The South African police have been implicated in many killings, summary executions and attacks on anti-apartheid activists. Despite government attempts to limit the extent of the exposures it has been revealed that the assassination of political opponents has been official police and military strategy.
Details about the squads began to emerge in October last year when, on the eve of his execution, Almond Nofomela, a Security Branch policeman sentenced to death for an unrelated murder, filed an affidavit claiming that he had been a member of a secret police unit which had carried out several murders, including that of lawyer Griffiths MXENGE in 1981. He named the commander of the unit as Captain Dirk Coetzee, who fled the country and, under the protection of the ANC, disclosed further details about the unit. More evidence came from inquests and trials.
A similar army unit, known as the Civilian Co-Operation Bureau (CCB), was exposed during police investigations into the murders of David WEBSTER, a Johannesburg researcher and anti-apartheid activist, and Anton LUBOWSKI, a SWAPO leader. Some details of the unit, and of police activities, emerged from evidence given to a government commission of inquiry under Justice Harms, set up to investigate allegations about political assassinations.
Nofomela, a security policeman, had been based at a police-owned farm, Vlakplaas, near Pretoria, which he said was the headquarters of the police hit squad. The squad consisted mainly of ex-ANC and PAC combatants who had been captured and 'turned', often after torture. They were known as Askaris.
Nofomela said that he had carried out nine killings and many kidnappings — mostly of suspected ANC members — in South Africa and neighbouring states. His evidence was supported by another member of the unit, David Tshikalanga, and Captain Coetzee, who stated that the unit's activities had been authorised by police generals. Coetzee also said that the Security Police had been responsible for bombing the ANC office in London in 1982, and killing ANC members Ruth FIRST, Jeannette SCHOON, Cassius MAKE, Paul DIDELEDI and others. Another ex-policeman, H Human, who was reported to be in hiding, stated that he had helped in the assassination of the ANC's representative in Paris, Dulcie SEPTEMBER in 1988.
Further details of the Vlakplaas unit were exposed during an inquest into the deaths of four men in Chesterville, near Durban, in June 1986, who were killed when police, including Askaris, opened fire on a shack in which they were meeting.
Three commanders of the Vlakplaas unit gave evidence to the court, but denied responsibility for the Chesterville incident. The three said that the unit was code-named C-1 and fell under the counter-insurgency operations of Security Branch headquarters in Pretoria.
In January the ANC disclosed that it knew of 27 ANC members who had been kidnapped or captured by the police and recruited into Askari units. Askaris were known to be involved in the killing of ANC personnel, mostly in neighbouring states. The ANC listed several killings, including 11 deaths in Swaziland in 1986 and 1987, the assassination of Cassius MAKE, the killings of Zweli NYANDA and Keith MCFADDEN in 1983 and the deaths of five people in Mozambique in 1980.
The spotlight moved from the police to the army as investigations into the murders of Lubowski and Webster uncovered the existence of the CCB. Police in Namibia arrested an Irish national, Donald Acheson, soon after Lubowski was gunned down outside his Windhoek home in September last year. Acheson was linked to a group of Security Branch policemen operating from Johannesburg, all of whom were former members of the Brixton Murder and Robbery Squad. The same men were also named in police investigations into the killing of David Webster.
The police then disclosed that the ex-policemen were working for the CCB, a military unit forming part of the secret Special Forces section of the South African Defence Force (SADF). Established in 1980 the CCB was responsible for infiltrating the ANC and other anti-apartheid organisations and assassinating leading anti-apartheid figures. According to evidence given to the Harms Commission, it had been responsible for 200 'projects', mostly outside South Africa, and employed a network of 139 full-time agents. It was supplied from a secret arms and explosives company and drew funds — 28 million rands last year — from the Special Defence Account. Known agents of the CCB were all policemen or military personnel, some with criminal records.
The CCB was commanded by Colonel Joe Verster and supervised by Major-General Eddie Webb, head of Special Forces, who in turn reported directly to the chief of the SADF, General Geldenhuys. The Minister of Defence, General Malan, claimed ignorance of the CCB and said that it could not have killed Lubowski because he was an agent of South African Military Intelligence. This was strongly rejected by SWAPO.
Most CCB operations were conducted outside South Africa, but the Harms Commission is restricted in its investigations to activities inside the country. In early evidence to the commission, it was disclosed that the unit had planned to kill Dullah OMAR, a prominent lawyer, Gavin EVANS, a leading member of the End Conscription Campaign, Boetie VAN DER MERWE, a community activist who survived an attempted assassination in September last year, and United Democratic Front general secretary, Popo MOLEFE.
