self-protection units (SPUs)

for Southern Sotho and the 116 for Northern Sotho. These complemented the Lusophone 32 Battalion that had been secretly formed in 1976. All of these units were to be employed in operational areas, and the 21 and 32 Battalions in particular played significant roles in Namibia and Angola. ...

... PREMISES OR BY THE SAME NAMED PERPETRATORS LEND AUTHENTICITY TO THESE ACCOUNTS. IN THE PENINSULA, THIS TORTURE WAS NOTABLY ASSOCIATED WITH CERTAIN UNITS OF THE SECURITY FORCES, NAMELY THE SECURITY BRANCH, PARTICULARLY THE TERRORISM TRACKING UNIT, AND THE UNREST INVESTIGATION UNITS. THE ...

... TO ADDRESS SERIOUS ENDEMIC CRIME, SUCH AS TAXI VIOLENCE, DRUG TRAFFICKING, CAR THEFT AND LICENSING SYNDICATES AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE. SUCH UNITS SHOULD HAVE SIMILAR POWERS AND INDEPENDENCE TO THOSE OF THE INDEPENDENT COMPLAINTS DIRECTORATE. THE WORK OF SPECIAL INVESTIGATIVE TEAMS, E.G. ...

... testified at an amnesty hearing as follows: There were long and insecure lines of communication, command and control. Many of the established MK units had been allowed a degree of initiative in executing operations, as long as these remained within policy guidelines. In contrast with the ...

... to mobilise communities and replace what were described as ‘illegitimate’ structures with block committees, street committees, self defence units and people’s courts. 151 Community councillors became the fated symbols of the spiralling social problems within communities. Overcrowding, ...

... KILLINGS’, WHERE INDIVIDUALS WERE DELIBERATELY ENTICED INTO SITUATIONS; THE COVERT TRAINING, ARMING AND FUNDING OF OFFENSIVE PARAMILITARY UNITS OR HIT SQUADS FOR DEPLOYMENT INTERNALLY AGAINST OPPONENTS OF THE GOVERNMENT. 1 Hendrik Christoffel Nel in section 29 hearing, dated 18 May ...

... from Inkatha perpetrators, from township ‘vigilante groups’, from torturers or from African National Congress (ANC)-aligned self-defence units (SDUs). Documentary evidence is thus only partly available. Furthermore, the precise question of motives of perpetrators was often not fully ...

... violent conflict were illustrated in evidence given at the Children and Youth hearings by Mr George Ndlozi, who had been involved with self-defence units (SDUs). Ms Seroke: George were there girl SDUs? Mr Ndlozi: Yes. Ms Seroke: And what was their role? Mr Ndlozi: There were some of them who ...

... MEMBERS OF THE IFP, PAC, AZAPO AND THE SAP; CONTRIBUTING TO A SPIRAL OF VIOLENCE IN THE COUNTRY THROUGH THE CREATION AND ARMING OF SELF-DEFENCE UNITS (SDUS). WHILST ACKNOWLEDGING THAT IT WAS NOT THE POLICY OF THE ANC TO ATTACK AND KILL POLITICAL OPPONENTS, THE COMMISSION FINDS THAT IN THE ...

... not be underestimated, especially when this entailed long periods of covert operations. The members of the security forces, especially in covert units … saw themselves as the elite frontline troops in a critically important theatre of the overall war. Security force successes … produced ...

... and through the amnesty applications of senior security force personnel. The evidence reveals the level of co-operation between the covert units of the SAP, Vlakplaas and the SADF Special Forces. In his amnesty application Mr Willem Schoon states that he discussed the booby-trapped hand ...

is evident from police statistics that the majority of victims of the ANC’s armed actions were black. 502 From late 1985 to mid-1987, certain MK units were tasked with the laying of antitank landmines in the rural areas of the northern and eastern Transvaal, the aim being to target military ...

... South Africa,” he said. In this particular case, the plan had been to halt the vehicle carrying the insurgents at a roadblock. Several police units and members of Five Reconnaissance Battalion based at Phalaborwa were involved. Sergeant Mathews Sehlwana, the driver of the minibus, was ...

... there was an increasing blurring of the distinction between criminal and political violence. Certain activities of the Peninsula self defence units (SDUs) became criminalised, while taxi-related conflicts became increasingly politicised. 327 The liberation movements themselves were ...

... and township residents. After 1990, ANC-aligned organisations began calling for the abolition of the hostels and their replacement by family units. This fundamentally threatened the security of hostel residents who wanted to maintain their families and homes in the rural areas but could ...

... Mr Solomon Mahlangu, a twenty-year-old standard nine pupil who fled South Africa in February 1976 and Mr Monty Motaung formed one of the first MK units from the new generation of Soweto recruits to be infiltrated back into South Africa. They killed Mr Rupert Kessner and Mr Kenneth Wolfendale in ...

not be possible to have him kidnapped. He eventually fled to Liberia where he subsequently died. 82 The exodus resulted in the breakdown of family units and the severing of links with extended families, with traumatic effects on the lives of many young people. Exiled children often grew up ...

the political order. This was used to justify their use of lethal force and the deliberate targeting of particular individuals during protests. Riot units were given specific orders to eliminate ringleaders. An attitude of contempt on the part of the security forces, evident in the submissions of ...

confessions for court cases of which examples are provided below. The perpetrators often appear to have been members of special Unrest Investigation Units, particularly the one based at Gugulethu. The Athlone-based unit was involved in widespread torture of youth linked to the Bonteheuwel Military ...

... the Boland and the Northern Cape, began protests against conservative local authorities. Shadowy ‘balaclava’ gangs, renegade self-defence units (SDUs) and warring taxi groupings left a trail of killings in the African areas. ...