| Time | Summary | |
| 01:13 | The death of my husband affected me so much that I wondered why he was killed; I wanted to know why he was killed and not brought to the court of law to answer for himself. // This is Riaan Stander, a Military Intelligence agent during the eighties. He holds a key to the mystery surrounding the attempted coup; who was behind it, and what might have happened on that day in November 1990. | Full Transcript and References |
| 01:42 | I became involved in the Transkei from an Intelligence point of view during 1986 when I was employed by Longreach. Longreach was a Military Intelligence front company, in other words, a project run by Craig Williamson and myself and a few other people. I was tasked to monitor the Intelligence activities in the Transkei which I did. | Full Transcript |
| 02:15 | Political activity in the former homeland of the Transkei increased as the struggle against apartheid intensified during the latter half of the eighties. Tension between the Pretoria government and the Transkei rose when General Bantu Holomisa took power in 1988. // They were not happy with the language I was speaking at the time, because it was not in favour of their party or their government. // Military Intelligence decided to topple Holomisa by planning a coup against him. Stander was aware of the plot. | Full Transcript |
| 02:55 | Was the South African government directly involved in the planning of the coup? // Yes that was a direct plan and attempt from Military Intelligence, number one. Number two, Department of Foreign Affairs were very closely involved. In actual fact, a lot of the operations came right out of Umtata Embassy at that time. // How do you know that? // We were working on agents who were feeding information to us all the time. We in actual fact, some of my people monitored the Embassy. | Full Transcript |
| 03:33 | One of Riaan Stander’s close confidants in the Transkei at the time, was this man, Col Craig Duli, Holomisa’s second in command on the military council. // Craig Duli had the ambition to become the military leader of the Transkei, in the place of Holomisa and Military Intelligence would have then handled him exactly the same way as that Oupa Gqozo was controlled in the Ciskei. That would have been the answer to the Eastern Cape power base. Because they would have had Craig Duli in the Transkei, Oupa Gqozo in the Ciskei, and the ANC wouldn’t have had any chances in the forthcoming government or elections. // But Riaan Stander was also informed of a plot to kill Holomisa. // Who ultimately decided that Holomisa had to be killed? // I can’t give you the exact name of the person or persons. There were in actual fact two government … highly placed government officials, as well as a private business organisation. But that was done between the two departments I’ve mentioned ...more | Full Transcript |
| 04:55 | Stander warned Holomisa about the assassination plot against him. // Riaan Stander was one of the people who we communicated with, because apparently he was close to a number of these big guns in South Africa. // Why did you warn Holomisa? // I learnt during those years that the ultimate aim wasn’t just to work against the ANC or against Holomisa per se. But there was a very strong monitory involvement and a monitory interest by the different bodies concerned. They had companies operating under Military Intelligence wings: building houses, getting large sums of money and that was all filtered back into their own pockets. | Full Transcript |
| 05:51 | Was his information accurate? // So far, I think his information was accurate. // Eight people were travelled from Johannesburg, and they would meet up with eight more in Queenstown. In Queenstown they made contact. Everything went hundred percent from there. Fire arms were an issue to them, without any life … we removed the black powder. And, they were issued with the fire arms. All got into this minibus taxi and then on route to Transkei they were arrested after they have revealed to the agents the plot. The plan was in actual fact to locate Holomisa in the official residence in Umtata, and then to wait till he will appear in a public weekend that particular weekend I think. And then attack him and shoot him. | Full Transcript |
| 06:53 | On the 23rd of November 1990, Col Craig Duli and his men bombed the Military Garrison in Umtata. General Holomisa and troops royal to him were ready for them. The general was warned of the attempted coup. // They were ambushed. They were collected from the Air Force detachment base. They were collected together and they negotiated with Col Mzwayiba who arranged transport and he got the minibus. He bundled them into a minibus. By the time the minibus left the Air Force detachment Mzwayiba’s men had already been deployed about two or three kilometres outside the Air Force detachment where they were ambushed and killed. | Full Transcript |
| 07:47 | By the end of that day19 people were dead. Amongst them was the coup leader, Col Craig Duli. He had gunshot wounds in his leg, eye and back. His death was a mystery. When he was captured by Holomisa’s men earlier that day he limped out of the Botha [inaudible] building, only slightly injured. He was loaded in the boot of a car and taken away. | Full Transcript |
| 08:15 | Apparently my husband went to the camp. He was slightly injured, but what Mbulau saw was he was told to look this way. He said: sit down I’m going to talk to you and tell you why I’m doing this. He said, I haven’t had anything against the Transkeians. The only one that I’m against is this one and he also knows this. I don’t want to be the leader of the country. So they said, turn and look that way. And that is how he was shot, while he was still pleading and that was the end of him. | Full Transcript |
| 09:05 | What happened to Duli after he was wounded? // He was removed, I would say for interrogation, maybe attention and treatment, and I think he met his fate then on the way to the destiny they wanted to go and do the interrogation. // Do you think he was executed? // Yes, I believe it was an execution. // Why do you say that? // It wouldn’t have been in the interest that time of the persons there to keep him alive. // Was Holomisa involved in the execution? // I don’t think he even knew about it. | Full Transcript |
| 09:50 | Craig Duli had information that some members of the military did not want Craig to reveal. As I’ve said to you this was not planned by Craig, by himself. He was together with other members of the military, as I have numerated out to you right away. So, I want to take a guess that they wanted silence. | Full Transcript |
| 10:21 | The reason why I’m here before this Commission is because I feel like my husband should have been taken to the court of law so that he can defend himself. Who killed him and why he killed him, what was so secretive? Because it was obvious that he was going to disclose this secret. It was now the time for him to say what was the problem with him and his friend General Holomisa. | Full Transcript |
