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IN THE HIGH COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA GAUTENG LOCAL DIVISION, JOHANNESBURG CASE NO: 445/2019 DATE: 2020-01-30 FORMAL INQUEST in terms of section 5 of the Inquest Act 58 of 1999 into the death of the late DR NEIL HUDSON AGGETT BEFORE THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE MAKUME ON BEHALF OF THE STATE : ADV MLOTSHWA : ADV SINGH ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILY : ADV VARNEY ON BEHALF OF IMPLICATED SAPS : ADV COETZEE [Previous SAPS] ON BEHALF OF SAPS : ADV MOHAMED [Current SAPS] INTERPRETER : [not applicable] 537 KENSON STREET | CONSTANTIA PARK | PRETORIA P.O BOX 32917 | GLENSTANTIA | 0100 Tel : 012 993 1335 | Cell: +27784987479 | Fax : 086 601 5996 Email: [email protected] | [email protected] Website: www.veritastranscribing.co.za MR VARNEY 1 F CHIKANE PROCEEDINGS RESUMES ON 30 JANUARY 2020 [09:27:20] COURT: Adv Varney, you may proceed. MR VARNEY: As the court pleases. Your L ordship, our witness of today is Reverend Frank Chikane. COURT: Yes. MR VARNEY: With the leave of the court we would like to call him to the witness stand. COURT: Yes. Reverend Chikane, please come forward. COURT CLERK: Please state your full names and surname? 10 WITNESS: I am Frank Chikane. COURT CLERK: Do you have any objection against to taking the oath? WITNESS: No. COURT CLERK: Do you swear that the evidence you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, if so raise your right and say so help me God. WITNESS: So help me God. COURT CLERK: Witness sworn in. FRANK CHIKANE: (duly sworn states) 20 COURT: Thank you. EXAMINATION BY MR VARNEY: M'Lord, Reverend Chikane has made up an affidavit. With l eave of the court we would like to hand up his original affidavit. COURT: Yes. MR VARNEY: It is, we intend to mark this affidavit as 445/2019_2020.01.30 / mro MR VARNEY 2 F CHIKANE EXHIBIT G14 and M'Lord, since Reverend Chikane did sign an affidavit before the 1982 inquest as well as his attorneys p ut up an unsigned affidavit as well. COURT: Yes. MR VARNEY: We will hand these up to you as copies and refer you to those exhibit numbers. COURT: That is in the 1982 inquest? MR VARNEY: Exactly. COURT: Thank you. Yes. 10 MR VARNEY: Reverend Chikane, before we start can I just confirm that you have in your possession a copy of the affidavit that you signed yesterday? REV CHIKANE: I do. MR VARNEY: And do you have the copies of your signed and unsigned affidavit that were put up in the first in quest in 1982? REV CHIKANE: Ja, I, I, I had that, it is in my computer. MR VARNEY: It is in your computer, okay, well let us ...[intervenes] REV CHIKANE: I do not have copies here. 20 MR VARNEY: We will then make a plan to give you ...[intervenes] REV CHIKANE: Thank you. COURT: What is the exhibit ...[intervenes] MR VARNEY: So we now have three affidavits with you, yesterday’s affidavit and then the two, the 1982 affidavit. 445/2019_2020.01.30 / mro MR VARNEY 3 F CHIKANE REV CHIKANE: Ja. MR VARNEY: The one is signed and one is unsigned. REV CHIKANE: Okay. MR VARNEY: M'Lord, for the record the signed affidavit. COURT: Yes. MR VARNEY: Is EXHIBIT B3.1.2. COURT: B, B3.1 ...[intervenes] MR VARNEY: B3.1.2. COURT: 3.1.2, yes, okay. 10 MR VARNEY: And the unsigned affidavit is EXHIBIT B3.4.5. COURT: Yes, thank you, I have that. MR VARNEY: Reverend Chikane, before we start can I just confirm that the affidavit which you signed yesterday, in fact the 29 th of January is your affidavit and do you confirm its contents? REV CHIKANE: It is my affidavit and I confirm. MR VARNEY: And also for the record do you confirm that back in 1982 during the proceedings, the inquest into the late Dr Neil Hudson Aggett the attorneys for Dr Aggett’s family 20 caused you to sign an affidavit as well as to make up an unsigned affidavit which were put up as exhibits in that matter? REV CHIKANE: Yes, I confirm. MR VARNEY: Reverend, if we can then, then commence, can you describe to the court your current occupation? REV CHIKANE: Here in this application? 445/2019_2020.01.30 / mro MR VARNEY 4 F CHIKANE MR VARNEY: Uhh, you, you …, feel free to have reference to the affidavit, but I am only asking you to describe to the court what you are currently doing now ...