self-protection units (SPUs)

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 ...

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. ...

... 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 ...

... violence: Bantu Education. And we bring you a special appeal from Archbishop Desmond Tutu to soldiers, policemen, guerrillas and self defence units to apply for amnesty in the next six days. Let’s visit the KwaZulu-Natal midlands first. It’s the story of a policeman who will have the ...

... is a drop in the ocean. You’ve got 200 people up against, and I think that is something which emerged from the Lombo hearings, you’ve got MK units operating in this province, armed with sophisticated weapons, who’ve received comprehensive military training. If the KwaZulu government ...

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.

... 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, ...

... 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 ...

Africa. Fifty Ciskei policemen were formed up in three lines behind the blade wire. They were equipped with riot control gear. Directly behind them, units of the Ciskei Defence Force were on full alert. They were the last line of defence protecting Bisho. Brigadier Oelschig of the SADF was then in ...

... possibility of civil proceedings for damages against you by those who were victims of your operations. I appeal to you who were in the self defence units in the townships, in the hostels. I appeal to you who were in the CCB, Military Intelligence. This amnesty is one that would expunge any ...

For the Department of Defence, currently; it’s got more than 35 linear kilometres of files and these are not all centralized in one area. They’re spread throughout the commands, the bases, the units, the formations of the whole SANDF.

... 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 ...

... for amnesty. There’s no question of it, they are coming. But we are proactive in the regions themselves, the regional heads of investigation units in the regions have been instructed to compile a consolidated list and that list is going to be consolidated at the national office for ...

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 ...

... 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 ...

... been no confessions from the Defence Force side. Well, the police are now fingering the Defence Force because in the mid 1980s all the clandestine units of the state started working together to eliminate those who oppose the National Party state. On the police side it was the security police and ...

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.

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. ...