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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 ... ... of special tasks. // I was never shown a mission statement for the unit as a whole or an objective for the unit as a whole but it consisted of four operations, all of them relatively similar. The largest being the operation to destabilize UNITA, destabilize Angola, by means of supporting UNITA. ... 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. ... ... 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 ... the story. They were killed by Lotz and others in a cover up that has become known as the Motherwell bomb. Perhaps the most serious casualty of this operation was the very law and order that these policemen claimed they were so desperate to ... ... Silverton bank siege. This is the only instance in which cadres of Umkhonto we Sizwe took hostages. There were three cadres who were going on some operation. They realised that they had been spotted by the police, and ran into a bank. They got into the bank and they tried to move all the ... But for those instances where civilians were hit, Mbeki expressed the ANC’s deep regret. He named a list of operations that did not go strictly according to ANC rules. The first was an operation that was never intended to be. Firstly, he was in charge of the operation and then secondly, when the Goniwe Four were taken, Van Zyl took Goniwe, in other words physically during the kidnapping. If I have to explain the language used, I would be pleased. He was surprised because of the resistance offered by Goniwe. // Is that ... I think you probably get damaged and you probably start becoming a devious person intrinsically and I won’t recommend it. But I was effectively in operation for only just over a year and that still took me some recovering from, because I was hiding my true nature from my Defence Force employers ... It is clear that the police are lying about the exact aim of their operation. Through the askaris they knew of the cell’s existence and did not try and arrest the group, before or later. The askaris also provided weapons to the young guerrillas. The police shooting spree on March the 3rd was ... ... for those seniors who today are saying there was nothing wrong, they did not know me. Today I accept full responsibility for this whole ... ... extensively patrolled by the South African Defence Force and also by the Area Protection Units known by the term ‘commandoes.’ Most of those operations, landmine operations, were in the border areas, the areas that were patrolled very, very effectively. I think it is common knowledge to ... ... targeted by the Defence Force, I cannot say how their thoughts went, she could have been an innocent bystander. I cannot say. If I had executed the operation I would also have killed her. // I understood that the two were together and that both were shot. I cannot explain why she was shot but ... ... 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 ... 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. 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 ... ... 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 ... Cadres were under strict instruction to carry out reconnaissance properly so that military patrols were the primary target of the landmine operations. This arose, Chairperson, out of what the regime was doing at the time when it incorporated areas: white farms and white farmers in the border areas ... 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 ... ... piece of bone that we know is existing in any part of the length and breadth of this country. But our mandated period, certainly our period of operation as the TRC, may expire before we have done all the work that needs to be done. As I speak, I’ve been told that there are no less than ... |
