| Time | Summary | |
| 00:10 | ‘I was in the heart of the whore.’ These were the words security policeman Dirk Coetzee used exactly seven years ago to describe his role as the commander of the Vlakplaas death squad. And this week Coetzee and two of his colleagues told their horror stories to the nation. They were in the heart of the whore. We have a full report on the amnesty hearings of Coetzee, Almond Nofemela and David Tshikalanga. And we go behind the scenes and talk to the men and their victims’ families. We also visit the killing fields of KwaZulu-Natal where the depths of hatred and brutality again surprised this past week. And we remind you that human rights violations were not the monopoly of the apartheid state. We hear the story of one man’s suffering in the ANC’s camps in Angola. But we start with Dirk Coetzee at the amnesty hearings in Durban. I met Coetzee in 1989. He was angry and disillusioned. He was an officer of the security police elite, in fact a pioneer of the apartheid state’s new ...more | Full Transcript and References |
| 03:16 | The claim by a former police captain that he led a hit squad that eliminated government opponents has been firmly rejected by former police commissioner Gen Johan Coetzee. | Full Transcript |
| 03:27 | Of course, Coetzee did not lie. Virtually every word he said seven years ago he said again this week. Let’s go to the drama of the hearings in Durban. | Full Transcript |
| 03:42 | Dirk Coetzee joined the South African police on 1 April 1970. With hindsight it is impossible to overlook the irony of the date. In an interview this week I asked him whether he had come to terms with the past. // It is up till this day so humiliating; it evokes so much anger inside me. Why could I have allowed myself into such a mess? Embarrassment, I can’t tell you. Hell, I don’t know what to say but it’s bloody difficult. | Full Transcript |
| 04:18 | His application for amnesty coincided with the anniversary of the date that he left the country in 1989 to tell the whole story for the first time to the media. It was not an easy step to take. | Full Transcript |
| 04:33 | … Loose everything that you worked for in your life, get out of the country, go and face the so-called enemy. Tell them you’re sorry. And with your back against the wall and with the help of the world media - because they say the pen is mightier than the sword and I firmly believe it up till this day and - try then and fight this mighty apartheid system and mighty security police from outside. I just could not see my way open, exposing hit squads in South Africa in a South African court with the South African laws. It was just impossible. And the way they dealt with people like Dirk Coetzee; they made you part of the atrocities then once they push you to the side you’re isolated. If you might stand up and speak out inside South Africa, they’ll isolate you; make you a scapegoat, as it clearly was proved in 1989 when they said I was a renegade cop, a maverick cop, a guy whose mental equilibrium was upset as a result of my sugar diabetes. So I couldn’t see my way open. | Full Transcript |
| 05:34 | The Harms Commission did not believe his story. // If a judge goes to the extreme where he says in public, and I quote ‘how must I believe this crap you’re talking?’ I mean what chance did I have in South Africa against honourable generals, all church going generals, elderly in the church, ministers who’s elderly in the church and honourable men against a little … | Full Transcript |
| 06:03 | During his amnesty hearing Dirk Coetzee hopes to tell his story for the last time. But he will not be able to bury it. // There’s one thing I will have to live till the day I die, is the corpses that I will have to drag with me to my grave, of the people whom I’ve killed. Remorse I can assure you, a lot. A hell of a lot. | Full Transcript |
| 06:27 | One of the corpses he carries with him is that of Durban lawyer, Griffiths Mxenge stabbed to death on the evening of 19 November 1981. // Working in the area of the regional security police chief of Port Natal, which is Durban, Brigadier van der Hofen, I …. // Coetzee testified that he was ordered by Brigadier van der Hofen to make a plan with Griffiths Mxenge. Capt Andy Taylor provided the details: where Mxenge lived, worked and what he looked like. | Full Transcript and References |
| 07:00 | They were trying to build up a case and just couldn’t get him in because he was sticking strictly according to the law and he was a thorn in the flesh and we have to get rid of him. That’s correct. // So they in fact told you that there was nothing against this man, he was acting according to the law and they couldn’t make out a case against him? // They brought it over in a way that he received funds from overseas from the ANC, which I didn’t know whether that was legal or illegal, and with that funds he was orchestrating or assisting ANC cadres that came into the country, in their court cases, yes Mr. Chairman. // And that was the only reason given to you? // No, because he was he staunch supporter of the ANC and acting for them, on their behalf. // And that was the only reason you had in mind when killing him? // It wasn’t a specific reason, it was that it was decided by higher authority that he should be eliminated and I didn’t question that and I just did that, I ...more | Full Transcript |
