THE fat file from the archives in Military Intelligence on the 22nd floor of the Liberty Life building in Central Pretoria was the key which opened the door for the team from the Investigative Task Unit.
The file was handed over by the then head of counter intelligence General Niewoudt and Brigadier Van Deventer to Colonel Frank Dutton and his team. Dutton had been to the Liberty Life building a week before, armed with information from a key witness, a former special forces soldier, Major JP Opperman.
Opperman had told Dutton what to look for. He said there was a file about Operation Marion in the Department of Military Intelligence.
Opperman at that time had left the SADF. He was working in a small company in Durban and his name had been given to Dutton by Daluxolo Luthuli.
When Opperman was confronted by Dutton with information they had about the central role he was accused of playing in the training of the men he must have known the game was up.
Opperman was offered a place in the witness protection programme. In return he supplied the information about the file.
The first time the investigators called at the Liberty Life building looking for the file they went away away empty handed. The file was not there according to senior staff at DMI. When they returned the following week, it had materialised.
Perhaps some of the documents Opperman had expected to be inside were missing. But there were enough for the ITU to take their investigation a huge step forward.
Opperman was sent overseas with his family. And Dutton and his team began ploughing their way through about 250 pages of state security documents.
General Niewoudt and Brigadier van Deventer had supplied the ITU with a most explosive file of documents.