Vlakplaas

the OFS was appointed to investigate the allegations made by Almond Nofemela, Dirk Coetzee and David Tshikilange that a ‘death squad’ existed at Vlakplaas. Despite having concluded that there was no substance to these allegations, McNally was appointed as counsel for the Harms Commission, ...

... was placed in overall command of the SPU training project. Under his command, training was carried out in part by members of the KZP, former Vlakplaas Commander Eugene de Kock, former Vlakplaas operative Lionel ‘Snor’ Vermeulen, former political commissar of the ‘Caprivi trainees’, ...

... killing was provoked with the aim of derailing the peace process. Members of the Political Violent Crime Unit based on a farm in Katlehong called Vlakplaas arrested and allegedly tortured a number of SDU members in response to the attack. All were subsequently released. 620 The Goldstone ...

... Intelligence Service (NIS), Joint Management Centres (JMCs), the Civil Co-operation Bureau (CCB) – a euphemism if ever there was one – Koevoet, Vlakplaas, the Roodeplaat Research Laboratory, the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), C10, Stratcom and others that may yet be unearthed. On the ...

them to carry out acts of violence unhindered or by failing to investigate incidents of violence perpetrated by gangs. Certain police units, such as Vlakplaas, were also more directly involved in supplying weapons to the IFP. Gangs that linked up with the IFP were one of the recipients of these ...

authority, it was, due to its secrecy, also open to falsification, fabrication of documents, lies and distortions, as evidenced by the operations of Vlakplaas. Senior officials, while ultimately responsible, did not always want to know the details. As Eugene de Kock put it in testimony to the ...

... the “banality of evil”, or in Browning’s term “ordinary men”15. In this regard, it is instructive to quote Colonel Eugene de Kock, the Vlakplaas multiple killer who distances himself from psychological accounts that put the blame on childhood experiences, another form of explanation ...

... out by the security forces, as in ‘Operation Zero Zero’ where eight young East Rand activists died after being given booby-trapped grenades by Vlakplaas operative Joe Mamasela. Covert operations led to a general escalation of violence on the East Rand, including the ‘necklacing’24 of a ...

... personnel from the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). Amongst these was Mr Gray Branfield, who was assigned to Daisy farm adjacent to Vlakplaas, to run a Zimbabwe Special Operations Unit. Branfield ran a string of agents inside Zimbabwe, the most important of whom were Mr ...

... MUSI, MR BIMBO MADIKELA, MR NTSHINGO MATABANE AND MR FANYANA NHLAPO, ALL COSAS MEMBERS, WERE OFFERED INSTRUCTION IN THE USE OF HAND GRENADES BY VLAKPLAAS ASKARIS JOE MAMASELA AND EPHRAIM MFALAPITSA. ON THE 15 FEBRUARY 1982, MADIKELA, MATABANE, AND NHLAPO WERE KILLED AND MUSI WAS INJURED IN AN ...

... rights … and reject any insinuation that it was ever the policy of my party or government. 19 In contrast, there is the perception of convicted Vlakplaas killer Colonel Eugene de Kock in the closing pages of his book:4 Yet the person who sticks most of all in my throat is former State ...

... Despite apparently strong evidence against Khoza, charges against him were dropped. Amnesty applications made to the Commission indicate that Vlakplaas operatives supplied Mr Khoza with a car, bail money and at least some of the weapons that were used at the Sebokeng massacre, and that Vaal ...

... of those involved in the interrogation and torture of the Bethal treason trialists were later became members of the Security Branch unit based at Vlakplaas. 189 On 5 February 1982, Dr Neil Aggett [JB00217/01GTSOW; CT00410/FLA], a twenty-eight-year-old medical doctor and organiser for the Food ...

... them the riot police and later the SADF. Thirdly, counter-insurgency thinking legitimated and facilitated the emergence of covert units such as Vlakplaas, and resulted in an increase in the number of reported abductions and killings of political activists. This trend intensified from the ...

... (see under Covert Action above). Ms Skhosana, who was herself involved in student politics, had been the first person contacted by ‘Mike’ (Vlakplaas operative Joe Mamasela posing as an MK operative), and had put him in contact with the COSAS activists. It later emerged that Skhosana, ...

... subpoenaed applied for amnesty. An important result of the investigation was the discovery of involvement by security police operatives based at Vlakplaas in the killing of these seven young black men. In addition, it was revealed that some of the alleged perpetrators still occupied senior ...

... forces; in other words, it was claimed that certain acts had fallen outside the duties and orders given to, for example, security police based at Vlakplaas. In some cases, there were disputes between former state agents and former politicians about whether these acts were reasonable ...

... referred to this grenade attack as the justification and motivation for the 20 December 1985 SAP/SADF raid into Lesotho. The raid was conducted by Vlakplaas operatives, killing nine people, including MK commanders responsible for certain western Cape activity, that is, Mr Joseph Monwabisi ...

... also heard about the Duduza hand grenade incident in which several youths were killed by a booby-trapped hand grenade allegedly given to them by Vlakplaas operative Joe Mamasela. The first victim of the notorious necklacing method, Maki Skosana, was killed in response to the hand grenade ...

... army and police, placing an effective ban on any adverse reporting of the security forces. It created the climate in which the secret operations of Vlakplaas, for instance, could be initiated and carried out with little fear of exposure. 60 The use of the Prisons Act to restrict media coverage ...