Major-General Karel “Suiker” Britz is under investigation for his alleged poor track record in bringing to book SAPS members tied to political crimes. Philippa Garson reports
THE Ministry of Safety and Security this week ordered an investigation into the country’s top crime buster, Major-General Karel “Suiker” Britz, after the Mail & Guardian raised questions about his track record in solving political crime.
KwaZulu-Natal police reporting officer Neville Melville is to investigate allegations of “foot dragging” by Britz, appointed this year to head the police National Priority Crimes unit, in bringing to book serving and former police members linked to apartheid-era dirty tricks.
Police Commissioner George Fivaz welcomed the probe, saying it was in the interests of the new South African Police Service and Britz himself.
Britz, who since 1991 had been national commander of the country’s murder and robbery units — a division still struggling to rid itself of a reputation for brutality — was appointed in July this year to head the newly-created priority crime unit, which is tasked with cracking high-profile criminal cases, or cases where specialised detective skills are needed.
As head of the unit, Britz has been entrusted with such high profile cases as the Atteridgeville/Boksburg serial killings; the Johann Heyns assassination; arms smuggling in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Mpumalanga; the murder of anti- apartheid lawyer Griffiths Mxenge; the murder of Dr Abu-Baker Asvat; and the letter bomb that killed activist Jeanette Schoon and her six-year-old daughter Katryn in exile.
Britz has worked on a string of sensational cases from the past, including the Church Street bomb, the Barend Strydom killings, the drug-related murder by two Brixton Murder and Robbery policemen and the extortion of former National Party minister Fanie Botha.
While he has investigated 69 cases where the accused were given the death penalty, his success rate in bringing to book the culprits of “apartheid era” political crimes appears less impressive.
Allegations against Britz include:
* There has been little progress in the investigation, headed by Britz, on charges arising from the 1984 bomb blast in Angola that killed the wife and child of Marius Schoon — and in which former police spy Craig Williamson has implicated himself.
Lawyers acting for Schoon, who is suing Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi and Williamson for R900 000 compensation, are concerned at the lack of progress in the criminal investigation — and that Williamson has not yet been questioned. When faxes they sent to police went unanswered, the lawyers complained to Mufamadi.
Said Schoon: “It seems incredible that it takes almost a year for the public confession of a former policeman to be investigated. I wonder at what stage Major-General Britz actually intends to question Williamson or the South African and American journalists to whom Williamson has admitted complicity in the murders.”
National Crime Investigation Service representative Reg Crewe replied on behalf of Britz this week that “various steps” have already been taken, but that it was “not in the interests of the investigation” to reveal all. “Regarding Craig Williamson, an appointment is being made to question him, together with the London Metropolitan Police, as a result of another of his revelations.
“The fundamental right that a person is deemed to be innocent until proven guilty by the state is enshrined in the Constitution. Even when revelations are made, a person can only be arrested and prosecuted once all the evidence has been obtained and submitted to the Attorney-general, apart from his own revelations. This is being done,” says Crewe.
* It appears to have been the investigating team of Northern Transvaal Attorney-general Jan d’Oliveira — set up to look into third force allegations in the wake of Judge Richard Goldstone’s reports — that made the breakthrough in bringing five security policemen to book for the Eastern Cape “Motherwell bomb” which killed three policemen and an informer. An investigation by Britz was inconclusive. The five, who were arrested two weeks ago, face murder charges.
Britz was put in charge of the Motherwell investigation when evidence of police complicity in the bomb assassination emerged during the reopened 1993 Goniwe inquest. Eastern Cape Attorney-general Les Roberts said: “As far as I know, (the Britz dossier) was not the direct cause of the arrest.” A judicial source confirmed that Britz’ dossier had not led to the recent arrests but that the breakthrough had come as a result of the D’Oliviera team’s investigative work.
Crewe replied: “It has never been claimed that (Britz) was instrumental in the latest arrests … but an allegation that the matter was not investigated properly by him would be far-fetched.”
Two of the arrested men had been identified by Britz in his investigation, but the Attorney-general “decided not to prosecute them at that stage due to a lack of direct evidence, which had in the meantime been found by the D’Olivera team”. Britz had recommended that the Attorney-general “should order that the police investigation should continue with a view to prosecution when the necessary evidence could be obtained”, Crewe said.
* In an affidavit prepared for the trial of former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock, former Vlakplaas operative Willie Nortje appears to implicate Britz as part of a cover-up in police investigations for the Harms Commission.
Nortje stated that Britz and General Krappies Engelbrecht (who later took early retirement) came to Vlakplaas to take statements on the murder of Krugersdorp security guard Japie Maponya. “Krappies told me to say as little as possible in the statement and to deny in my statement that I was ever in Krugersdorp… While “Suiker” Britz took my official statement, it was clear to me he was informed about the circumstances and that he was taking the statements as General Krappies Engelbrecht had instructed.”
Crewe replied that because the case is ongoing, “it is deemed not appropriate to comment on Nortje’s evidence in court, save to say that it reflects his personal views and that the allegation that the statement was taken with an improper motive is denied by Major-General Britz”.
* Britz travelled to London in 1991 and helped on the investigation into a cassette-player bomb attempt on the life of former Vlakplaas commander Dirk Coetzee. Nothing came of that investigation, but D’Oliveira’s team has, in the meantime, come close to the bone in uncovering the truth on that and another attempt on Coetzee’s life.
Among the 121 charges faced by De Kock, one includes complicity in the walkman bomb intended for Coetzee, but which killed lawyer Bheki Mlangeni. And Willie Nortje, former Vlakplaas operative, has testified in De Kock’s trial that it was De Kock who ordered security operative Leon Flores to contract Northern Irish killers to assassinate Coetzee while he was living in London.
Crewe replied: “A statement relating to the Bheki Mlangeni case was taken from Coetzee in London … by Britz in the presence of (retired) Major-General Van der Westhuizen … Major Kritzinger was the investigating officer in the Mlangeni case under the command of Major-General van der Westhuizen.”