[intervenes] REV CHIKANE: Oh, okay. MR VARNEY: In terms of work. REV CHIKANE: Ja. MR VARNEY: And any other activities. REV CHIKANE: Yes, I, I, I have been a Pastor in, in Naledi Soweto for many years, but I handed over the congregation 10 May last year and I have been the International President of my church for the Apostolic Faith Mission which exist in, it has a presence in about 35 countries and I have been the International President for 23 years and then I handed over the leadership in August last year. I, I am currently a Moderator of the church’s Commission on International Affair s of the W CC has got all the churches represented including observers from the Catholic Church and Evangelical Alliances and we deal with the conflict situations in the world generally and that is our responsibility, but otherwise I serve in boards and other 20 activities, ja. COURT: Yes. MR VARNEY: Thank you, Reverend. Reverend, if I may ask is it possible that you ...[intervenes] COURT: To raise your voice MR VARNEY: To raise your voice a little. 445/2019_2020.01.30 / mro MR VARNEY 5 F CHIKANE REV CHIKANE: Oh, ja. COURT: Yes. MR VARNEY: As you can see we have various TV and radio ...[intervenes] REV CHIKANE: Ja. Ja. MR VARNEY: Personnel here. REV CHIKANE: Okay. MR VARNEY: And plus we have been advised that those at the back of the gallery are struggling to hear. 10 REV CHIKANE: Should hear, okay. MR VARNEY: Thank you. COURT: Yes. MR VARNEY: And while we are on your personal history perhaps we can now dig into some more detail looking at your personal background and your political career. Perhaps we can start by dealing with when you were born and where you were raised. REV CHIKANE: I was born on the 3 rd of January 1951. I do say in my affidavit that my parents say I was born in Soweto, 20 but I have worked it out that I was born in Bushbuckridge. COURT: Oh! REV CHIKANE: But during those days they had to move, if you were pregnant you had to move and be born in the right place so that you can have the right ID and be able to work in the right place and so I do not think they were able to .., I 445/2019_2020.01.30 / mro MR VARNEY 6 F CHIKANE cannot show that my mother was in Johannesburg or London. COURT: Okay. REV CHIKANE: But indeed my records would say I was born in Johannesburg. I went to school in Soweto, ended up the University of the North during that time. COURT: Yes. REV CHIKANE: I could not go to Wits, because I wanted to do, I was in the field of meds, applying mathematics and you know, I wanted to do that medicine, but I was told the 10 University of the North has meds so that is where black children go to. COURT: Hmm. REV CHIKANE: So I ended up in the Un iversity of the North. We were, of course, send home a number of times during my time as a student, because of protest action. The last year of 1974, I went there 1972, the last year 1974 we then celebrated the Frelimo Rally. We had a Frelimo Rally, we celebrated the freedom of Mozambique and, and those rallies were banned just hours before they happened and we met as students and 20 we were, the police came and told us we are breaking the law. We left the hall singing freedom songs and then they charged on us and lots of students got injured and we ended up with the Snyman Commission to look at that unrest at the University. What is important about it is that the, almost half of the student representative counsel either went into exile , 445/2019_2020.01.30 / mro MR VARNEY 7 F CHIKANE went underground and therefore the student representative counsel was not operational. I then was elected as a student aid, well-fare type of organisation to take care of the students and I spend time doing that and by the time the commission came I was the Chair of that Committee and had to represent the students at the Commission. After that in January I was advised by one of my lecturers there that you should not come back to this university otherwise you will end up in jail and that 10 is how I stopped going to the Unive rsity of the North. I came back home, worked at the Nuclear Physics Research Unit at Wits, because that was my field of work . Uhmm, we left there about 1979, because we were, we were three black workers in that laboratory. COURT: Hmm. REV CHIKANE: And having read more into the investigation about development of nuclear weapons in the country, we felt we, we should leave, because we are contributing into something that might destroy us.