Vlakplaas

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.

... around the Bisho massacre where Oupa Gqozo at last gave evidence and the Truth Commissioners clashed publicly and emotionally with the former Vlakplaas policemen. // Your callousness, your coldness and insensitivity shows us the kind of leaders that the South African government chose. // No ...

On the evening of 26 November 1981 a group of Vlakplaas men under command of Dirk Coetzee entered Botswana. Their aim was to kill ANC cadres Joyce Dipale, her husband Tieho Rola Masinga and anybody else in the Gaborone house who would, according to their intelligence, probably be ANC as well.

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 ...

... and why. We’ll give some background to the unpleasant infighting in the Truth Commission and we introduce you to some of the victims of former Vlakplaas policemen Dirk Coetzee, Almond Nofemela and Joe Mamasela. But we start with a special story about forgiveness. The Azanian People’s Army ...

Vlok used to come there, Commissioner van der Merwe used to come there, Kriel used to come there, Hernus Kriel used to come there at Vlakplaas, a lot of ministers used to come there.

Schoon told the TRC that he’d never been disciplined for authorizing actions of an illegal nature and said that former Commissioners and Ministers of police such as Louis Le Grange, Adriaan Vlok, Johan van der Merwe and Johan Coetzee had all visited Vlakplaas.

I was at no stage aware of any unit carrying out assassinations. The Vlakplaas unit as it was explained to me had a totally different objective, a totally different field of activity, I was never part as I’ve said of any decision to assassinate or murder anybody. I totally distance myself from ...

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 ...

... 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. ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

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 ...

... 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. ...

By now Vlakplaas is known as the shadowy space where hit men like Eugene de Kock, Joe Mamasela, Dirk Coetzee and Almond Nofemela freely roamed and secretly planned their killer missions against the opponents of the apartheid state. Little is known though of the assassinations in their own ranks; of ...

... are disappointing to say the least. Venter has not furnished this Committee with any information in addition to the revelations made by the Vlakplaas operatives outside of this Commission. In fact he has not even associated himself with the allegations made by these operatives. ...

... explosives were also stored in the basement of the building. I delegated the instruction to Brig Willem Schoon who at that stage commanded Vlakplaas unit and once again emphasized the question of not putting lives at risk. The instruction was duly carried out at a later date and the ...

What difference does it make when a perpetrator does seem to be genuinely remorseful? In the 1980s Eugene de Kock was the commander at the notorious Vlakplaas and one of the security police’s most powerful and efficient operatives. He is now serving life plus 212 years in Pretoria Central Prison. ...

‘Tokkie Bezuidenhout, the ‘Tube Specialist’ of Vlakplaas, on the tricks of his trade.’ // Okay, it’s very simple. You put him down on his stomach, you handcuff him, you put your knees on his back, you stabilize, and you just take the tube and you pull it over his face; in other words you ...

Joe Mamasela. Joe Tsele’s sister was not the first witness before the Truth Commission to ask about this man who has admitted to being part of the killing of more than 30 activists. Mamasela was one of the black policemen at Vlakplaas called askaris. So was Brian Ngqulunga.