The Third Force: Apartheid’s chickens come home to roost with the arrest of retired generals and a former defence minister
Mail and Guardian reporters
General Magnus Malan and 10 former colleagues were arrested because police seized top-secret documents linking them to an Inkatha hit-squad and the birth of the “Third Force”.
KwaZulu-Natal’s cautious Attorney General Tim McNally ordered the men’s arrest because of information in a secret file handed to him by the province’s crack Investigation Task Unit, set up by Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi.
The Mail & Gaurdian has established the ITU has evidence about a secret subcommittee of the State Security Council (SSC) which facilitated the training of a hit-squad loyal to Inkatha.
The squad is accused of carrying out political assassinations in KwaZulu-Natal, and its establishment in 1986/87 marked the beginning of “Third Force” operations in South Africa, which led to the deaths of thousands of people.
The SSC co-ordinated the former government’s strategy of total onslaught against its political opponents. Malan, as then-Minister of Defence, served on the SSC, and his co-accused are alleged to have been members of the subcommittee.
The brief of the SSC subcommittee — chaired by former chief of the army General “Kat” Liebenberg — was to facilitate a programme to train and arm 200 young men loyal to Inkatha to counter the growing popularity of the United Democratic Front and perceived military strength of the African National Congress’ military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe in KwaZulu-Natal during the 1980s.
It was this team of highly-trained hitmen, dubbed the Caprivi 200, which is accused of the 1987 KwaMakutha massacre, in which 13 civilians, including six children, were indiscriminately slaughtered.
The SSC subcommittee arranged for the group to be sent to the Caprivi Strip in 1986, where they were trained by SADF special forces in offensive warfare techniques.
On the basis of evidence collected so far, the office of the Natal attorney general has presented the courts with two legs to a trial around the KwaMakutha killings, one of the most gruesome massacres in KwaZulu-Natal’s ongoing civil war.
The first leg involves charges against members of the Caprivi 200 team accused of carrying out the massacre.
The second and latest involves General Malan and his former colleagues, who will be accused of setting up the Caprivi force.
In the first case, among the seven accused are four KwaZulu policemen who went for training at the Caprivi Strip: Peter Msane, Celukwanda Ndlovu, Prince Mkhize and Martin Khanyile. Accused with them are former military intelligence officer, Brigadier John More, who will be accused of assisting with planning, and Colonel Louis Botha, who will be accused of clearing tell-tale signs of the slaughter.
The seventh accused is IFP deputy secretary-general MZ Khumalo, allegedly in control of the Caprivi men when they returned to KwaZulu-Natal after their training.
Freedom Front leader General Constand Viljoen said he was sure IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi knew of the involvement of Malan and military officers in operations designed to beef up Inkatha’s military strength.
“I am sure this was dealt with by the previous National Party government … and the KwaZulu homeland government. Surely they should have discussed it government to government,” Viljoen told reporters at an election rally in Vereeniging.
“They have been involved in reinforcing the KwaZulu people and Chief Buthelezi (then chief minister of the KwaZulu homeland) in order to defend themselves against the onslaught of the United Democratic Front and the ANC revolutionary war.”
The crackdown by Mufamadi on Malan and his colleagues could lead to further arrests and convictions. Azhar Cachalia, secretary for Safety and Security, this week told the M&G the success of the truth commission depended on the vigorous prosecution of people from security forces — and also the ANC — who refuse to come clean about past acts of violence.
“It was clear that several of those who have been charged in this case would not have co-operated with the truth commission. The commission will only work if the government has the resolve to prosecute those who don’t make disclosures — and this applies to members of the liberation movement and the state’s forces. What is happening now is a precondition for the truth commission to work.”
* Howard Varney, a lawyer advising the ITU, said this week the Malan case was at such a sensitive stage he could not discuss it with the press.