TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 3

Chapter 1

Subsection 11

Killings during an arrest or while in custody

105. Amnesty applications were received for approximately twenty-three killings committed while people were either being arrested or in custody. Eleven people died while they themselves were being arrested, and five others were also killed during arrests. A further three died as a result of torture or assault⁴³ and four w e re killed during their detention or on their release .

Abductions/disappearances

106. Evidence from amnesty applications and hearings reveals that the Security Forces (including covert units, the Security Branch and the SADF) engaged in abduction operations inside and outside South Africa. The main purpose of the abductions was interrogation, killing or recruitment.

107. Of the eighty⁴⁴ abductions for which amnesty applications were received, only three people were abducted prior to 1980. Two of these were subsequently charged and one was returned to Swaziland. Twelve people were abducted between 1980 and the end of 1984. Abductions increased sharply between 1985 and 1989, and a total of sixty-two applications were received for this period. Forty-one of the people abducted were killed, two or possibly three were recruited and the fate of the remainder is unknown. Applications were received for two abductions and killings in 1990. In some cases, fairly high-profile individuals were abducted with a view to killing them, and interrogation seems to have played a secondary role. In other cases, those abducted were interrogated, beaten and released.

108. Several abductions were associated with the assassination of fairly high-profile activists. These include Messrs Griffiths Mxenge, Siphiwe Mthimkulu and Topsy Madaka, the ‘Pebco Three’ and the ‘Cradock Four’.

109. Thirty-nine out of the total number of eighty abductions were MK or ANC-linked. Twenty-four of these occurred inside South Africa, where the usual method was interrogation followed by killing. Eighteen of the victims are known to have been killed, seven by the Northern Transvaal Security Branch and ten by the Port Natal Security Branch, while the fate of four⁴⁵ remains unknown. The remaining two of the twenty-four internal abductees survived.

110. All the internal abductions for which amnesty was sought occurred after 1986, with sixteen in 1987 and 1988. The dramatic upsurge in the killing of internal activists confirms the Commission’s earlier finding that the practice of killing people outside South Africa became widespread in response to the intensified internal uprising of the mid-1980s.⁴⁶

111. Seventeen of the abductions involved MK operatives based outside South Africa’s borders. Of these, only Mr Cleophas Ndlovu and Mr Joseph Nduli, who were abducted in 1976, were formally detained and charged. Mr Herbert Fanele Mbale was abducted in 1972 and was returned to Lesotho following a formal protest from the Lesotho government .

112. A strong motive for the remaining external abductions seems to have been that the targets were regarded as key persons in MK’s military machinery. The intention was to interrogate and if possible recruit them. Where the attempt at ‘turning’ failed, the victims were killed. Amnesty applicants confessed to three such killings, namely those of Messrs Jameson Ngoloyi Mngomezulu, Mbovane Emmanuel Mzimela (aka Dion Cele) and Ms Phila Portia Ndwandwe (aka Zandile). A further five, and possibly six⁴⁷, are said to have been recruited. The exact fate of the remaining five⁴⁸ is unknown.

113. In addition to the above MK abductions, the brother of an MK operative was abducted and killed by C1/Vlakplaas⁴⁹ and another internal activist⁵⁰ was killed while being abducted or arrested by the Transkei Security Branch and C1/Vlakplaas askaris.

114. Three amnesty applications dealing with the abduction and torture of local activists were received from SADF members indifferent regions of the country. In his application, Major Gert Cornelius Hugo referred to Orpheus, an operation that was designed to destroy the leadership and second tier leadership of the UDF. Hugo testified that the targets were abducted and taken to one of several abandoned premises at Barkly Bridge, Newton Park and Fairview, Port Elizabeth, where they were interrogated and tortured. According to Hugo, who was involved in providing logistical support, the operation began in the Eastern Cape in 1986 but later became a national operation and continued through 1987.

115. When the Commission asked the SADF about Operation Orpheus, the SADF denied its existence. However, applications received from Messrs Johan Edward Moerdyk [AM2001/031; AM7218/97] and Frans Nyoni Mandlazi [AM5027/97; AC/2001/277] concerning abductions in Kwandebele and the E astern Transvaal reveal a similar modus operandi to that described by Hugo. Although Mandlazi was granted amnesty for the incidents for which he applied, M o e rd y k ’s application was refused, as he had sought amnesty for knowledge of rather than participation in such abductions and torture.