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Witdoeke

Explanation
Separate vigilante groups in the Cape and in the OFS, both named Witdoeke because of the white scarves (witdoeke) they wore around their heads or arms. Cape - During May and June 1986, the Witdoeke in Crossroads, Cape Town, were mobilised by their pro-government leader Johnson Ngxobongwana into vigilante attacks on UDF-aligned individuals and areas. More than 66 people were killed in the two attacks and more than 60 000 were left homeless. OFS - In the OFS, the Witdoeke were an informal vigilante group operating with police support.

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The attacks 260 Between 17 and 21 May 1986, thousands of witdoeke from Old Crossroads systematically torched and looted the satellite squatter camps of Nyanga Bush, Nyanga Extension and Portland Cement. Both SAP and SADF personnel were present at the scene and not a single witdoek member was ...
... was stopped at a witdoek roadblock. Mr Vuyani Dyaboza [CT00730], Mr Lukhanyiso Finye [CT00730] and a young woman were then abducted by the witdoeke and held in an informal prison in Crossroads. While the young woman managed to escape, Finye and Dyaboza were hacked to death and their ...
Witdoeke in the Western Cape 587 The attacks launched by witdoeke in the western Cape resulted in the deaths of over sixty people and the destruction of the homes of over 60 000 people in May and June 1986. The Commission uncovered a trail of covert official endorsement of the witdoeke (see ...
... Town’s informal settlements reflect different aspects of the state’s practice of contra-mobilisation in this region: the conflict between the witdoeke/’fathers’ and the ‘comrades’ from December 1985 to June 1986; abuses committed by the former witdoeke leaders in Khayelitsha and Old ...
284 In the Peninsula, two cases of necklacing were reported in 1985. Cases in 1986 relate almost exclusively to the conflicts between the vigilante witdoeke and ‘comrades’ in the informal settlements of Cape Town. During the build-up of conflict from January to May, eighteen males were burnt ...
... to burn him alive. He was taken to the bushes and suspended by a chain from a tree, assaulted, and later given electric shocks. 193 After the witdoeke attacks of May and June 1986, thousands of refugees were forced to live in schools and churches. Refugees were arrested from these centres ...
... by the SADF, mainly for distribution in Uitenhage, the heart of the conflict from 1987. 581 During 1986 Maqina had contact with the conservative witdoeke in Cape Town. Dr JL van der Westhuizen notes that “the longest discussion I have had with M, was with regard to the ‘witdoeke’ and his ...
... allegations. Throughout the case, all defence witnesses representing the state consistently denied any involvement in the attacks or support to the witdoeke. The Commissioner of Police, General Johan Coetzee testified that the police were trained to be impartial and it was not in the ...
... as a ‘hearts and minds’ initiative to win political compliance. Millions of rands were allocated to Crossroads for upgrading after the witdoeke attacks of 1986. 386 Ironically, these development projects became mired in political conflicts, struggles and rivalries that cost large ...
1985; the Pollsmoor march and the political revolt from August to December 1985; the suppression of the Defiance Campaign in September 1989. the witdoeke conflicts of May and June 1986; (see Contra Mobilisation) activities of the ‘special constables’ from 1986 to 1989; (see Volume 2) ...
... Committee (a body opposed to Hoza) was subjected to ongoing harassment and attack by Hoza and his group. In Crossroads, Prince Gobingca, erstwhile witdoeke leader, fell out of favour and was violently ejected from Crossroads in July 1987. Gobingca himself was shot and injured, and up to thirty ...
... 354 WECUSA was launched in 1989 as an alliance of pro-ANC squatter leaders, largely those whose communities had been violently destroyed by the witdoeke in 1986. Hostile and competitive relations with the WCCA were worsened with the increasing incorporation of formerly conservative squatter ...
in clandestine ways. Special organisations within Inkatha, such as the Caprivi-trained group, as well as numerous township vigilante groups (such as witdoeke), constitute further examples. Within many of these organisations, yet smaller groups were given the task of special operations. According ...
... Cape 78 Special constables were deployed in the African townships of Cape Town from October 1986. Most were recruited from the pro-government ‘witdoeke’ camps of Crossroads and Khayelitsha. A group of about ninety special constables, based at the Nyanga police station, were sent out on ...
... Provinsie", attended by inter alia local SAP, SARP, and security police. Major General Genis was sent to Cape Town around the time of the witdoeke attack in June 1986. 37 22/5/2/2 Volume 5, H Leër/GS2/328/3/3/1. ...
... in some cases in vigilantism, sometimes assisted by the security forces. The violent conflict in KwaNobuhle, Uitenhage in 1987-1989 and the witdoeke vigilantes from KTC and Crossroads are examples of this development. 255 Like other campaigns that had “unintended consequences”, the ...
... on 8 September 1991, in which eighteen IFP supporters were killed (see Volume Three). 125 In Khayelitsha, Cape Town, the conflict between witdoeke and an ANC SDU was exacerbated when the ANC denied the SDU access to weaponry in an attempt to control the violence. A former witdoek leader ...
... warfare programme in the 1980s. It was a line of approach which spawned the Caprivi hit squads in KwaZulu and countrywide vigilante forces like the Witdoeke, as well as the surrogate armies or elements in the region, like UNITA, RENAMO, the Lesotho Liberation Army and Zimbabwean dissident groups. ...
... the general rubric of contra-mobilisation exemplified by the deployment of surrogate forces such as the Caprivi-trained Inkatha supporters, the Witdoeke, the A-team and other politicised gangs, as well as those forces, such as UNITA, that were used to destabilise the region.7 Hence, the ...
... yet seen. The United Workers Union of South Africa (UWUSA) is launched by Inkatha in May, backed by substantial covert state funding. Vigilante witdoeke attack and destroy the UDF-aligned satellite camps around Crossroads, Cape Town in May. A similar attack takes place at KTC in June. Over ...
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