Three senior officers, alleged by former security force colleagues to be police hit squad leaders, have all denied responsibility for an incident during June 1986 in which four youths were killed. Brigadier Willem Schoon, Major Eugene Alexander de Kock and Captain Paul van Dyk, were giving evidence at the inquest into the deaths of four youths from Durban’s Chesterville township, killed by members of a secret security unit, ”C1”, based at Vlakplaas outside Pretoria.
Police say they intended to arrest the youths, but the plan went wrong. Families of the dead boys however, say they believe police did not intend to arrest their children, but planned to kill them. All three officers were part of the command structure of the unit, but claimed they were not in charge of the field group responsible for the shooting of the youths. Schoon (now retired) told the court he had headed the anti-terrorist desk at security headquarters and that Section C1 fell under his overall command.
In June 1986 he gave Section C1 permission to draw an AK47 from police stores. He said the weapon was to be used to establish the credibility of members of the unit when they tried to infiltrate suspect operations. He denied any further knowledge of the incident in which the four were killed. De Kock, on voluntary suspension pending 0 the outcome of an investigation into the hit squad allegations, said because of the serious security situation in Durban at that time, he decided on the ”drastic” step of using an AK47 to help infiltrate operations in the area. The weapon was to be used only to establish credibility and not for shooting. After the attempted infiltration went wrong and the four youths were killed, he ordered that no further attempts at infiltration using an AK47 should be made.
Yesterday’s hearing ended with a legal wrangle when the first of three ”ascaris”, former African National Congress guerillas who have since joined the South African Police and who participated in the incident during which the four were killed, was called to give evidence. Counsel for the police, Gideon Lotz SC, said the witness had told him they refused to give evidence in open court, despite a ruling from the magistrate that they would have to do so. He said an application would be made to the Supreme Court for the magistrate’s decision to be set aside. Both counsel for the families, Guido Penzhorn, and magistrate Ben Olivier, asked why the application had not already been brought since the case was adjourned on November 6 to allow time for such an application.
Mr Lotz said the inquest was “not the only matter with which I am dealing” and said he would do what he could to bring it to court quickly. The case was adjourned until noon today, by which time the magistrate said he wanted an order from the Supreme Court barring him from hearing the ”ascaris” in open court, otherwise the case would continue. This week’s hearing provided unexpected collaboration of a claim made by death row prisoner, Butana Nofomela, who first alleged the existence of hit squads.
In a statement to lawyers dealing with a number of issues, Nofomela claimed De Kock had been in Durban at the time of the Chesterville incident. However, at that time there had been no suggestion by any of the police witnesses that De Kock was in the vicinity and there was some doubt about whether Nofomela was correct. During cross-examination of De Kock, however, he said he came down to Durban from Pretoria the day after the unit arrived and was in Durban until after the incident. He said he had nothing to do with the Chesterville incident, as he had delegated responsibility for that operation to others and was working on other matters.
This week’s court hearing was the first time the three officers named as members of the hit squads have appeared in public since the allegations were first made. One of the claims against Schoon is that he had a radio from the car of Durban civil rights lawyer, Griffiths Mxenge, fitted in his own vehicle after the attorney was stabbed to death. De Kock has been linked to a number of deaths, including the shooting of a man at point-blank range to prevent him from identifying De Kock and his accomplices. He is also linked to at least two other operations in which police ambushes resulted in deaths.
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
