self-protection units (SPUs)

We withdrew other units from where we had deployed them, to be stationed in that strategic point. That is where we deployed these members, waiting for this apparent attack, because one of these two people had fled, and we feared that he might go and report to his own people and we waited for ...

MS NHLAYISI: Were you a member of the SDUs, that is the Self Defence Units in Thokoza?

MR FLORES: Yes, Mr Chairperson. The units of Vlakplaas, Mr Chairperson, would usually operate on the information received from various security branches in the various provinces at that stage, like for instance this case which came from the Eastern Transvaal Security Branch in Witbank.

person, but then he has been entrusted with this duty on the ground to make sure that there is peace. He says he was involved with the Self Defence Units and the ANC except that the Self-Defence Unit was formed and the purpose for which it was formed, what the would have been the purpose for it ...

CHAIRPERSON: And the reason why you went to rob was to enable your unit and other units to be armed, using the firearms that you would have stolen from the farms.

MS VAN DER WALT: So you did not only act against anti-insurgence units but you gave training in explosives?

... the African National Congress ("ANC"). In response to a call by the ANC, Cradoya and other political organisations in Cradock formed self-defence units ("SDU") to defend the community against raids and attacks by the security forces. During these raids people in the township especially ...

Under the guidance of the ANC the occupants of ANC strongholds established Self Defence Units ("SDU" 's) to protect their areas. These SDU's were armed and they engaged in battles with IFP supporters.

Probabilities favour a construction that the normal 3 weeks deployment of Vlakplaas units, in this present instance at Josini, was either schedules for 2 weeks only, or reduced to 2 weeks only, that the unit returned to Vlakplaas not later than Sunday the 22nd September and reported at ...

MR VISSER: Yes. And is it your experience also that some of the members of units, were active in more than one unit at any one time?

"1. All unrest units have been issued with sneeze and smoke machines and should have sufficient teargas and fluids to operate the machine effectively.

MR MNISI: The MK units, for instance if you've been given four or three people and you are the fourth or the fifth one, it will be taken that you are the commander as you go and undertake the operation. It's not taken for granted that you will be the commander for the rest of that time.

MR VENTER: The point I'm trying to make is that there were APLA members who had been trained in Tanzania and these people were trained to be combat units, combat machines and they surely would have been in the front line to try and obtain funds for APLA. Do you agree with that?

MR MAPOMA: Thank you sir. Are you aware at all that the Self-Defence Units were falling under the political control of the ANC?

MR J F KOK: Chairperson, we were one section within the unit, we were the mechanical section within the unit. I cannot recall what the total was, but we worked on a Head Office basis on a national level, and then there were branches in the regions as well, with smaller units.

ADV GCABASHE: They are, just to get this right again, they are the people who formed part of the overall committee that was guiding all the units in Tokoza. The central committee is what they called it, I think.

MR STRYDOM: Were you happy with the policing which was done by the Self Defence Units?

... or ammunition, he would actually assist that. There was also the Riot Unit but I can't remember whether it was Unit 8 or Unit 19, one of those units was supporting IFP. They used to help us with anything, ammunition, and they actually used to lend us guns or at times when they were ...

... ("MK"), the military wing of the African National Congress ("ANC"). At the relevant time he was a highly placed MK operative and commander of units inside the country. He also worked closely with Lieutenant-General Siphiwe Nyanda, a former MK member and presently the Chief of the South ...

The deceased, Mr Nyanda, was according to information obtained from an informer, the commander of the ANC units operating from Swaziland. The applicant testified that he received instructions from Brigadier Schoon and General Steenkamp to go to Swaziland an eliminate Nyanda. They stayed in a ...