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A-Team (OFS)

Explanation
The A-Team, also known as the 'Phakathis' was a vigilante group set up and headed by a well-known local councillor in the Thabong area of Welkom to counter the activities of the UDF primarily, and in a smaller measure, the ANC. The A-Team carried out a reign of terror in several areas of the province, particularly in Thabong and Parys, under the guise of 'maintaining order'. In at least one case, the A-Team is alleged to have been supported by police and municipal structures.

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A bit of good news as we end tonight’s programme; we saw Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Chairperson of the Truth Commission back in action this week after a long absence due to ill health. He addressed a press conference on Friday. We sincerely hope his recovery will be swift and complete. That’s it ...
It is expected that the court will hear evidence on a weapon eventually fished out of the dam. When Barnard’s cocaine habit worsened and he stopped spending money on anything but drugs Amore Badenhorst turned on him. She ranted, shot at him, burned his sauna to keep warm. Nothing would make him ...
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On the fifth day of hearings Clive Derby-Lewis was finally taken under cross examination. The Hani family opposes the granting of amnesty and their legal team aim to show that Clive Derby-Lewis had a history of lying to courts. They also implied that he was lying about his wife’s involvement in ...
On the night of June 8, 1988 five ANC members travelling in a minibus were shot dead by a special team of security policemen. Four days later another four activists died in similar circumstances. This is how the SABC reported the incident. // Acting on information received, police set up a ...
A man approached us raising his arms and he was talking in Xhosa saying that he’ll take us to where the rest of the group is. One sergeant from the riot unit, he was a white sergeant, said I should shoot this man. And before I shot this man, as he was raising his arms I saw his firearm, and ...
I want to request the Truth Commission to investigate the A-Team and try to find out as to in reality who were behind the A-Team, who were sending them to conduct this reign of terror? When I followed De Kock’s case, De Kock did admit that he had something to do with the death of my child and ...
If you are considering applying for amnesty we suggest you contact the Truth Commission’s offices in your region at the numbers now on your screen. Please don’t contact the Special Report for this reason. We merely report on the Truth Commission, we have no ties whatsoever with them. The ...
This afternoon a special interfaith service was held in Bloemfontein because that is where the Truth Commission will be sitting this coming week. Of course our team will be there but next Sunday we will also show you the very special film a young woman made about her activist father. Don’t miss ...
The one man who seemed prepared to go further than denials was Rubin Marx. Marx is an old style policeman who was also part of the interrogation team. // The deceased Mr Biko did not like being told to get up when Siebert told him he must get up when he speak to me in my office. I thought that I ...
We have come to the end of our last programme for 1996. Our first programme for 1997 will be on Sunday 26 January next year and we sincerely hope you will all join us again then. But hopefully the healing process will not take a holiday. If you are interested in the healing of the memories ...
In the two decades since Biko’s brutal death in detention his name has become synonymous with black consciousness, black pride; black dignity in South Africa. But the circumstances surrounding his death have always been associated with white police brutality, secrecy and lies. Biko was arrested ...
On Monday morning the TRC leads the family of slain askari, Brian Ngqulunga to his gravesite at Vlakplaas, South Africa’s most notorious death farm. Ngqulunga was one of the black security policemen who lived and died in the dirty sinister world of Vlakplaas. He was part of the team that brutally ...
Hello. A warm welcome from the Special Report team to our first programme for 1997. We’re on a new channel, SABC 1; a new timeslot, 8 o’clock; a slightly shorter programme and a bit of a new look. In tonight’s programme we’re going to look at which perpetrators of gross human rights ...
This episode starts with a report back on the amnesty applications (heard in Pietermaritzburg, 10 to 13 February) of three former policemen for murdering ANC member Mbongeni Jama, and includes evidence of police complicity in gun running and supplying arms to the IFP. In the following segment ...
Mr. Chairman were about to see video footage of the interior of the tavern as taken by the police team on the morning after the attack. // Mr. Chairman the camera moves to a raised portion of the interior of the tavern where the other two deceased lay. That is Bernadette Langford and Lindy Fourie. ...
Then the other side, those branded informers, started hitting back. People in the township started referring to them as the A-Team after an American television series. Members of the community say the police assisted the A-Team, but they deny this saying that when they were in trouble the police ...
This episode begins with a report on Eugene de Kock?s criminal trial and the effects his revelations - implicating the former state president, cabinet ministers and others - might have on the Truth Commission process. The segment includes an interview with Truth Commissioner Dumisa Ntsebeza ...
‘Ladies and gentlemen welcome to Port Elizabeth’ // We’ve just touched down here in the Eastern Cape where the Truth Commission held its first Human Rights Violations hearings in April last year. The Special Report team hopes to speak to some of the first victims who told their stories to the ...
It just says fulfil these legal obligations and then we sweep the terrain clean and can start on a clean slate. // Let’s talk about the other leg, reconciliation. There’s been a lot of criticism that this has only been the opening of wounds and no real reconciliation. Do you agree with that? // ...
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