| 08:01 | Mxenge was observed by Almond Nofemela and Joe Mamasela. A few days before the murder they poisoned his dogs. // It was to leave the decision for the place of the actual murder in the hands of the operatives. You could either do it at work if the occasion was right, it was late enough, if it was deserted enough where he parked his car or you could have done it on his way home or then if he stops at home and gets out of the car you could do it just there then they would not be attacked by his dogs. | Full Transcript |
| 08:38 | On the night of the19th Joe Mamasela, Brian Ngqulunga, David Tshikalanga and Almond Nofemela watched Griffiths Mxenge leave his office late in the evening. // He then drove ahead of us and we followed him. When we got to his house, we actually used another route and we got there first, before him. We then parked our car not far from his house. We then waited for him there. // Before long another car appeared behind. That was an Audi car. And we were told it was him and Almond got out the car and opened the bonnet of the car, pretending as if there was a problem with the car. // He then asked us if he could help us. We said yes. We asked him to shift over. He switched his car off, Joe then entered into the car. I got to the car at the back. David followed us. // I was just following them. They reached an open ground which looked like a stadium. That was where youth could play soccer. // Then David stabbed him, David Tshikalanga, he was the first one that stabbed him. And then from ...more | Full Transcript |
| 10:45 | To make the assassination look like a robbery the cover up was intricate. Mxenge’s car was driven to Golela on the Swaziland border, his jacket and wallet burnt and the watch and number plates of his car thrown into the reeds on the banks of the Pongola river. The car was set alight. But the family and friends of Griffiths Mxenge never believed the cover up. They are opposing Coetzee’s amnesty application and he is being charged with murder. | Full Transcript |
| 11:19 | Nobody in his right mind could ever forgive Dirk Coetzee. I mean you hear my brother was butchered like a beast in a butchery, for doing nothing. An innocent victim, so you can just imagine the word ‘forgiveness’ as far as Dirk Coetzee is concerned does not exist in our dictionary. What determined to haunt him until the day he dies because even if he does get that indemnity this memory will haunt him until he dies. | Full Transcript |
| 12:04 | I don’t expect the Mxenge family to forgive me because I don’t know how I ever in my life would be able to forgive a man like Dirk Coetzee. | Full Transcript |
| 12:18 | ‘The Swazi people have insured that the diamond jubilee is going to be something to remember’ // On TV most things about the year 1981 appeared hunky-dory. // ‘The problems of being overweight are experienced not only by man. The world’s biggest puff adder in captivity has just heard that she too has to go on a diet.’ // But in reality there was a terrible stirring in the heart of the whore. | Full Transcript |
| 12:52 | In February 1981 a group of askaris under Dirk Coetzee’s command went to Swaziland on a mission to identify ANC cadres. One of the askaris recognized Joe Pillay who was known to them as a senior MK operative in Natal. They kidnapped Pillay and took him to Oshoek border post, from where he was carried into the Republic wrapped in a maize bag inside the boot of a car. In doing this the askaris had acted against Coetzee’s orders. | Full Transcript and References |
| 13:33 | They weren’t the best behaved guys we had. They all smoked and all drank heavily. And everyone that smoked also smoked dagga. // You were not smoking at that stage? // No, I was not smoking, but drinking a lot. // Pillay was delivered into the hands of Dirk Coetzee at Vlakplaas. | Full Transcript |
| 13:56 | You could see from his eyes, below his eyes he was swollen and red. I could see also that he was very weak, he was very very weak and he was in pain. // Shortly after the morning’s ”Sanhedrin’ meeting at eight o’ clock, where the section chiefs met with General Johan Coetzee and Brigadier Jan du Preez, his second in charge, General van der Hofen personally congratulated me on the successful mission without him knowing at that stage that the askaris were still in Manzini and I was expecting problems. | Full Transcript |
| 14:36 | Someone had seen Pillay being bundled into the askaris’ car and had taken down the number plate. The Swazi police tracked the askaris down and the incident caused an international uproar. While diplomats shuttled, security police kept Pillay chained up for questioning. | Full Transcript |
