C O M P I L A T I O N: TRUTH COMMISSION: General Johan van der Merwe [former Commissioner of Police]; General Meiring [Chief SANDF] & Generals Klopper & Mortimer [SADF] PRESSER: REACTION FROM TRC CHAIRMAN, ALEX BORAINE
Record ID:
893640
C O M P I L A T I O N: TRUTH COMMISSION: General Johan van der Merwe [former Commissioner of Police]; General Meiring [Chief SANDF] & Generals Klopper & Mortimer [SADF] PRESSER: REACTION FROM TRC CHAIRMAN, ALEX BORAINE
- Title: C O M P I L A T I O N: TRUTH COMMISSION: General Johan van der Merwe [former Commissioner of Police]; General Meiring [Chief SANDF] & Generals Klopper & Mortimer [SADF] PRESSER: REACTION FROM TRC CHAIRMAN, ALEX BORAINE
- Date: 20th October 1996
- Summary: C O M P I L A T I O N: TRUTH COMMISSION: General Johan van der Merwe [former Commissioner of Police]; General Meiring [Chief SANDF] & Generals Klopper & Mortimer [SADF] PRESSER: REACTION FROM TRC CHAIRMAN, ALEX BORAINE
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- City: JHB & CAPE TOWN
- Country: South Africa
- Reuters ID: 96OCT20R01
- Story Text:COMPILATION: [see Sue of NBC News for tape]
TRUTH COMMISSION HEARINGS:
JOHANNESBURG: re: General Johan van der Merwe [former police commissioner] subpoenaed to give evidence in support of amnesty applications of: Cronje, Venter, Hechter, Mentz and Van Vuuren;
CAPE TOWN: General Meiring [Chief SANDF] & Generals Mortimer & Kloppers [SADF] submissions & TRC PRESSER
00.00.14 WIDE EXTERIOR OF JOHANNESBURG CITY HALL
00.00.33 POSTER "Revealing is Healing"
00.00.38 EXTERIOR DUNCAN HALL
00.00.48 PEOPLE WALKING INTO DUNCAN HALL
00.01.01 ARRIVAL OF COMMISSIONERS
00.01.16 POLICE CASPIR
00.01.27 PRESS CUTAWAY
00.01.35 PEOPLE WALKING IN
00.01.51 INTERIOR SIGN "Truth The road to reconciliation"
00.02.03 POSTER "The truth hurts but silence kills"
00.02.06 AMNESTY APPLICANTS [FORMER POLICE COMMISSIONERS]
00.02.15 GENERAL JOHAN VAN DER MERWE FORMER POLICE COMMISSIONER]
00.02.22 MAN READING NEWSPAPER
00.02.22 WIDE ESTABLISHER OF COMMISSIONERS SEATED
00.02.38 ADV WILLEM BRITZ [LAWYER FOR APPLICANTS] READING INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT: We are not criminals...we have never committed any criminal deed outside the sphere of the conflicts of the past...we believed that we had acted bona fide in the interests of our country and its people.
00.02.55 CUTAWAY GENERAL VAN DER MERWE
00.03.08 We were brought up to believe in Apartheid. we were made to believe that Apartheid was sanctioned by God and the church. We were made to believe that our participation in the security forces was justified to uphold Apartheid. We were made to believe that black people were inferior and that the needs, emotions & aspirations of black people differed from ours. We were made to believe that we were superior and these differences justified Apartheid. We have come to realize that these beliefs were wrong...and we do not hold these beliefs anymore.
00.04.07 CUTAWAY GENERAL VD MERWE LISTENING
00.04.19 We call upon our superiors and the previous government to explain certain orders given to us...and to admit to authorising actions outside the normal processes of the law.
00.04.31 CUTAWAY
00.04.38 We seriously doubt the statement made by Mr FW de Klerk in the following terms in the NP's submission to this Commission, quote:
00.04.48 FW DE KLERK AT TRUTH COMMISSION [21/08/96] In dealing with the unconventional strategies from the side of the government, I want to make it clear from the outset, that within my knowledge & experience, they never included the authorization of assassination, murder, torture,rape, assault or the like. I've never been part of any decision taken by cabinet, the Security Council or any committee authorising or instructing of such gross human violations nor did I individually directly or indirectly suggest order or authorise any such action.
00.05.32 WIDE OF COMMISSIONERS: CALLING GENERAL VAN DER MERWE TO THE STAND AS A WITNESS
00.05.56 CUTAWAY
00.06.04 TAKING OATH
00.06.27 GENERAL JOHAN VAN DER MERWE READING STATEMENT: After due consideration of all the relevant facts, I decided that theonly way the mlack members [of SAP] could be protected against such attacks was to ensure that the activists were provided with handgrenades which had been suitably modified...shortened time-delay...
