DU PLESSIS, ES

Special Forces designed the bomb for us. // Who in particular was involved? // They had a technical section, I don’t know who did it but Joe Verster handed the bomb to Capt Hechter. // The secretive Joe Verster was the commander of the CCB. // The bomb was made of plastic explosives, about 4 kg. ...

... Louis Trichardt we decided that we were past the point of return. People had died. The police could be looking for us. We could not turn back. // During operations the next few days NSP members obtained weapons and ammunition. Jurgen Grobbelaar’s parents became worried when he didn’t ...

... apartheid, combating the communist onslaught and fighting terrorism. They say the 1981 murder of Sizwe Kondile was executed as part of their duties as security policemen. One of them admitted that Kondile would have been killed even if he had begged for his ...

Two men dominated this week’s amnesty hearing into the 1985 murders of the Port Elizabeth leaders known as the 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 ...

What I’m saying is that we didn’t kidnap them to interrogate them. We kidnapped them to kill them.

... in South Africa. Is that right? // I was made part of I was not part of, I was made part of against my will, against my political conviction. // Yes, we’ll get to that … against you political conviction. // Yes. So what was your political conviction then at that time? // My political ...

... Mhlauli left a UDF meeting in Port Elizabeth and set out to drive home to Cradock. They were never seen alive again. Their mutilated, charred corpses were discovered days later in three different places along the Eastern Cape coastline. Who killed the Cradock Four? The Special Report has been ...

When you reported that death to Mr. Snyman you were speaking about something you do not have factual knowledge of, because you did not witness it - the death. // That’s correct. // I put it to you that the applicants accepted Mr. Koole and Mr. Mogoai and to a lesser extend Mr. Beeslaar did ...

… Captain Hechter, Sergeant Van der Westhuyzen and Slang, his name was Danny Sihlale questioned him. We used a gas mask, assaulted him and executed electrical shocks on him to gain information. He was a great ANC activist. He had thrown several petrol bombs in Mamelodi and he was involved in ...

Mining was South Africa’s first modern industry and was crucially shaped by the colonial and the racial hierarchy of the day. Migrant labour, job reservation, wage distribution, housing, health care and other conditions of service were racially described. The racial organisation of work was ...

that the normal legal methods of policing were no longer effective and the minister said to me very clearly. Colonel, you have to make a plan with these activists in the Eastern Cape. ...

I’m putting it to you. You were never part of the security branch. You were never stationed at Mamelodi. There was never a substation of the security branch in Mamelodi, ever. I’m putting it to you that you are lying through your teeth, that’s what I’m putting to you. // The person whose ...

... instruction but he did say that he realized that there were no other options, that nothing else did work and that I had to proceed and do the best I could in the interest of the country. // And you interpreted that as instruction to go ahead and eliminate. Is that correct? // ...

‘I call the applicant Mr Hermanus Barend du Plessis as the first witness in these proceedings.’ // Captain Hermanus du Plessis, Gen Nic van Rensburg, Gen Gerrit Erasmus and Sgt Johannes Raath, who have all since retried are seeking amnesty for their part in Sizwe Kondile’s death. Former ...

... it that copies will be made for the Committee, but may I read out the relevant passage? Listen carefully Mr. Derby-Lewis what your colleague Mr. DP du Plessis said. Who is mister DP du Plessis? // He was the member of Parliament for Wonderboom. // It’s Wednesday the 21st of October 1992 at page ...

Snyman interpreted his conversation with Minister Le Grange as sanction to eliminate activists. Colonel Hermanus du Plessis came to him and said they’d run out of legal options to contain militants in the Port Elizabeth area. Du Plessis suggested that the only option was elimination. Snyman did ...

This week, almost a year later, the four policemen Nicolas Janse van Rensburg, Hermanus Barend De Plessis, Johannes Gottfried Raath and Gerhard Nicolas Erasmus came to ask for amnesty for the murder. They never spoke at the hearing. Their lawyers argued that Dirk Coetzee’s amnesty application ...

The Attorney-General of the Northern Province, Charl du Plessis says Walter Smiles is a liar. The Commission says the truth might be found in a court of law. // So it is possible that the evidence by Smiles and the evidence of Thembinkosi in this particular case may be of a nature that might ...

... be permanently removed from society as a matter of urgency. Three weeks later the Cradock Four were dead. The signal was sent by Colonel Lourens du Plessis on the orders of General Joffel van der Westhuizen to Major General Johannes van Rensburg. General Van der Westhuizen said he could not ...

... // Your application indicates that you committed these crimes as a result of being ordered to do so by Col Snyman, Lt-Col Van Rensburg and Col Du Plessis. // That’s correct. // Is that the truth? // That is the truth Mr Chairman. // You were at liberty to refuse to do so, isn’t it? // ...