self-protection units (SPUs)

Everybody observed that as a fight between Zulu's and Xhosa's. On that meeting of the ANC Youth League, they said that amongst the members of the ANC Youth League and I was also the Chairperson of the Slovo Section, that we must form Self Defence Units.

... instances where people would fight over girlfriends and turn the information around thereafter and therefore all the members of the self defence units had to be able to gather information if a person had evidence about a certain information, that was ...

MR MALAN: But you said Unit B only Black Power units? Is the ANC a Black structure? Is AZAPO a Black structure?

MR BAKER: Mr Chairman, yes, Capt Botha was in charge of Intelligence Units, the MK Intelligence Unit. This operation was basically his, but the overall deployment of the greater team if I can call it as such, actually fell under Col Taylor. I had been there to find out about the deployment of ...

MR LAX: You spoke about in the hostel you were divided up into units when you said that the people in your unit were Zwele and - I can't remember who the other person was - Buthelezi?

... raised in the evidence must be weighed against the following. It must be born in mind, according to Thwala, Simelane was in one of his units and apparently an important one at that, her being the leader of the Vaal One Cell, because that certainly is the impression that his evidence ...

... and as the struggle developed, in many instances there was no way in which we could keep track of the activities of individual operatives and units in the country and that they carried out actions which we did not know about which they did not report and so it is quite possible yes, what ...

perhaps, have related to one of the other units, but I did not have knowledge of that and I cannot remember

... refusal to admit to the true facts and against the background of a series of incidents in the recent past, perpetrated by their unit and other units, it was not seriously entertained that they could be recruited.  The 4th and 7th Applicants decided that they had to be killed.  It was ...

MR HATTINGH: And you have already testified in this document previously, that you as the Commander of Vlakplaas from time to time had to return to Head Office in order to report about the activities of your units there and the information that you had obtained there.

MR SHAIK: No, I wouldn't say that it was part of the ANC policy, as per se. I would say that in that instance I perceived that the Self Defence Units given the situation that existed in townships at the time, were using those weapons to defend themselves against Inkatha led or Inkatha orientated ...

... these Street Committees were put on the alert and the matters were closely monitored. It is during this period that the residents of the aforesaid units bona fide believed that the "Killer Boys" were agents of the Security Forces. This belief was further reinforced by the fact that although the ...

I can also mention that it was custom for wherever in a certain area there was an increase in terrorist activities, we would deploy units there to assist in the collection of information and also to identify members of the revolutionary organisations which may have infiltrated.

MR MFALAPITSA: yes, because I was in charge of logistics for these military units and in charge of ordinance, their weaponry, so I used to go between them and the officials, so anything that was to come from the officials to them, or from them to the officials, was conveyed by me, or through me.

... three bombs would be the large explosions that occurred and in the Western Transvaal there would be more bombs. Beforehand we discussed that other units of the AWB would continue but that never occurred though Mr ...

"Many of the established MK units had been allowed a degree of initiative in executing their operations as long as they remained within the policy guidelines."

MR BERGER: Why is there not a mention in your statement at 210(H) to (I), not a word about the self defence units, why is that?

CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MS THABETHE: On paragraph 2 of your supplementary affidavit you talk about the material which was going to be used in home made weapons for Self Defence Units. How were you going to defend yourselves? Sorry, let me start here. Who was going to make these home made weapons?

MR BLACK: You say that you've always supported the African National Congress and in 1986 you became an active member of the self-defence units at Secunda?

MR BAKER: No Mr Chairman, this was done by specialised units within the Security Branch.