self-protection units (SPUs)

MR VALLY: Now, was this a formal military unit like other military units were, where people were in uniform, went around saluting each other?

... It is now admitted, it's always been common knowledge that South Africa had a military presence in that area, some of them, some of those units acted in the interest of the then South West Africa political parties. It has been argued also in some occasions that some units acted in the ...

... Party to murder people in the townships and we sat down as comrades and we discussed this issue. Comrades together with other members of the units from ...

... NDLOVU: Actually, when it comes to that issue, they do give reports but it was not possible or easier to locate our comrades, especially in the sub-units, to give proper reports because we also were operating under difficult conditions which were by that time, it was not conducive enough for our ...

"President Nelson Mandela emphasised that the 1991 National Conference of the ANC, where MK can it must of course make it's expertise available to those communities that are engaged in a process of establishing Self-Defence Units."

So that I found myself involving myself in the community structures of Marienhoek and I set up Self Defence Units, seeing that people could be able to protect themselves.

to the police headquarters in Pretoria. I was the commanding officer of the special units, that was the

... family, friends and neighbours. This affected me very deeply and I felt that I had a responsibility to do something to assist. There were defence units that existed in the areas to protect the communities. I knew those units and they were responsible for protecting the community, my friends, ...

MR VISSER: Then just to return to paragraph 18, to highlight this, in paragraph 18 you have summarised the names as they were known to you and these were names of certain MK units or structures in the Soweto area.

MR DUMAKUDE: I discussed this with Mr Dube because Mr Dube was the Commander of our Units.

MR BERGER: Do you know people in any of the other units?

... on mutual co-operation and trust. It is not headquarters' intention that these teams take over your work, or to function independently in your units. In order to avoid confusion the following guidelines are established. The placing and withdrawal of teams will be dealt with by a senior ...

MR McPHERSON: Not entirely. There were other units at head office who were also involved with Africa and terrorist organisations and the movements of suspicious persons, and I think for example with the investigations unit of terrorism they had regular interviews with people who were caught and ...

CHAIRPERSON: Sorry, Mr Lecordier, I haven't asked this of anybody before, but I was just wondering, did the unit its own name at all or not? Because I've heard that some units carried a name.

Although APLA had a high command and some form or hierarchical structure, units were only formed once it was decided to carry out operations. The first operation I became involved in, was in 1992. I was involved in four operations and I have applied for amnesty in respect of all four these ...

MR ROSSOUW: Was there co-operation between the Security Branch and other units of the South African Police?

... the SADF itself, which was on patrol in those self-same area, whether or not the KwaZulu Government administered the areas? --- Well, typically units like 121 Battalion in a rural counter insurgency capacity would be doing that task of border protection, cordons, needs-be searches of ...

... Structure, combat name, Bernard. His responsibilities were to do political work within the unit to train and distribute arms in our various sub-units, clearance of the DLB's, executing attacks and sustain the moral of the unit members. Alfas Ndlovu, fellow applicant, a member of the Command ...

Act. In certain of the operations the applicant played a direct role in the planning and preparation thereof. In others he gave general orders for units to carry out operations at their discretion so long as they acted within the given guidelines. The role played by the applicant in all ...

MR MBANDAZAYO: It was also mentioned here,can you elaborate that it was mentioned that there were two, you also had twocertain Units within APLA, a Repossession Unit and an Offensive Unit, can youbriefly tell the Committee, whether the same Unit can do the same, can be involved- if the Offensive ...