Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
January 28, 1997
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has succeeded in getting former policemen who participated in incidents involving the killing of 10 anti-apartheid leaders and activists in the Eastern Cape to come forward and identify themselves.
Combined work by the TRC's Investigative Unit and Witness Protector, backed up by the prospect of amnesty, has resulted in amnesty applications in which members of the former Security Branch of the South African Police acknowledge responsibility for:
Assaults on Steven Bantu Biko and Peter Cyril Jones in September 1977, and the killing of Mr Biko; The abduction and killing of Siphiwe Mtimkulu and Topsy Madaka in April 1982;
The abduction and killing of the PEBCO Three - Sipho Charles Hashe, Qaqawuli Godolozi and Champion Galela - in May 1985; and The abduction and killing of the Cradock Four - Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicelo Mhlawuli - in June 1985.
The Commission, against a background of information being leaked to the media, has decided to make available to the public an outline of information arising from investigations and amnesty applications which sketch for the first time the main details of how some of the killings are alleged to have taken place.
The information we have gathered constitutes a major breakthrough. Numerous earlier investigations and judicial inquiries have not conclusively resolved the cases, and our investigative work, combined with the prospect of amnesty, has persuaded those who say they were involved in perpetrating the acts to come forward for the first time.
However, we need to emphasise strongly that:
As a result we will not at this stage provide full details of information at our disposal. Nor will the Commission make available names of amnesty applicants at this stage. We are also not convinced that all those who bear responsibility for the acts and omissions which led to the deaths of people have come forward.
The Commission is deeply concerned at the unauthorised leaks of information relating to a number of these matters. Indications are that the leaks relating to the Cradock Four and the Biko matters did not come from within the Commission.
We are sensitive to the right of the media to publish information when it is not explicitly prohibited by law. However we have to note that the publication of leaked information before the Commission and its staff were able to brief and prepare families of the victims for the revelations has caused considerable distress and anger to a number of families. The Commission is legally mandated to place a high premium on the concerns of victims and the indiscriminate publication of information in which they have an interest displays total insensitivity to their feelings.
We also note that the publication of leaked information has the potential to prejudice the Commission in its investigations or other work. We draw the attention of the media to Section 39 of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, which states inter alia that it is an offence:
Background to the decision by Security Police to disclose their involvement.
The disclosures we can make have their origins in hearings in the Eastern Cape during 1996, when the families of victims called on the Commission to establish the truth about the fate of their loved ones. As a result of these appeals, members of the Special Investigations Section of the Investigative Unit were assigned to work on the matters.
As these investigations were continuing, information also emerged from senior officers who testified under subpoena during closed investigative inquirid in terms of Section 29 of the Act.
As a consequence of the Section 29 inquiries, the head of the Investigative Unit, Commissioner Dumisa Ntsebeza, was approached by a member of a group of policemen who wanted to explore the possibilities of applying for amnesty. Mr Ntsebeza appointed the Commission's Witness Protector to work with potential applicants and their lawyer on issues relating to witness protection and the full disclosure of their actions.
Early in December a group headed by Mr Ntsebeza and including one of the amnesty applicants, flew in a police aircraft to Cradock, where certain of the sites mentioned in this statement were pointed out to him.
PRESENTATION BY COMMISSIONER DUMISA NTSEBEZA, HEAD OF THE TRC'S INVESTIGATING UNIT
The following is a brief sketch of new information which has been presented to the Commission:
1. Steven Bantu Biko and Peter Jones
Applications have been filed by a number of former Security policemen who have indicated they are applying for amnesty in respect of charges of assault and culpable homicide. They have not yet provided details of their precise involvement in these crimes and the Commission is expecting to receive amplifcations of their amnesty applications in due course.
2. Siphiwe Mtimkulu and Topsy Madaka
Information available to the Commissior Mtimkulu and Mr Madaka were stopped by Security policemen near the Holiday Inn, Port Elizabeth, and taken to the disused police station at Post Chalmers in the Cradock district.
There they were apparently interrogated, given drinks spiked with sedatives, carried outside and each was shot in the head by a different applicant. Their bodies were placed on a wood pyre and burnt for about six hours. The remaining fragments of bone were thrown into the Fish River, according to the application, and their vehicle was left a Tete Bridge on the Lesotho border to create the impression that they had left the country.
One of the applicants pointed out the scenes of the killing and the disposal of the remains to myself and Mr Chris McAdam, the Witness Protector.
3. The PEBCO Three
In broad outline, the information supplied on the abduction of the PEBCO Three is similar to what has already been published previously: that they were abducted from the Port Elizabeth Airport and taken to Post Chalmers police station outside Cradock.
There, after interrogation, the Three were apparently given coffee with sleeping tablets in it. Each one was allegedly shot by a different applicant, then the bodies were placed on a pyre and burnt. This took four to six hours. The remains were placed in plastic bags and disposed of in the Fish River, in the same vicinity as the remains of that Mr Mtimkulu and Mr Madaka.
4. The Cradock Four
It is claimed that the Four were abducted by a group of policemen at the Olifantshoek Pass while they were travelling from Port Elizabeth to Cradock, and taken to the bush in the vicinity of St George's Strand.
One of the four was allegedly shot for trying to escape. Two were beaten unconscious with a heavy iron implement, then stabbed to make it appear as if their deaths were vigilante killings. Their bodies were then burnt. No information in respect of the fourth is available yet.
5. Other cases
Other incidents which are the subject of this set of applications include the killing of Sizwe Kondile (also the subject of Dirk Coetzee's amnesty application), the Motherwell bombings, the killing of an Askari in the Vlakplaas canteen and cross-border operations in Botswana and Swaziland.