STANDER, (first name not given)

I became involved in the Transkei from an Intelligence point of view during 1986 when I was employed by Longreach. Longreach was a Military Intelligence front company, in other words, a project run by Craig Williamson and myself and a few other people. I was tasked to monitor the Intelligence ...

Stander warned Holomisa about the assassination plot against him. // Riaan Stander was one of the people who we communicated with, because apparently he was close to a number of these big guns in South Africa. // Why did you warn Holomisa? // I learnt during those years that the ultimate aim ...

One of Riaan Stander’s close confidants in the Transkei at the time, was this man, Col Craig Duli, Holomisa’s second in command on the military council. // Craig Duli had the ambition to become the military leader of the Transkei, in the place of Holomisa and Military Intelligence would have ...

What happened to Duli after he was wounded? // He was removed, I would say for interrogation, maybe attention and treatment, and I think he met his fate then on the way to the destiny they wanted to go and do the interrogation. // Do you think he was executed? // Yes, I believe it was an execution. ...

Was his information accurate? // So far, I think his information was accurate. // Eight people were travelled from Johannesburg, and they would meet up with eight more in Queenstown. In Queenstown they made contact. Everything went hundred percent from there. Fire arms were an issue to them, ...

Was the South African government directly involved in the planning of the coup? // Yes that was a direct plan and attempt from Military Intelligence, number one. Number two, Department of Foreign Affairs were very closely involved. In actual fact, a lot of the operations came right out of Umtata ...

... half of the eighties. Tension between the Pretoria government and the Transkei rose when General Bantu Holomisa took power in 1988. // They were not happy with the language I was speaking at the time, because it was not in favour of their party or their government. // Military Intelligence ...

The death of my husband affected me so much that I wondered why he was killed; I wanted to know why he was killed and not brought to the court of law to answer for himself. // This is Riaan Stander, a Military Intelligence agent during the eighties. He holds a key to the mystery surrounding the ...