Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
March 20, 1997
STATEMENT FROM THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has taken important steps towards establishing the fate of Mamelodi activist Stanza Bopape, who disappeared in 1988 after being detained by Security Police.
Mr Bopape's disappearance was one of the main unsolved mysteries arising out of the detention-without-trial system in the 1980s.
The police claimed at the time that Mr Bopape escaped from custody. Now 10 Security policemen have made applications for amnesty in respect of a range of charges arising from his killing.
Five Security policemen acknowledge in amnesty applications that Mr Bopape died while he was undergoing electrical shock torture during interrogation in Security Police offices in John Vorster Square, Johannesburg;
Three senior officers have applied for amnesty on charges of conspiracy and defeating the ends of justice for covering up the real reason for this death;
Two other policemen have said they were responsible for disposing of his body.
At a meeting yesterday, the Commission authorised the publication of the names of the applicants in this matter, and they are attached to this statement. Full details of the applications will be released at the amnesty hearing.
The Johannesburg office of the Commission's Investigative Unit began probing Mr Bopape's disappearance after his family testified at a hearing of the Human Rights Violations Committee in Pietersburg last July.
The unit decided as a result of its investigations to subpoena three Security policemen in terms of Section 29 of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act to appear at an investigative inquiry. On December 10 last year, when they were due to appear, their legal representatives applied for a postponement of the inquiry pending the submission of amnesty applications.
The amnesty applications of these applicants, among others, have since been filed. However, the Investigative Unit does not believe that all of those involved have applied for amnesty yet, and it will continue its investigations.
On February 27 this year, one police officer, at the request of the Investigative Unit, showed a Commissioner investigator the place in the Komati River where Mr Bopape's body was allegedly disposed of.
Mr Bopape's family and their attorneys have been kept briefed about the progress in this matter.
Chronology
Mr Bopape and a friend were arrested in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, on the night of Thursday June 9, 1988. After he disappeared, his family and their attorneys made fruitless attempts to determine his whereabouts. They were told in July that he had escaped from the custody of three policemen in the Vaal Triangle while they were out on investigations.
In response to parliamentary questions, the Minister of Law and Order, Mr Adriaan Vlok, said on August 30 that a certain person - whom he refused to identify - had escaped from custody and the matter was still under investigation.
In February 1989, Mr Bopape's father went to Zambia to establish whether the ANC had any information about him. They were unable to help him.
On April 25, 1989, Mr Vlok said during parliamentary debate that Mr Bopape had escaped while pointing out certain spots in connection with acts of terror in which he was allegedly involved. He told Parliament that police had found persons who have stated under oath that they have seen Mr Bopape after his escape.
The five policemen - ranging up to the rank of colonel - who are applying for amnesty in respect of Mr Bopape's death have said he was arrested in the course of an investigation led by the West Rand Security Branch.
They say that he was taken to the Johannesburg Security Branch at John Vorster Square on Friday June 10. He was held without trial under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act. On Sunday June 12, an electric shock device normally kept at the Sandton Security Branch was brought to John Vorster Square after Mr Bopape allegedly refused to provide information during interrogation.
The amnesty applicants say that Mr Bopape was tied to a chair for the administration of the shocks, and alleged that he slumped forward after only two or three shocks were administered. They say they tried to revive him with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. In their application, they say that the shocks administered should not have been fatal, and that they suspected he suffered from a possible heart ailment.
In further amnesty applications, the commanding officers of the five Security policemen involved say they authorised the cover-up around his death because they feared that if the truth was revealed, it would have caused widespread unrest during the forthcoming June 16 commemoration.
According to the applications, Mr Bopape's body was taken to the Eastern Transvaal Security police for disposal, and the interrogation team then returned to John Vorster Square to concoct a "pseudo-escape" story.
The Investigative Unit is continuing its investigations into this matter with a view to providing the Amnesty Committee's staff with a report designed to assist the Committee to decide, when the amnesty hearing takes place, on whether the applicants have made full disclosure of all relevant facts. (Full disclosure is one of the conditions for amnesty laid down by the law.)
Amnesty applicants:
1. In respect of Mr Bopape's killing:
1.1. Lt Col Adriaan Peter van Niekerk 1.2. Constable Hendrick Albertus Beukes Mostert 1.3. Constable Jacobus Hermanus Engelbrecht 1.4. Sergeant Johan Ludwig du Preez 1.5. Major Charles Alfred Zeelie
2. In respect of the disposal of his body:
2.1. Brigadier Schalk Visser 2.2. Captain Leon van Loggerenberg
3. In respect of the cover-up for the reasons for this death:
3.1. General Gerrit Nicholas Erasmus 3.2. General Petrus Lodewikus du Toit 3.3. General Johannes Velde van der Merwe