Jan Taljaard
TRUE to his nickname, “Kaalvoet” Thysie de Villiers, the former Recce linked to the assassination of Professor Johan Heyns, appeared in court this week in a pair of shorts and bare feet.
De Villiers, who had also been sought in connection with three other murders and a massive arms theft from a Voortrekkerhoogte arms depot, was cornered last Friday in a police swoop on a remote Free State farm
But at this stage his connection to the murder of Heyns seems to be tenuous. Police only have the word of another former Reconnaissance operative, Heckie Horn, for that.
In a bail application last week, Horn alleged that De Villiers had told him that he had killed Heyns. Both Horn and De Villiers stand accused of murdering another former Recce, Andre Klopper (44), at a party held in an upmarket Pretoria suburb.
While a definite link between De Villiers and the assassination of Heyns still has to be proven by detectives and in court, a tale is emerging of men without war turning in frustration against a society that has left them isolated.
Klopper died only a week after being released from jail in an amnesty deal. Sources say he was coerced by police shortly before his release to help them track down De Villiers.
But Klopper was also a former member of the Civil Co- operation Bureau (CCB), an organisation known for recruiting its members from the ranks of disaffected Special Force operatives.
The night before Klopper’s body was found next to the Apollo Road in the Elandsfontein district, he had been at a party with Horn, De Villiers and other former Recces. The party was at the Bastille Bastion small holding, a piece of land right in the middle of the upmarket Pretoria suburb of Wapadrand.
Residents of Wapadrand, keen to preserve the standing of their suburb in socially conscious Pretoria, have long been up in arms about the goings on at Bastille
They tell of party noises mingling with the occasional “heavy-calibre” shot being fired late at night. On more than one occasion irate residents have called the local police station to complain about these rude intrusions into their cosy lifestyle.
It was after one such party on Thursday May 11 that the body of Klopper was found in the Elandsfontein district. He had been stabbed seven times.
In the weeks leading up to the incident several arms caches were discovered in remote areas, purportedly by farm workers stumbling across guns that had remained hidden for months. But to the people who had hidden the arms, it must have become clear that someone had started to talk.
Legally trained to kill, to withstand interrogation techniques and to evade enemy forces in their own territory for months at a time, Thysie de Villiers’ alleged crime spree started with an arms theft from Number 10 Air Depot before the 1994 elections.
Sought in connection with the robbery, his photograph appeared on the Stop Crime TV programme. Shortly afterwards De Villiers allegedly shot Selaki Nthombeni and his five-year-old daughter through the door of their hut when they refused to open the door. It is thought that Nthombeni was killed because he had recognised De Villiers on TV.
While it is surmised that the weapons were destined for right-wing groups who were at that stage preparing for an insurrection, De Villiers cannot thus far be linked to any specific right-wing group.
Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) representative Fred Rundle this week denied rumours that De Villiers was linked to the organisation. — DigiNews