Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt apologised on Monday for using the word “terrorist” to describe trained guerrillas who infiltrated apartheid-era South Africa.
He tendered the apology after being challenged at the start of the rehearing in Port Elizabeth of his application for amnesty for the 1989 car bomb murders of three black colleagues and an informer at Motherwell, outside the city.
Describing how he came to suspect that the men were African National Congress sympathisers, he said there had been leakage of information gained during interrogation of a “trained terrorist”.
Amnesty panel chairperson Judge Ronnie Pillay intervened, saying not everyone in South Africa agreed on the definition of “terrorist”.
“It is a sensitive aspect,” he told Nieuwoudt. “Perhaps we can use another word to describe the person that you describe as a terrorist.”
In response, Nieuwoudt’s advocate, Jaap Celliers, first suggested that his client refer to the person as a “political opponent”, then offered the term “trained political opponent” and “trained freedom fighter” to describe a person with weapons training.
“Mr Chairman, I’m sorry I used that terminology,” said Nieuwoudt. “I’m sorry: my aim was not to prejudice anyone … I know this is a very sensitive issue and we are living in a 10-year democracy. The use of the term was just because of the culture I grew up in. I am very sorry I used the terminology.”
From then on Nieuwoudt, who gave evidence in Afrikaans, used the term vryheidsvegter (freedom fighter).
On one occasion when he referred to the ANC, he described it as a “liberation organisation”.
Nieuwoudt, who headed the security police’s intelligence unit in the Eastern Cape at the time of the Motherwell killings, is applying for amnesty along with two former colleagues, Wybrand du Toit and Marthinus Ras.
They had admitted to killing Warrant Officer Glen Mgoduka, Sergeant Amos Faku, Sergeant Desmond Mpipa and Xolile Sakati, also known as Charles Jack.
The three men, who have all been convicted in criminal court for the murders, were refused amnesty after an initial hearing in 1997.
In a civil case in 2001, the Cape High Court ordered their application to be heard afresh by a new panel. — Sapa
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