self-defence units (SDUs)

In response to this continuing violence self defence units were set up with the aim of protecting township residents. The SDUs, as they came to be known, were trained by Umkhonto we Sizwe soldiers. One such SDU in the Moleleki section of Kathlehong had already been operating since 1992. The unit ...

During the 1980s three security force units attacked and assassinated anti-apartheid activists in neighbouring states. The security police, the Defence Force Civil Cooperation Bureau, CCB, and Military Intelligence. The CCB’s Zimbabwean cell was one of the most active and carried out operations ...

... that the NP leadership was aware of and never disciplined him for authorizing illegal actions. The SADF was less forthcoming especially on covert units like the CCB and DCC. Former Commander of Special Forces did however give evidence on Special Forces deployed inside the country to support ...

... intelligence division, Maj-Genl Krappies Engelbrecht. They and the other police officers named in the report were placed on immediate leave. Police units implicated were the old Vlakplaas units C10, the East Rand Murder and Robbery Squad and the Durban Security Branch as well as the KwaZulu ...

Successive states of emergency created an environment where secret units of the security forces flourished. Units like the shady Civil Cooperation Bureau and the police death squads at Vlakplaas were formed.

APLA units across the country were told that we haven’t got enough money, we haven’t got enough guns, we haven’t got enough ammunition and the Boers have lots of money, lots of ammunition, lots of guns and they must go and repossess them, not steal them.

... with the riot unit at that particular time. We were not able to identify who at that particular time was the commander of those particular two units. But the guy who was known to be shooting, it was a soldier from Queenstown called McOwen, he was coming from Queenstown. And another one was ...

... What appears from investigations thus far is that there were farms which were used as headquarters by the security police or by Vlakplaas-type units. We had Vlakplaas; we had Andy Taylor’s Camp Adon, a farm he used as headquarters. We had a similar sort of headquarters in East London, ...

But the National Party when questioned about the widespread killing and torture of opponents and the use of covert units like that at Vlakplaas and the Civil Cooperation Bureau, was not able to explain who took the decisions and who should take final responsibility.

... subpoenaed Mangosuthu Buthelezi or any of his Lieutenants to explain their role. One of the most notable successes of the TRC’s Investigation Units has been the exhumation unit which has helped many families dig quite literally for the dark secrets of the past. Over the last two years of ...

... getting together having a braaivleis and swopping bush stories. What it is, is SWAPO, ANC, APLA, Umkhonto we Sizwe, Koevoet, Recces, all the units, every single unit, everybody whoever was trained in any way militarily getting together and just making some kind of sense of the mess that we ...

unit for the protection of VIP’s in KwaZulu was approved by the State Security Council. Any suggestions therefore that the training of the KwaZulu units had anything to do with the establishment of a third force, which was at that stage still under consideration, constitutes a blatant disregard ...

... to Zimbabwe and not explode till I opened it. There was a great deal of intelligence and sophistication, the sophistication that only lay within units such as the CCB. ...

Swaziland was perhaps the country that suffered most in the 1980s when Vlakplaas and other security police units raided it year after year.

... gates have truly opened with the torrent of new applications for amnesty from former security policemen and significant breakthroughs with military units such as the Civil Cooperation Bureau and the Directorate Covert Collection. A disturbing element is that there are people at very senior ...

... getting together having a braaivleis and swopping bush stories. What it is, is SWAPO, ANC, APLA, Umkhonto we Sizwe, Koevoet, Recces, all the units, every single unit, everybody whoever was trained in any way militarily getting together and just making some kind of sense of the mess that we ...

nobody told nobody. In other words the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing. There was 24 hours surveillance on him by surveillance units of BOSS in Durban. // 24 hour? // Yes. // For years? // For years. // And BOSS’ surveillance unit itself was doing surveillance and sometimes ...

... Robberies evokes negative feelings, but as a matter of fact during the armed struggle we had no logistical support and we had to form repossession units and repossession in our definition was that if you take from the rich then that thing is morally justifiable. ...

... government’s violent strategy of torture and murder against pro-democracy activists. This impression is mistaken. There were other police units who were far more prolific killers. Three of the five security policemen appearing before the Truth Commission’s Amnesty Committee at the ...