AC/2001/002

We are now dealing with applications pertaining to the so-called Parker Pen Set Bomb Incident. All the Applicants herein were members of the Vlakplaas Unit, a component of the South African Security Police ("SAPS"). They all worked under de Kock who was their operational commander. They are seeking amnesty for offences flowing from the so-called "Parker Pen Incident", the facts of which shall be dealt with below. At the hearing the Evidence Leader, Ms Ramula Patel, advised the Committee that all attempts to trace the identity and present whereabouts of the victim, victim, namely a Swaziland national, were unsuccessful. Several requests by the TRC to the Several requests by the TRC to the Swaziland Embassy in South Africa also yielded no positive results. In the circumstances the applications were dealt with on the basis that they are unopposed and the Applicants were the only witnesses to testify.

In dealing with the evidence we intend to highlight only the salient facts which are as follows. On a certain day in the 1980's, at or near Piet Retief, four members of the African National Congress ("the ANC") were lured into a trap by the Piet Retief Security Police. They were all ambushed and killed. During the subsequent search of their properties and bodies, W/O Pienaar found a note which indicated that there was a postal address in Swaziland which they used for contact purposes. De Kock was present on the scene and took part in the ambush. Pienaar asked De Kock what he thought they should do with the address and after some discussion they agreed that they were going to hatch a plan to kill the users of the address or injure them in some way and thus bring to an end the use of the said address by ANC activists and its subversive operations.

De Kock suggested that they use a parker pen set which they could buy from a store and load it with a high shrapnel level. Basically an explosive device which they could send to the address. The device would detonate as soon as the pen had been removed from the holder. After discussing the intended operation with his superior, Brigadier Schoon, who approved of the plan and its aims, he then instructed members of the Technical Division, Bosch, Kok and Du Toit, to manufacture the device. This they did and the parcel was forwarded to the address. He did not communicate with Kok and Du Toit directly but spoke to Bosch who co-ordinated the task. De Kock says for some time he did not hear of anything as to the end of the parcel which they had sent but later became aware from newspaper reports that a postal employee in Manzini was injured in an explosion. The said employee had apparently stolen the parcel and took it home for himself. When he opened it, the device went off. Later De Kock was informed by Pienaar that the ANC cadres to whom the parcel was addressed were the ones who were killed in a second ambush. These cadres had neither been injured nor killed by the parker pen device. De Kock was involved in the ambush as well. When de Kock received the parcel it was already prepared and sealed and it bore the name of the person which they found on the note as well as the address. He directed that it be given to an askari to take it to Swaziland and send it from a local post office to the name and address which appeared on the note. Asked about how he hoped to avoid injuring innocent people de Kock replied that he had no doubt about the authenticity of the address and firmly believed it to have been used by the ANC. Further, he never foresaw that the parcel would be stolen by a mischievous post office worker, as it happened. He was quite certain that it would get to the destination and target. He never doubted the value of the information from Pienaar because he was a very experienced intelligence officer. Pienaar had worked in the Pietersburg area for many years and knew very well what was going on there. He had worked with Pienaar for some time and he has never made a mistake in his assessment and analysis o information. He further states that the political objective was to fight the ANC and its military activities at all costs and thus keep the government of the day in place. This was an action against the enemy of the State.

Bosch testified and confirmed having been instructed by De Kock to liaise with the Technical Division at Rebecca Street, Pretoria, to prepare a parker pen set which would contain explosives so that when it was opened and the pens removed, it would detonate. This he did and the parcel was sent to Swaziland. He first discussed the matter with Du Toit and then Japie Kok who did the actual preparation of the device. The parcel had a piece of dental floss which had to be pulled out before the parcel was wrapped. It protruded outside the parcel and as soon as one opened the contained and removed it, it would explode.

Flores, Du Toit and Kok testified and confirmed their respective roles in preparing and sending off the parcel. Flores states that on a certain day he was called by de Kock to his office. There he found him in the company of Bosch and Japie Kok. Flores came there with an askari, Chris Mogopa, an ex-PAC cadres. De Kock told him that there was a mission to carry out in Swaziland. He wanted Flores and Mogopa to send a parcel to Manzini. Bosch gave them a run down of how the parker pen set and device worked. According to Bosch, before sealing the parker pen parcel, Flores first had to activate the trigger mechanism by extracting a piece of the dental floss. On conclusion of the briefing Flores and Mogopa left for Manzini. They entered Swaziland through Mahamba Border Post. About five kilometres before they reached Manzini they stopped. Flores pulled out the dental floss, cut it flush with the box and closed the wrapping. After activating the bomb he put the adhesive tape on. They proceeded with their journey to Manzini where he gave the parcel to Mogopa who posted it at Manzini Post Office. Flores states that about six months to a year he heard a device had exploded and injured a post office employee who had stolen a parcel at work. He concluded that this must have been the parcel.

Du Toit testified that when de Kock approached him he told him that the operation had already been approved from "higher up". He explained that himself and Kok being from the Technical Division, had no role in the selection of targets but they knew that their technical skills and knowledge was being used to eliminate threats against the State. They accepted that it was their task to protect the status quo of the day and keep the Nationalist Party regime in power. They were not told who the parcel was going to be addressed to but simply prepared the device. He has no clear recollection of the precise details regarding the size and impact of the end product but it had to be such that it could only cause harm to the person who would open it and ideally kill such a person.

The only evidence that was added by Kok to the other Applicants' is the fact that only one pen was used and the explosive was tested in an open field to ensure that it would work and that only the person who opened the parcel would be hit by the explosion.

We have carefully considered the evidence herein and are satisfied that the Applicants have complied with the requirements of the Act. It is quite clear that they intended to carry out an operation against members of a liberation movement, the ANC, which was in conflict with the erstwhile regime. We also accept that they have given a full disclosure of the relevant facts. Amnesty is therefore GRANTED to all the applicants for the following offences:

It is recommended that the unknown Swazi national be declared a victim in terms of the Act and is hereby referred to the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee for its consideration, in the event of his identity and whereabouts being established.

SIGNED AT CAPE TOWN ON THIS 17TH DAY OF JANUARY 2001

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