Vlakplaas

Vlakplaas in my opinion was a living hell on earth; there was torture on a daily basis, there was killings on a daily basis.

the valley; I’d say about ten kilometres away from the actual murder scene. I’ve spoken to numerous operatives, I’ve spoken to the people from Vlakplaas, the guys who we arrested and who were convicted of the KwaZulu hit squads. They are unable to assist us. I’ve spoken to members of our ...

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 ...

... the five amnesty applicants did get the chance to give evidence about some of their other actions. In 1983 Brigadier Jack Cronje led an attack of Vlakplaas men into Swaziland. They executed the ANC military commander in Natal, Zweli Nyanda and an ANC soldier, Keith MacFadden. Nyanda was the ...

The applicants contradict each other on the purpose of the abduction. The askaris and policemen from Vlakplaas whose applications will be heard this week will say they were abducting the Pebco Three for the purpose of interrogation. They also say they did not know of the elimination plan.

... the most gruesome we have heard in two years of amnesty applications. This week, Joe Mamasela, self confessed multiple murderer and ex askari from Vlakplaas gave his version of events. He is the only one involved in the killing of the Pebco three who has not applied for amnesty because he has ...

... Gen Gerrit Erasmus and Sgt Johannes Raath, who have all since retried are seeking amnesty for their part in Sizwe Kondile’s death. Former Vlakplaas commander Dirk Coetzee also wants amnesty for the same murder, but he has a separate amnesty application and a very different version of ...

... up with parcel bombs. Former super spy Craig Williamson admitted to the parcel bombs that killed Ruth First and Jeanette and Katryn Schoon. Former Vlakplaas commander, Eugene de Kock is now on trial for murdering ANC lawyer Bheki Mlangeni with a parcel bomb in 1991. The security police had a ...

... 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 ...

Vlakplaas never ever did hit operations. Hit is assassin, am I right if I say that? // Mm. // And in my time there was no such a thing as hit or assassin or assassination. // Nobody was allowed to contact any of these victims’ parents. The autopsy was rushed through and they were buried. All the ...

... who told CCB members in detention not to talk about CCB activities and Louis Harms who was able to find that no hit squads operated out of Vlakplaas and who in my mind steered his commission so firmly away from the ...

... know De Kock, he’s a big guy with a big torso. He jumped several times in the face of Ngqulunga. Ngqulunga told him that he wanted to get out of Vlakplaas, he wanted to go and work at Fortis, at the head office and he didn’t want people to run away from him. Brian was a family friend; he was ...

Pebco Three. The Centenary Hall in New Brighton was cramped daily by residents and activists who came to hear security policemen Gideon Niewoudt and Vlakplaas askari Joe Mamasela speak of their roles in the deaths of Sipho Hashe, Champion Galela and Qaqawuli Godolozi. // Niewoudt is a convicted ...

A few years ago it was still unthinkable that the force could have been involved in this. When former Vlakplaas commander Dirk Coetzee, spoke in November 1989, they said he was mad. But then came the Eugene de Kock case and an orgy of death and destruction committed by him and his men unfolded in ...

De Kock came clean is Mr. Justice Louis Harms. In 1990 Judge Harms led a commission of inquiry into the allegations of Dirk Coetzee and others about Vlakplaas and the death squads. His final report gave the police a virtual clean bill of health. Judge Harms then rejected virtually everything Dirk ...

Wouter Mentz was a Vlakplaas policeman who had killed several people including one of his own colleagues and two deaf children in a Botswana raid. // I didn’t know that there were children, and if I recall they were two deaf-numb children. That was evil in killing them, because they caused no ...

... terrorising of political opponents. Mr. De Klerk will have to tell us how his government gave birth to monsters such as the police death squads at Vlakplaas and the Defence Force’s Civil Cooperation Bureau, the CCB. The families of a long list of tortured and murdered activists will want to ...

... was the main witness against Gen Lothar Neethling when he sued me for defamation after the expose about the use of poison. Eugene de Kock and his Vlakplaas men decided to kill Coetzee and sent him a bomb in a tape recorder. The bomb later killed lawyer Bheki Mlangeni. At the amnesty hearing in ...

Black policemen at Vlakplaas were called askaris, they did most of the killing for Eugene de Kock, yet their lives were worth nothing and they were executed as easily as they killed opponents of the apartheid government. // Talk about a dog that feeds on its puppies; that was De Kock. He fed on his ...

... 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 ...