TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 3

Chapter 1

Subsection 4

Violations by region

29. The 550 incidents were spread over the regions as follows:

30. Over 100 of the 307 incidents (56%) that occurred in the Transvaal appeared in two applications covering Stratcom activities. The overwhelming majority of incidents took place in the Transvaal.

31. Seventy-three, or some 13 per cent, of incidents took place outside of South Africa: Angola (2), Botswana (14), Lesotho (8), Mozambique (5), Namibia (10), Swaziland (29), Tanzania (1), United Kingdom (1), Zambia (2) and Zimbabwe (1). The majority of external incidents for which there were applications (some 40%) took place in Swaziland, which was regarded as a police rather than a military domain.

Violations by rank

32. It was possible to determine only 862 ranks out of a possible 1222 across the 550 incidents. Just over 48 per cent of all applicants were lower-ranking personnel at the time the violation was committed, while just under 52 per cent were commissioned officers (lieutenant and above). The overwhelming majority of incidents for which there were applications involved several applicants of varying ranks and appear no different from routine operational profiles. This challenges the view that violations were committed by small renegade groups of operatives.

33. The fact that senior personnel drew on trusted operatives of considerably lower rank in a routine chain of command suggests that such operations were part of normal police duties. Moreover, three former heads of the Security Branch applied for amnesty, two of whom went on to become Commissioners of Police, the highest position in the SAP. One former cabinet minister responsible for Law and Order also applied for amnesty.

Violations by race and gender

34. All of the applicants were male, and some 255 (86%) were white. Only seven of the black security force applicants were askari s¹⁷ A significant proportion of black applicants had already given statements to the Attorney-General and several were potential state witnesses.

35. All the black security force operatives who applied for amnesty were of extremely low rank, often despite lengthy periods of service. This is doubtless the result of the racism inherent in the former SAP.