Vlakplaas

167. In August 1980, Captain Dirk Coetzee was appointed commander of Vlakplaas. Under his command, C1/Vlakplaas members were drawn into other operational tasks, both within and outside South Africa. Coetzee and two black Vlakplaas operatives applied for amnesty for a number of operations. 168. ...

... into the issue. Subsequent evidence in the State vs Eugene de Kock and before this Commission corroborates the fact that the SAP, largely through Vlakplaas operatives, supplied the IFP with a considerable amount of weaponry during the 1990s. The Commission received a number of amnesty ...

elements in both the police and the IFP continued to collude with one another throughout the negotiation period, and that the police, mainly through Vlakplaas operatives, supplied considerable amounts of weaponry to the IFP during the 1990s. This was also covered by the March 1994 Goldstone ...

... The following represent some of the cases of disappearances that were successfully solved by the Commission. The Case of the Chesterville Four Vlakplaas operatives killed four members of the Chesterville Youth Organisation in an undercover operation using askaris in May/June 1986. The ...

... confirmation of an increase in the use of extra-judicial mechanisms to control political opposition in the country during the mid-1980s. The secret Vlakplaas Security Branch police unit played a significant role in this escalation of covert activity. However, evidence from amnesty applications ...

... to provide access to weapons in the event of the failure of negotiations and the outbreak of civil war.57 128. At least seven applicants from C1/Vlakplaas applied for amnesty for unlawfully transporting massive quantities of arms of Eastern Bloc origin from Koevoet in Namibia to South Africa. ...

a ‘safe house’ in Komatipoort. The intention was to change their attitudes. This failed and their elimination was ordered. They were killed by a Vlakplaas squad led by Dirk Coetzee. Brigadier Schoon applied for amnesty for this operation. 342 On 19 February 1981, Dirk Coetzee was linked to ...

... Peter Lengene, infiltrated SOYCO. 95. Constable Lengene supplied the group with AK47s, hand grenades and an SPM limpet mine. He later drew in two Vlakplaas askaris who provided training in the use of these weapons. 96. At this stage, the commander of the SIU, Lieutenant Anton Pretorius, ...

... in August resulting in casualties. This incident led Major General Griebenouw of the Western Cape security police to request the assistance of Vlakplaas. Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock deployed certain Vlakplaas personnel including Joe Coetzer, Riaan Bellingan and several askaris, ...

... applicants applied for amnesty for offences committed while based at Security Branch Headquarters. Forty-seven of these applicants were based in C1/Vlakplaas. 67 In the 1990s, the Security Branch was renamed Crime Intelligence and Investigation and fell under the same division as the old Criminal ...

Section C1: Vlakplaas 16 The unit which came to be known by the name of the farm was started in the late 1970s by Col JJ Viktor, then head of the C section, and Col Jan du Preez. 17 The purpose of Vlakplaas at this stage was ostensibly as a place to rehabilitate 'turned terrorists' or, as they ...

124 In 1979, the Vlakplaas unit was established under section C of the Security Branch. It was originally a rehabilitation farm where former ANC and PAC activists were ‘turned’ into police informers, known as askaris. Other branches of the security police could call on the askaris to ...

... of the Western Cape security police to call Brigadier Schoon at the Security Branch headquarters in Pretoria and request the assistance of Vlakplaas. Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock evaluated the request and chose Bellingan to lead a team of operatives. Other members were a black ...

... a fellow askari, Mr Simon Radebe, was assigned the task of befriending Ngqulunga. On 19 July 1990, Radebe took Ngqulunga to the Skurwebergpad near Vlakplaas, where he handed him over to Dave Baker, W Riaan Bellingan, Pieter Hendrik Botha and Captain Wouter Mentz, who tied him up and hit him till ...

115 Subsequent amnesty applications indicate that Vlakplaas operatives Brood van Heerden and Willie Nortjie supplied Khoza with weapons which were used in the Sebokeng massacre, including AK-47s, black hand grenades and home-made bombs. Vlakplaas operative Willie Nortjé stated that the weapons ...

... Order Adriaan Vlok authorised the destruction of Cosatu House, national headquarters of the trade union federation, in central Johannesburg. A C1/Vlakplaas team, with assistance from the Witwatersrand Security Branch as well as the technical and explosives sections at Security Branch ...

... he never applied for amnesty. The ‘Guguletu Seven’ 85. On 3 March 1986, seven operatives were killed in Guguletu, Cape Town, by a combined C1/Vlakplaas, Western Cape Security Branch and Riot Squad team. The group of youth activists had been infiltrated by C1/Vlakplaas operatives (working in ...

... Branch in the region. Steyn instructed Andy Taylor to use ‘outside’ people to do the job. Taylor thereupon requested Eugene de Kock from Vlakplaas to carry out the killing. A few days later Taylor met with Vlakplaas operatives Willie Nortje, ‘Duiwel’ Brits and ‘Blackie’ Swart ...

... was gunned down in his surgery in Esikhawini on 2 August 1990. The investigating officer, Detective Sergeant Derrick Ntuli, arrested a Vlakplaas member, Constable Thembinkosi Dube, for the killing. Ntuli was later taken off the case and subsequently died in mysterious circumstances. ...

... the Port Elizabeth Security Branch, taken to Post Chalmers and killed. Their bodies were subsequently thrown into the Fish River. Askaris from the Vlakplaas unit assisted in the operation. The Commission received amnesty applications for their killing and/or circumstances surrounding their ...