De Kock: told to 'make a plan'

Former security police major Jan Potgieter conceded that former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock may have interpreted something he had said as an order to kill askari Johannes Mabotha. "Something had to have happened in that telephone discussion to make De Kock prepare a murder scene," lawyer Wim Cornelius told Potgieter at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Pretoria on Tuesday."I agree," Potgieter said.

On Monday, Potgieter denied that he had asked De Kock to kill Mabotha in 1989. He said he had asked De Kock to keep Mabotha safe at Vlakplaas because he would have been a witness against Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in a possible high treason case.De Kock told the TRC's amnesty committee earlier this month that Potgieter had asked him to "make a plan" with Mabotha to end his alleged involvement in police killings.

De Kock is seeking amnesty for killing Mabotha at Penge Mine near Burgersfort in Mpumalanga in 1989. Mabotha's body was blown up with explosives after De Kock shot him twice in the heart. Potgieter, who is not seeking amnesty for the incident, was earlier this month subpoenaed by the TRC to testify, because there were discrepancies between his and De Kock's evidence about Mabotha's death.

Mabotha, a former Vlakplaas askari, was arrested at Marble Hall in February 1989 after he disappeared from Vlakplaas and joined Madikizela-Mandela's Mandela United Football Club. Potgieter interrogated him for about six months on his involvement with Madikizela-Mandela. When it was time for Mabotha to be released, Potgieter phoned De Kock and asked him to house Mabotha at Vlakplaas as his life might have been in danger - the ANC knew he had been interrogated.

Yesterday, Potgieter said he could not remember if he had used Mabotha's name when he spoke to De Kock, and might have referred to the "Marble Hall askari". He said he could not remember exactly what he had said about Mabotha, but if he had told De Kock to "make a plan", De Kock could have misinterpreted the meaning. Potgieter said he handed Mabotha over to security members under the impression that he was going to Vlakplaas. Later that day Mabotha was shot dead. Potgieter had bought Mabotha a train ticket to Pietersburg so that he could go there if he no longer wanted to stay at Vlakplaas. Mabotha would have contacted him from Pietersburg, where Mabotha's family lived, and alternative arrangements would have been made for his safekeeping, Potgieter said. He said he never told De Kock about the ticket, or Mabotha being a witness against Madikizela-Mandela.

De Kock earlier told the amnesty committee he would never have killed Mabotha if he had known that the askari was to be a witness against Madikizela-Mandela. He said it would have been "suitable" if Madikizela-Mandela was prosecuted.

Source: IoL