self-protection units (SPUs)

Geneva protocol? // Landmines were used in areas that were 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 ...

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 ...

... 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 ...

... on the violation of education rights; public feedback on the TRC; and Archbishop Tutu?s appeal to soldiers, policemen, guerrillas and self defence units to apply for amnesty in the next six days. ...

Self Defence Units (SDUs)

... through the mud from General to Private. We are here to defend the honour of the Defence Force. And we are also here to defend the honour of our units, because I served in bloody good units and there are a lot of them today. Welcome to the paratroopers, 32 Battalion guys and the rekkies, ...

... 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.

During the eighties townships under siege hit back in more ways than one. Underground defence units were formed. The armed struggle was taking route inside the country. In 1990 State President FW de Klerk unbanned the liberation movements and released their leaders. But instead of peace and ...

Not all self defence unit action was this benign. In the townships around Johannesburg self defence units were involved in day to day combat with amongst others Inkatha members and the internal stability unit. Many people lost their lives in the ever spiralling violence and for many the self ...

... 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 ...

‘Armed and Dangerous: Self Defence Units, Report by Anneliese Burgess’ // By late 1990, the ANC was increasingly alarmed at the inability to protect their people from the wave of violence that was engulfing many townships.

... to the former Defence Force generals was probably the most frustrating. Very little new came out and we still don’t know much about clandestine units such as the Civil Cooperation Bureau or the Directorate Covert Collection, but we did learn a few significant facts about the period in the mid ...

... by policemen and soldiers like assassinations, torture and massacres? And, did they know of these violations committed by the security police and units such as Vlakplaas and the CCB? So far, politicians and generals, including former state president FW de Klerk have said they never ordered ...

Good evening. Units of the South African Defence Force carried our raids on ANC targets in Gaborone, Botswana today. // Gen Viljoen told the news conference that the death toll included three trained women terrorists while two unidentified persons who fired on the South Africans from a vehicle ...

of how young comrades of the struggle lost their way and became a problem to the communities they had to help protect, the story of the self defence units and the story of the vigilante group called the Black Cats. ...

... 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 ...

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

... 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. ...