00.06.50 I then made a recommendation to this effect to the then Commissioner of Police, General Johan Coetzee, who in turn presented the recommendation to Minister Louis le Grange who was then Minister of Police. Minister le grange approved the relevant recommendation.
00.07.03 I thereafter discussed the matter with Brig. Jack Cronje & duly delegated the execution of the task to him. He was pertinently instructed to ensure that the modified handgrenades reached the group of activists under the guise of having been furnished by the ANC but under no circumstances was any incitement to commit an offence therewith to take place...
00.07.30 A number of handgrenades & a limpet mine were later channelled to the group of activists through a certain person who had contact with them. It later transpired that a number of these activists were killed & injured when they launched a series of armed attacks against the homes of policemen resident in the area. Another activist was also killed when attempting to sabotage an electrical sub-station by using the limpet mine.
00.07.52 During 1988 I received an instruction from Mr Adriaan Vlok, then Minister of Law & Order, to the effect that the building known as Khotso House was to be damaged by explosives to such an extent that it could no longer be utilized.
00.08.02 According to Mr Vlok, this instruction had come from President PW Botha personally. It was common knowledge within
security circles at the time that the building concerned served as a sort of internal headquarters of the ANC where resistance campaigns, unrest & violence were planned....
00.08.40 Mr Vlok was emphatic in stating that the maximum effort must be made to ensure that no lives were put at risk when carrying out the operation. I duly delegated the instruction to Brig. Willem Schoon who at that stage commanded the Vlakplaas Unit and once again emphasized the question of not putting lives at risk. The instruction was duly carried out at a later date and the building was so badly damaged that it was rendered non-usable.
00.09.02 PEOPLE COMING OUT OF DUNCAN HALL OF CITY HALL
00.09.44 GENERAL VAN DER MERWE LEAVING CITY HALL
00.10.04 TRUTH COMMISSION HEARINGS IN CAPE TOWN re: Submission by Generals G. L. Meiring [Chief of the SANDF] & General B. Mortimer [on behalf of the old SADF]
00.10.09 DR ALEX BORAINE [CHAIRMAN COMMISSION] SHAKING HANDS WITH GENERAL MEIRING
00.10.50 GENERAL MEIRING: We regret the loss of life, personal grief & suffering of those afflicted on all sides. I have sincere appreciation for the deep scars left on our society by the conflict of the past and the ensuing animosity, fear, mistrust, suspicion, insensitivity and even hatred. I also fully realize that to forgive to forget and to become friends again will take time.
00.11.21 COMMISSIONER ALEX BORAINE REACTION ON MEIRING'S SUBMISSION: I think it would be totally amiss if we did not have your contribution today, Paricularly as it describes to a cynical world...that a genuine miracle occurred in our country.
00.11.48 GENERAL MEIRING GETTING UP TO LEAVE
00.12.01 WIDE FROM BACK OF HALL
00.12.06 GENERAL B. MORTIMER SEATED PAGING THROUGH SUBMISSION IN PREPARATION
00.12.13 CUTAWAY WIDE OF COMMISSIONERS
00.12.20 GENERAL MORTIMER READING STATEMENT: The RSA government believed that it was confronted by a "total onslaught" and in order to counter it, they had to develop their own total strategy. The need for such a total strategy was identified in the White Paper for Defence.
00.12.32 CUTAWAY
00.12.42 The State Security Council was established...as a statutory cabinet committee with the function of advising the government...
00.13.16 ...the Council would consist of: the Prime Minister, later the President, as chairman, the senior cabinet minister and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Dfence, Justice, Law & Order, Chief of the SADF, Commissioner of Police and Director Generals of National Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Justice.
00.13.40 CUTAWAY
00.13.48 MORTIMER PUTTING UP TRANSPARENCY EXPLAINING THE ORGANIZATION OF SPECIAL FORCES eg. CCB [CIVIL COOPERATION BUREAU]
00.14.22 CUTAWAY
00.14.29 During 1985/6 the ANC changed its tactics by intensifying its underground and unconventional methods both externally & internally...this led the SADF to counter the changing threat and establsih a new subdivision of Special Forces called the Civil Cooperation Bureau [CCB] in May 1986.
00.14.54 Civilian & demilitarised personnel from various sources were appointed under contract to form the CCB. The CCB was investigated by the Harms Commission. No documentation other than that contained in the records of the Harms Commission is believed to exist. At the time of the drafting of this submission the Harms Commission records were not available...
0.15.33 ...CCB activities were terminated in April 1990 and the organization was finally closed down in February 1994.
00.15.41 COMMISSIONER POTGIETER ASKING QUESTION: No documentation other than that contained in the records of the Harms Commission is believed to exist - is that in fact the case?
