TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 3

Chapter 1

Subsection 7

61. Three applications were received from former SADF personnel in connection with their work on target identification structures. One was received fro m Commandant Jan Anton Nieuwoudt, a member of the Home Front Section of Military Intelligence, responsible for target development.

62. The second application was received from Jacobus Adriaan Huisamen, who served as an SADF Military Intelligence representative on TREWITS in the early 1990s. His application was refused administratively at the outset of the process , as it failed to identify specific violations that had resulted from the targets he had developed. In his application and supporting documentation Huisamen made available to the Commission’s investigative unit, he made it clear that he believed that target information provided by TREWITS was used operationally and led to the commission of gross violations of human rights that included killing.

63 . In 1986, Captain Henri van der Westhuizen, a member of Military Intelligence involved in target identification, began working closely with the Security Branch in Ladybrand. He was later assigned responsibility for working on target intelligence on MK in Lesotho. At this stage he was based in the projects section of Military Intelligence whose primary focus was monitoring the activities of the ANC. He played a role in establishing a target development group that functioned first as part of Military Intelligence and later (from 1987) as part of Special Forces Headquarters. This group worked in close liaison with TREWITS.

64. Captain van der Westhuizen testified that intelligence was collected on ANC and SACP personnel and facilities in Lesotho. Once sufficient information had been collected, it was presented to the General Staff of the SADF for possible action. Evidence from Security Branch applicants in joint operations with Special Forces supports the view that, at least as far as external targets were concerned, authorisation took place at a high level in the SADF.

65. Applications were received for the targeted killings of fourteen of the fifty-two MK personnel³³ listed on the ANC submission as having died in Swaziland ‘at enemy hands’. The majority of these applications were joint C1/Vlakplaas and Eastern Transvaal operations.

66. Captain Hendrik ‘Henri’ van der Westhuizen applied for amnesty for the attempted killings of Mr Albie Sachs in Mozambique in 1987 and 7 April 1988 respectively. His application was granted [AM9079/97; AC/2001/257].

67. No applications were received for the following targeted killings of high-profile political activists: Mr Abram Okgopotso Tiro (Botswana, 1 February 1974); Mr John Dube, aka Boy Mvemve (Zambia, 12 February 1974; Dr Richard Turner (Durban, 8 January 1978), Mr Joe Gqabi (Zimbabwe, 31 July 1981), Ms Victoria Mxenge (Durban, 1 August 1985); Mr Toto Dweba (Eshowe, Natal, 20 August 1985); Ms Dulcie September (France, 29 March 1988); Dr David Webster ( Johannesburg, 1 May 1989), and Dr Anton Lubowski (Namibia, 12 September 1989 ) .

68. No applications were received for the attempted killings of Mr Godfrey Motsepe (Belgium, 2 February 1988 and 27 March 1988), Ms Joan and Mr Jeremy Brickhill (Zimbabwe, 13 October 1987); Mr Lazarus Chikane (1989, and Fr Michael Lapsley (Zimbabwe, 28 April 1990).

69. Of the twenty-one³⁴ people recorded in the ANC submission as having been killed in Botswana, eleven were killed in the 14 June 1985 Special Forces raid on Gaborone. No applications were received for six of the remaining ten killings. Botswana was regarded as the responsibility of the SADF. C1/Vlakplaas and the Western Transvaal Security Branch both testified to close co-operation with the Special Forces group tasked to work on disrupting the ANC’s activities in Botswana .

70. No applications were received for the following large-scale cross-border raids: a Matola, Mozambique, 30 January 1981 by SADF Special Forces: sixteen people were killed; b Maseru, Lesotho, 9 December 1982 by SADF Special Forces: forty-two people were killed; c Matola, 23 May 1983 by the South African Air Force: six people were killed; d Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana, 19 May 1986 (the so-called EPG raids) conducted by the SADF, and e Umtata, 17 Oct 1993 by the SADF: five youths were killed.

71. No amnesty applications were received with regard to twenty-nine of the forty-five³⁵ people recorded as having been killed in the 9 December 1982 raid on Maseru. Applications were received for only nine of the remaining sixteen people who were killed in the subsequent December 1985 raid. No applications were submitted for the remaining seven deaths.

72. No applications were received for four or possibly five killings in Mozambique, excluding the deaths in the Matola raid. No applications were received for five of the seven deaths listed in Zambia.

73. As noted above, Security Branch operatives involved in the process of target identification made application for their involvement in the June 1985 Gaboro n e raid. Special Forces members who conducted the raid did not apply.