Shell House security officer 'feared another Boipatong'

JOHANNESBURG -- The ANC official who ordered the Shell House shootings in 1994 feared an attack similar to the one at Boipatong in December 1992, the amnesty committee heard here yesterday.

Amnesty applicant Gary Kruser was in charge of security at Shell House when eight Zulu protesters were killed and 84 injured outside the ANC's headquarters here on March 28, 1994.

Mr Kruser and 12 other ANC security guards have applied for amnesty for their part in the shootings during a march by thousands of IFP supporters through the central city.

Mr Kruser was yesterday subjected to prolonged cross-examination by lawyers appearing for the surviving victims and their families about his decision to fire on the marchers.

When faced with ballistic and medical evidence that the marchers had not opened fire first and most were shot from the back or the side, Mr Kruser insisted he perceived an impending attack on Shell House.

"I was there and I saw an attack," Mr Kruser said in reply to a question by Mr Danie Dorfling, who suggested the marchers were not attacking the building.

Mr Kruser conceded the marchers could have been shot in the back or side because the shooting went on longer than it should have and they were already retreating.

He also conceded that he may have exceeded the bounds of self-defence by allowing the firing to continue beyond the point where the march had been repelled.

He also explained in reply to questions by Ms Anna van der Westhuizen that he had previously had bad experiences at the hands of IFP marchers. He said he visited the scene of the Boipatong massacre in which IFP-supporting impis rampaged through the Vaal Triangle township in December 1992, killing 46 people.

"I felt badly hurt by the experience of seeing people, including women and children, killed and maimed. It was very distressing," he said.

Mr Kruser said he acted at Shell House to prevent a similar situation which threatened the lives of his leaders who were in the building at the time.

He said he had also been fired at by IFP supporters in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands when ANC president Nelson Mandela entered an IFP no-go area to visit the burnt-out houses of ANC supporters.

Mr Kruser was asked at length about evidence given to the Goldstone Commission of inquiry and the judicial inquest into the shootings. He continued to reply that even if the evidence produced at these hearings showed the contrary, he understood at the time that the marchers were advancing and that they fired the first shots.

Mr Kruser admitted he withheld the truth at previous hearings about who fired at the marchers. He said he did this to protect his colleagues because he did not trust the police who were investigating the shootings at the time.