self-defence units (SDUs)

South Africa. I am going to say two things. First of all there was a security situation developing in South Africa which resulted in Defence Force units deployed in places like Sebokeng, the Rand area in general, and also in the greater Durban area. So at the beginning of 1990 the headquarters ...

... General, the head of the security police comes and he tells his deputy, "listen, when I'm not here or even if I am here, if people, if operational units have a request for covert operations which involve the elimination of political opponents, you must take that decision or on the other hand you ...

... Joseph Mofekeng and Vusi and Jabo, that is Gyza. We were discussing about the possible solutions, particularly to build, to formulate Self Defence Units so that we could protect the community because people were killed in ...

... as a result of third force activities, the leadership of the ANC established and in some instances encouraged the establishment of Self Defence Units (SDUs), which played a critical role in the defence of defenceless ...

ADV SIGODI: Were you aware of the presence of Self Defence Units in the township?

... was an ongoing political battle between the IFP hostel dwellers and the ANC people living in the nearby township. The ANC thus formed Self Defence Units (SDU) to protect their supporters as well as the residents. This they did because the South African Police did nothing to prevent or stop the ...

MR RICHARD: Now as in this particular situation it was obviously perfectly permissable to attack, to use the words, the army and police and so-called defence units?

... structures, used various elements. A special relationship existed between the SABC TV and radio news departments and the Intelligence community's units responsible for STRATCOM. And there was in fact a war for the hearts and minds of the target community and the State was at a disadvantage ...

The ANC supporters organised themselves into Self Defence Units and the applicant assisted them from time to time, providing them with ammunition. He resolved to assist them further by providing them with firearms.

MR KNOPP: And were you involved at all in the so-called SDUs, Self Defence Units?

CHAIRPERSON: We will start the proceedings. Just for the record, today is Monday the 7th of December 1998. This is a continuation of the amnesty hearings of members of the Thokoza Self Defence Units.

I don't want to blame the TRC, the media is inclined to look at these atrocities, but we always use the same names, the same police and Defence Units, but there is no mention made of the majority of people who were in the police and the Defence Force, that they weren't involved in this.

The ANC established a system of Self Defence Units to protect themselves and the community at large against attacks. The applicant said that it is in this context that on the 27th August 1992 he approached a motor vehicle (panel van) on the 27th August 1992 in order to get hold of firearms. He ...

... to gain advances in this conflict. As a result of the conflict the African National Congress ("ANC") devised what has become known as Self Defence Units ("SDU") in order to defend it's members and residents in certain areas in general. They also equipped as far as they could, such members with ...

... of other persons in a similar position were told by Chris Hani, the former Chief of Staff of Umkhonto weSizwe that they should form Self Defence Units in the communities in which they lived. Reference to the further submissions made by the African National Congress on 12 May 1997, at page 30 ...

MR SHONGWE: Yes, there was an instruction that we should form Self Defence Units and we should do everything in our power or in our discretion in order to arm ourselves and as the members of the Self Defence Unit, we knew the Black Cat members very well and Bongani was one of the people who played ...

... causes a bit of a problem because he's also involved in the hearing that our colleagues are attending to elsewhere, also in regard to Self Defence Units. Of course he's not freely available for this session. In fact I believe that he is an applicant in the other proceedings, so he will really ...

... I can put it like that. The aim was to defend the community and to advance the cause of freedom. The agents of this were the MK and Self Defence Units. In this instance the applicant was acting within the structure of the ...

During 1991, in equipping the Self Defence Units (SDU) to perform their operation, the applicant was involved in being in unlawful custody of an unknown number of firearms and ammunition. He also distributed these to members of the SDU’s.

MR VAN ZYL: We had our own code of conduct and our own rules which was underlined in the Defence Force structure but we did not work in uniform so the uniform and specific units in the Defence Force's code of conduct was not applicable to us.