Lama pistol at Bloemfontein on the 15 September 1992 [AC/1998/0024].

Robbery at Welkom military base

117. AWB members Roelof Johannes Fouche [AM 3507/96], Guillaume Cornelius Loots [AM 3508/96], Petrus Johannes Pelser [AM 3512/96], Roelof Johannes J o rdaan [AM 3861/96], Cornelius Johannes Strydom [AM 3862/96] and Coenraad Josephes Pelser [AM 4719/97] applied for amnesty for the theft of weapons and equipment from the Group 34 Commando Base at Welkom during the night of 2nd/3rd January 1993.

118. Under the leadership of Mr Jordaan (who holds the rank of General in the AWB), the applicants broke into the military base and made off with a large amount of weaponry, including rifles, handguns, ammunition, flares and smoke grenades as well as other equipment. No one was injured during the incident. The police recovered the stolen weapons and equipment a few days later on a farm in the Hobhouse district.

119. The applicants testified that they had committed the offence as an organised g roup of AWB members pursuant to a decision that was made by the AWB at regional level. The motivation behind the theft was to arm farmers on the eastern border of the then Orange Free State in order to enable them to protect themselves from attacks by members of the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA) who were operating from Lesotho. They testified that this was necessary as the government of the day was unable to maintain law and order in that region. None of the applicants derived any personal gain from the theft of the weapons and equipment.

120. The Committee was satisfied that the applications related to an act associated with a political objective committed in the course of the conflicts of the past and that the applicants had made a full disclosure. All were granted amnesty [AC/1998/0075].