The SANDF denies hiding apartheid-era military files, but former Truth and Reconciliation Commission officials dismiss this as “pure lies”
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni
Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota has launched an inquiry into allegations that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) hid key apartheid-era military intelligence information from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
The Mail & Guardian reported last week how the SANDF concealed thousands of military intelligence files crucial to TRC investigations. The commission had probed the destruction of apartheid-era information and concluded in its final report that all that survived was three series of files. Each series contains thousands of pages of records of military operations inside South Africa and abroad.
The director of the South African History Archive, Verne Harris, recently submitted a Promotion of Access to Information Act request to the Department of Defence asking for a list of the three series of files. He got the surprising answer that there are 38 series of secret documents still in the SANDF archive.
Ministry of Defence representative Sam Mkhwanazi said this week Lekota “has noted the M&G’s report and the issues that were raised. He is busy gathering information to establish what is fact and what is fiction.
“Once that has been done, the minister will take the necessary steps,” Mkhwanazi said, adding that Lekota would also contact the TRC as part of his fact-finding exercise.
TRC officials last week insisted they were misled by the SANDF when they conducted their investigation. They said the SANDF had provided them with only three series. They said the list of 38 series of top secret documents came as a “shock” to them.
A TRC representative said this week the new information will be on the commission’s agenda when it convenes in the next few weeks.
The SANDF insists that it had cooperated fully with the TRC. “The SANDF did not conceal records as is alleged; neither did the SANDF fail to disclose the availability of other file groups,” says Major General Louis Kirstein.
“It must be remembered that at the time, in excess of 10 000 military intelligence files were held in the SANDF archives and only about 600 were destroyed. The report of the joint TRC/SANDF committee verifies this. It states quite clearly that ‘a surprisingly large volume of military intelligence files survived’.”
Former TRC researchers dismiss the SANDF response as “pure lies and evasive”.
Harris, who was part of the TRC team investigating the defence force, says: “I find the response [of the SANDF] extremely disappointing. It fails to address the key issue, namely that considerable quantities of military intelligence files were deliberately hidden from the TRC investigators and instead offers bland statements that are at best obfuscatory.”
The undeniable facts, he says, “are that the military led the TRC investigation to believe that only three series of military intelligence files had survived destruction exercises – we now know that far more had survived, and that these were not disclosed to the TRC.
“The military approved the TRC’s report on military records before it was incorporated into the final report of the TRC – in other words, they confirmed the finding that only the three series of files had survived.”