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Special Report Transcript Episode 68, Section 2, Time 01:39Nic van Rensburg is the security branch boss who ordered the killing. In 1989 Vlakplaas fell directly under his command, as did Gideon Niewoudt, security branch head in the Eastern Cape. Niewoudt is the man responsible for planting the explosives. In 1996 he was sentenced to 20 years for the Motherwell bombing. He is now out on bail. Eugene de Kock is the man head quarters called in to help Niewoudt eliminate the suspect policemen. De Kock was then commander at Vlakplaas and the Security Branch’s Mr. Fix It. He is now serving life plus 212 years in Pretoria Central C Max. Major Vaal du Toit is the man who built the bomb, he was technical unit commander at Vlakplaas. Jacobus Kok helped Du Toit build the explosive device. Snor Vermeulen and Lionel Snyman are the men who fitted the car with the explosives. They were sent down from Vlakplaas along with Martinus Ras who would execute plan B, namely to shoot the suspect cops if plan A – to blow them up – went wrong. Major Gerhardus Lotz is the man who drove the bomb laden car to the rendezvous. Lotz was Niewoudt’s close associate in the PE Security Branch; he was also Nic van Rensburg’s son in law. This week, he claimed to have had no knowledge of the bomb in the car. The widows of Glen Mgoduka, Amos Faku and Desmond Mapipa came to Centenary Hall to oppose the applications. Four weeks before the Motherwell bomb Dirk Coetzee exposed the police hit squads operating from Vlakplaas. Paranoia hit the security branch. Government appointed the Harms Commission to investigate allegations of death squads. In the Eastern Cape, Gideon Niewoudt suspected that three of his men were about to go the Dirk Coetzee route, exposing their involvement in security branch fraud as well as the murders of Matthew Goniwe and the Pebco Three. Niewoudt believed he had to stop them at all costs. Notes: Photos of deceased References select each tab to search for references Hearing Transcripts TRC Final Report TRC Victims GlossaryThree police officers and an informer were killed when their car was blown up by fellow police officers in Motherwell, outside Port Elizabeth, during 1989, to prevent possible revelations of police involvement in the killing of the Cradock Four. The blast was initially thought to have been an MK ... |