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, 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

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, Durban, Day 2 (27 July 1999)

... where it was necessary for me to plant these weapons on the scene. As standard procedure I did have a Makarov with me and I was also attached to Koevoet and some of the weapons came back with me. For a long time I worked in Bophuthatswana where in one year we arrested 18 ANC members and some ...

/documents/amntrans/durban/53569.htm

Amnesty Hearing, Pretoria, Day 6 (22 August 2000)

MR SNYMAN: Yes, those are the arms that came from Koevoet's bases.

/documents/amntrans/pretoria/54421.htm

Amnesty Hearing, Pretoria, Day 17 (07 December 2000)

MR POTGIETER: That is correct. I was the Information or Intelligence Officer of the Koevoet Unit.

/documents/amntrans/pretoria/53435.htm

Amnesty Hearing, Durban, Day 3 (28 July 1999)

MR MOERANE: When you say you saw operations in South West-Africa, were you part of the Koevoet Unit?

/documents/amntrans/durban/53571.htm

Amnesty Hearing, Port Elizabeth, Day 1 (02 June 1998)

... Later that morning we went to Cradock. One of the members of the PE Security Branch accompanied us. He went in his own car. He had come from Koevoet and I assumed that it was - that Sakkie van Zyl at that stage was a Captain. In Cradock we went to Henry Fouche who was the Security Branch ...

/documents/amntrans/port_elizabeth/52683.htm

Special Hearing, Johannesburg, Day 5

... in Durban. We had a discussion and he told me to write down my story and to come back after a couple of days. He also told me he had been a Koevoet member. Furthermore he gave me his telephone number. I cannot remember the name of this police officer but I gave the name in a statement ...

/documents/special/mandela/56340.htm

Amnesty Hearing, Johannesburg

... took place in 1983 and at that stage Mr De Kock, to the best of my knowledge, was not yet in South Africa, and he was still affiliated to the Koevoet Unit in South West Africa. In Mr De Kock's submission he says that he is clearly being implicated here to an operation that happened in 1983 ...

/documents/amntrans/johannesburg/54727.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

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