DU PLESSIS, ES

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 ...

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? // ...

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

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 ...

It was, as I said, a very very unpleasant event in my life and I would not have been able to put them through unnecessary physical pain. // These people were high-profile people; they were learned people. They were politically active and they had no fear of the security branch, neither did they ...

The fact that he was in a wheelchair, did he attend meetings in his wheelchair and address the meetings from his wheelchair? // Yes that is correct. They transported him from one meeting to the next where he addressed these meetings and used as an example that whatever the system wished to do to ...

As far as I can remember Sgt Roy Otto took out his firearm, and I think it was his service pistol, and shot Kondile. Afterwards he was put on some wood which was already there and we also gathered some more wood and he was burnt to death.

... Truth Commission about the disappearance of her son, Sizwe in 1981. The first time Dirk Coetzee heard the name Sizwe Kondile was in London in 1989. During lengthy debriefing by the ANC it became clear that Kondile had been one of Coetzee’s nameless victims. This week Sizwe Kondile’s family ...

And do you believe that the murder of the Pebco Three was warranted. // At that stage yes.

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. ...

It sounds to me like a totally different incident Mr. Chairman. Mr. Mamasela was not there. // Was he one of the askaris? // I believe so, I am not a 100 percent sure, but I believe he was present. // I had no knowledge or information in that regard.

What was the content of this note? // It was to inform the ANC, it was directed to a person to inform the ANC that firstly he had been arrested and secondly that he pretended to be an informer, that at this stage he had provided no information which would harm any ANC member.

‘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 ...

... so your honour. // We placed them on the fire wood. We first put down a layer of fire wood and then we put the corpses on top of the fire wood. // During the course of the evening, on several occasions, you had to keep the fire going and put on more wood. And the next morning Captain Du Plessis ...

Snyman and Du Plessis were not there when the three were executed. The sequence of the executions was reported by Van Zyl who says after their abduction the men were taken to Post Chalmers, a disused police station in Cradock. The next day, May the ninth they were fed, drugged, shot dead and their ...

The fact that Col Du Plessis told me that he had discussed it with Col Snyman created the impression with me that if it came from Snyman then it most probably came from even higher authority.

One of the aims of the NSP was to unify the diverse right wing groupings in the country. Du Plessis discussed these ideas with different right wing groups and individuals, both inside and outside South Africa. NSP members launched their first operation after taking a blood oath, swearing that they ...