00.15.54 MORTIMER: Yes.
00.15.58 POTGIETER: Are there no records available of the CCB apart from those few documents that were handed in at the Harms Commission?
00.16.07 MORTIMER: In the preparation of this paper we failed to find anything else.
00.16.13 POTGIETER: If there were records would you have expected to have found it?
00.16.17 MORTIMER: We looked for other records which would I think indicate that one would expect to them. We have failed to do that.
00.16.31 POTGIETER: Would that imply that thsoe records have been removed or destroyed?
00.16.41 MORTIMER: Or they have all been handed over to the Harms Commission. The possibility does exist that things have been destroyed, yes.
00.16.51 POTGIETER: This organization according to your submission, was only terminated in April 1990 and it was finally closed in February 1994 - so it seemed to have continued to exist after the Harms Commission, so there must have been some official record of existence after the Harms Commission?
00.17.22 GENERAL KLOPPER REPLYING: The only official documentation that could exist could be on the termination, the administration of the termination.
00.17.35 GENERAL MORTIMER CONTINUE READING STATEMENT: In 1985 Chief Minister Buthelezi requested paramilitary support from the RSA government. The government decided on 20/12/85 to grant him this support and tasked the SADF to render the support. The project was known as "Operation Marion".
00.17.52 COMMISSIONER ASKING QUESTION: Should I believe that in all thses conflicts in the back areas...in these conflicts we have heard the hand of the Third Force and I know that the government had all along been denying that...but now it comes out clear here...indeed the Third Force was involved. You can make a comment. Was there any Third Force in the black-on-black violence?
00.18.43 MORTIMER: To the best of my knowledge, no.
00.18.54 COMMISSIONER ALEX BORAINE'S SEVERE CRITICISM OF THE SADF'S SUBMISSION: I have tyo tell you however that my over-all impression is that this submission is breathtaking in its one-sidedness. I find it almost unbelievable that in 80 pages , there can be no acknowledgement or accpetance that the SADF in implementing a policy of Apartheid, could bear no responsibility for a single death.
00.19.31 I find it impossible to believe that those who were involved did not know the death of women & children & innocent civilians in the conduct of that, as you described it, war.
00.19.48 I find it possible [MORTIMER LISTENING] to believe that those who compiled this report did not know that for eg. that the Goniwe Inquest found that the SADF as an institution was responsible for the death of Goniwe and the other 3. I don't know why that wasn't included in the submission,
00.20.19 and an acknowledgement that there is no-one in this country that is not part of the problem and part of the solution. Am I to understand that the compilers of this report and those whom you consulkted, believe that at no single time in any act or ommission by the SADF, that there was nothing of an unlawful nature throughout its work?
00.20.56 In all the cross0border raids, was there no mistake made, was there no unnecessary taking of life? We had to listen over many months to many who have spoken to us as victims and told us of offences committed by both the SADF & the SAP - am I to understand that throughout this whole period that there was no-one in the chain of command wwho ever questioned the policy of the then government?
00.21.43 That there was no opposition, that there was no disagreement, that it simply blindly carried out its orders no matter what those may lead to ?
00.21.59 Are we to understand...that there was not a single moment where people in high command, the level of generals for example, never asked the question as to why there was such deep-seated opposition to the system of Apartheid in SA over and above the fact that it was a communist plot to overtake SA & destroy our civilization?
00.22.49 You have gone into great detail...of the atrocities committed by the ANC, PAC, the Rightwing but the army is a knight in shining armour, simply doing its job.
00.23.23 SIDE ANGLE - MORTIMER & KLOPPERS LISTENING
00.23.30 GENERAL CONSTAND VILJOEN [LEADER FREEDOM FRONT] IN AUDIENCE
00.23.37 PRESSER: COMMISSIONERS AFTER SUBMISSIONS BY GENERALS - TAKING SEATS
00.23.47 ALEX BORAINE CRITICISING SUBMISSIONS: I felt that it was, I think the phrase I used was "it was breathtakingly one-sided" and really almost audacious in its total neglect of any culpability by the SADF whatsoever & I just think that this flies in the face of the facts as we have heard the...
00.24.18 ...and while we're not seeking to put anybody in the dock, or seeking any kind of revenge - if there's going to be transformation, clearly the people who were responsible for the information are still way way back in the old days.
00.24.37 COMPLIMENTING GENERAL MEIRING'S SUBMISSION
00.24.52 ...I just could not believe that there was no expression of concern, no acknowledgement of culpability...
00.25.15 ...I felt I had to say that as stronglyas I knew how.
00.25.18 CUTAWAYS PRESSER - Copyright Holder: REUTERS