Vlakplaas

... blamed the ANC, but in 1996 five former security policemen were convicted for these murders; one of them was Eugene de Kock, the commander of the Vlakplaas unit outside Pretoria. This week he spoke publicly for the first time since his trial. It was almost like a Vlakplaas reunion in Port ...

... who reluctantly admitted that the suspected ANC cell had been infiltrated. Then, he even more reluctantly agreed that the infiltrators were Vlakplaas askaris. The infiltrators had informed them of the planned attack. The police and the Vlakplaas operatives then planned their strategy for ...

This week the Committee reconvened in Cape Town to hear testimony from this man, Xola Frank Mbane known as Jimmy. From 1984 to 1992 Mbane was a Vlakplaas based askari. He claims that his career spanned 40 missions; that he was responsible for at least ten killings and he also testified as Mr. X in ...

We were instructed to make it look like a robbery. // Who instructed you? // Brigadier van der Hofen. A hunting knife was brought down from Vlakplaas, I can’t recall whether we bought the other okapi knives in Durban or whether that also came from Vlakplaas. I got a report back from him that ...

... crucial aspects such as who was the man who pulled the trigger. Van Rensburg, Du Plessis, Erasmus and Roth all insist that it was a Sgt Roy Otto of Vlakplaas. Dirk Coetzee denies this and Sgt Otto has since committed suicide. The former Vlakplaas boss says the murder was committed in November, ...

... because at that stage there were various rumours that the security police were involved in so-called third force activities, and specifically Vlakplaas … amongst others Coetzee and Nofemela. In other words the information that came from this incident would of course place further pressure ...

... Sowetan. And this one is by Peter Marshe and appeared in Beeld. We translated the words from Afrikaans. So they say they didn”t know much. Former Vlakplaas commanders Dirk Coetzee and Eugene de Kock are already on record saying they had no doubt that Vlok knew exactly what Vlakplaas did. The ...

So much has been said about Vlakplaas, so much has been written about the place and this is the very first thing that a tangible thing that we can say we have discovered on Vlakplaas, Brian Ngqulunga’s remains, which were exhumed today.

... explanation from the man in the passenger seat of this car. His name is Col Andrew Russell Taylor of the Natal Security Police, charged with former Vlakplaas head Dirk Coetzee for the 1981 murder of Durban lawyer Griffiths Mxenge. Taylor is due to tell the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that ...

from again. Today we know they were abducted from Port Elizabeth airport by Eastern Cape security branch supported by a contingent of policemen from ...

... you’re a cop who takes orders and execute them without asking questions; then you’re a good cop. // You obviously heard of your colleagues at Vlakplaas who were involved in killing people as well. // Yes, that came to my attention also. // How did that advance the cause? // I don’t think ...

Joe Mamasela, self-confessed political serial killer was one of the Vlakplaas askaris who participated in this operation. // It was brutal; it was what in Afrikaans people call ‘broekskeur.’ It was terrible. // Were they tortured? // They were tortured severely. They were savaged; they were ...

Former Vlakplaas commander Dirk Coetzee was supposed to testify this week, but he was prevented by legal technicalities. This is what he would have told the Commission. // Nick van Rensburg and his men poisoned him upon release, poisoned him and apparently he did not add enough poison according to ...

... and Gerhardus Lotz are now asking for amnesty for the killings of the men who have become known as the Pebco Three. Their four co-conspirators from Vlakplaas Roelf Venter, Gert Beeslaar, Kimpani Mogoai and Johannes Koole are asking for amnesty for abduction. At this week’s hearings the ...

... of the existence of such a ‘third force’…The Government never adopted a policy to promote ‘black-on-black’ violence…I had heard of the Vlakplaas installation but was under the impression that it was a facility for the reorientation of captured ANC cadres who wished to work for the ...

It is a shame that men responsible for the uncovering the Vlakplaas horrors will probably spend time in jail, because of the apparent administrative incompetence of the Amnesty Committee, or is it being done to punish Coetzee? Well, that was tonight’s programme. Watch this space for new ...

... you have evidence, information at your fingertips. In those cases Mr. Chairperson, and I can mention them if necessary, where I became aware … Vlakplaas operatives, I had them charged for murder sir. I didn’t hide them. ...

One of the most notorious askaris was Glory ‘September’ Sidebe. He aided the Vlakplaas operatives in capturing and killing MK cadres from Swaziland.

... When I followed De Kock’s case, De Kock did admit that he had something to do with the death of my child and Andy Taylor was the spearhead of the Vlakplaas unit in ...

... pass laws and the hostel system and we look at truth commissions elsewhere in the world. We also bring you a special documentary on the notorious Vlakplaas death commando and their secret weapon, former guerrillas called ‘askaris.’ But we start with the past week’s hearing in Cape Town. ...