Koevoet

Explanation
a police counter-insurgency unit set up in South West Africa in 1979 by members of the SAP Security Branch. It comprised recruits mostly from the local population who were trained as a mobile unit to gather intelligence, track guerrillas and kill them. Koevoet (Afrikaans for 'crowbar') soon gained a reputation for brutality, largely because of its methods of interrogating and torturing local people and for its heavy-handed presence in the operational areas. In the early to mid-1980s, at the height of its war with SWAPO, Koevoet claimed a kill rate of around 300 to 500 people a year, for which its members were paid a bounty per corpse.

TV Series Hearing Transcripts TRC Final Report TRC Victims

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Amnesty Hearing, Cape Town, Day 5 (21 November 2000)

... phrase, by the South African government, when being arrested as a so-called illegal immigrant into the military. That eventually sent him off to Koevoet, which eventually sent him off to the Police Intelligence System and as he explained, by that stage he was in a position where if he tried to ...

/documents/amntrans/unknown/53992.htm

Amnesty Hearing, Pretoria, Day 10 (13 December 2000)

MR HATTINGH: Initially in his statement, Mr Potgieter says that he has a clear recollection of yourself and van Niekerk together and he specifically remembers van Niekerk because he saw him the last time in Koevoet. Where were you and van Niekerk together in the presence of Colonel Potgieter?

/documents/amntrans/pretoria/53419.htm

Amnesty Hearing, Pretoria, Day 3 (07 July 2000)

MR BOSCH: Yes, Chairperson. Because I know - Col de Kock could perhaps help me out here, but that thing actually we got from the days of Koevoet in South West, quite a long time.

/documents/amntrans/pretoria/54316.htm

Amnesty Hearing, Pretoria, Day 15 (29 September 1998)

... was on the basis that this is an umbrella issue which covers all the aspects. It covers not only the London bomb, it covers even aspects of Koevoet which again we say we fail to see the relevance of. But Mr Chairman, certainly I'm going to have to discuss this with General Coetzee. It ...

/documents/amntrans/pretoria/52852.htm

Amnesty Hearing, Pretoria, Day 5 (21 August 2000)

Col de Kock, there seems to have been a bit of a misunderstanding, my client, Sgt Olifant, says he knows you well, he has known you since 1980, you served on missions together in Namibia whilst you were a Commander of Koevoet, can you perhaps stand up and would you perhaps recognise him better?

/documents/amntrans/pretoria/54419.htm

Amnesty Hearing, Port Elizabeth, Day 1 (01 June 1998)

... be weeks? Well, we know that from the end of 1984 there was an emigration from Namibia to South Africa and particularly in the Eastern Province of Koevoet members. Did their arrival have anything to do with the discussions about the killing of the Cradock 4 as you say in the last ...

/documents/amntrans/port_elizabeth/52682.htm

Amnesty Hearing, Pretoria, Day 2 (15 February 2000)

Afterwards I went to fetch my medical case, the sort that doctors in the field would use and also the sort that we used with Koevoet in the field, which was fully equipped with intravenous equipment and so forth. I then attended to his injuries, I cleaned his facial wounds and also cleaned the ...

/documents/amntrans/pretoria/54038.htm

Special Hearing, Johannesburg, Day 5 (24 November 1997)

DR ASVAT: Well, I do know that Colonel Henk Hesslinga at one time told us that he was also a member of Koevoet.

/documents/special/mandela/56337.htm

Amnesty Hearing, Cape Town, Day 2 (20 May 1997)

This money was collected by the leaders of SANCO. Bongi Mpisane was one of those leaders who collected money. That made it very clear to us that we were in a war situation between the police and the Self Defence Units. The police who were assisted by a group of Koevoet members.

/documents/amntrans/cape_town/54686.htm

Amnesty Hearing, East London, Day 4 (21 April 1999)

... dit vir al die dinge wat ons saam gedoen het, vir al die dinge wat ons saam gedoen het", now that Mr Chairman, includes the time that they spent in Koevoet in Namibia. It can therefore never be said that he donated that stand to Nortje as compensation for his participation in this particular ...

/documents/amntrans/east_london/53294.htm

Special Hearing, Cape Town, Day 3 (09 October 1997)

I will just add, one quick thing I can throw in is that the whole Vlakplaas operation was something that was transplanted from outside and brought inside. That was Koevoet that was brought into South Africa and it had a role and a function outside which was naturally just continued internally.

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