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Operation Zero ZeroExplanation ... where there was Brig Badenhorst and Brig Martin Maritz I think. When Mike Hoare came there he say he come there in connection with the Seychelles operation. So Military Intelligence, these two gentlemen, they were quite abrupt. They said, says who? So Claasen was there, Jimmy Claasen and he ... Oupa Gqozo came to being and got created by nobody else but by the South African Defence Force, a Military Intelligence undercover operation that fed him information that made him more paranoid than he normally is or was. I mean the man is now so sick mentally, that he can’t even come and give ... I asked for Joe Mamasela to come down to assist in the operation because he was the main operator I would say, with Almond Nofemela of course, but a sober guy. A non-smoker, a non-drinker, had the killer instinct, super fit. ... you to eliminate these people? // That is so Your Honour. // You told me that the second sentence here should read. ‘He then suggested that this operation be directed in such a way that the ANC would be blamed for the elimination.’ // That is so Your Honour. // The way it reads at the moment ... ... to attend any complaints in this area, no motor vehicle is allowed to go into this area and I asked them what’s going on. They said it’s an ... Gentlemen what do you say to the proposition that your statement that you issued on the 16th of February 1989 is part of a STRATCOM operation? // All I can say, for me, that’s a ridiculous proposition. I’ve made the point here that arising out of the events in Soweto I was part of the drafting ... appear that you in fact succeeded in doing so. What do you say about that? // After we set up the original ambush for them we then withdrew from the operation. Thereafter they shot at us first, they attacked us and we must have been a lot more successful in actually countering this attack. ... The aim of the operation was to recruit her as soon as possible as an informer and to send her back to Swaziland immediately. Much success has been achieved with this method in the past. She still did not want to cooperate. After consideration and weighing all options Maj Gen Steyn gave Gen Taylor ... ... from the outbuilding one by one for interrogation and this is where the story starts to diverge. Joe Mamasela, an askari who was involved in this operation, sings a completely different song to all the other amnesty applicants. He says the men were removed and over the next two days were ... ... cross for bravery, one of three medals for bravery that De Kock had received in his 27 year career in the police. Those who knew about and approved operations, De Kock said, were PW Botha, former ministers of law and order Louis Le Grange and Adriaan Vlok, former police commissioners Mike ... Joe Mamasela, self-confessed political serial killer was one of the Vlakplaas askaris who participated in this operation. // It was brutal; it was what in Afrikaans people call ‘broekskeur.’ It was terrible. // Were they tortured? // They were tortured severely. They were savaged; they were ... operatives when they supplied faulty hand grenades to COSAS members in the course of 1985. At least eight persons were killed and seven maimed. This operation was authorised and approved by the former Commissioner of Police and the Minister. // Whoever authorized that was guilty of a very gruesome ... The only way of understanding the suspension of armed operation, comrade Sisulu has gone further to explain, that it means that we are not going to take initiative, but we are going to defend ourselves if we are attacked. Then you went back to Vlakplaas where you gave orders to Martinus Ras, Snyman and Vermeulen to prepare for the operation. What precisely did you tell them? // I can’t give you specific details, but the gist of it was that people would be killed and specifically that policemen would be killed. // ... was convenient for the RSA and that’s why they sent in … to say ‘we’ve got nothing to do with this.’ But using their forces and the covert operation not from RSA soil to launch attacks against that that they deemed to be a big problem at the time. And then how do you counter a mass ... And the decision was in the conduct of war it is not possible to avoid civilian losses. // After the few incidences where civilians were caught, the president called us in and asked us to put a stop to this method of operation. I gave the instructions to all our forces to stop using the landmine. ... we know has a long history of helping Vlakplaas cover up their legal problems and Johan van der Merwe was involved in at least one Vlakplaas operation. The head of the ANC’s legal department, Mathews Phosa remarked afterwards that De Klerk sat in Pretoria and knew everything that went on ... Mamasela is a self confessed killer. He’s one of the Vlakplaas operatives who took part in the Pebco Three operation. He has not applied for amnesty but will testify before the Truth Commission once all the amnesty applicants have been heard. He has a very different account of the killings. ‘On 2 December 1988, New Hanover police Captain Brian Mitchell ordered the elimination of a group of UDF members. The operation went wrong. Eleven people attending a night vigil were killed.’ // It was just I think the driving force behind it, behind the motives of the security establishment ... The operation was the brainchild of General Johan van der Merwe and approved at the highest level of the then National Party government. // General van der Merwe gave the express instruction to use the hand grenades and to make these available to activists in order to eliminate them. It was a ... |
