Mungo Soggot and Stuart Hess
THE records of Cabinet meetings at which some of the most traumatic events of the period before the 1994 elections were discussed appear to have been gutted and sanitised.
The records, released to the Mail & Guardian by the National Archives in Pretoria this week, are written in the style of a corporate press release. All pages are headed “top secret”.
Officials at the archives said the records did appear “sanitised” and that the original minutes were likely to contain “more interesting material”. The status of the original minutes is unclear.
The M&G had asked the archives for records of Cabinet meetings dealing with reports of the Goldstone Commission into “third force” violence, the June 1992 Boipatong massacre, the September 1992 Bisho massacre and the assassination of Chris Hani in 1993.
Under the 1996 National Archives Act, documents from the past 20 years are available at the discretion of the state archivist. All documents dating back more than 20 years are automatically available. Under the old Act, the embargo for Cabinet minutes was 30 years. The National Party had tried without success to increase the period of embargo to 40 years.
The records from the first Cabinet meeting after the Boipatong massacre – when Inkatha Freedom Party-aligned hostel dwellers massacred 42 township residents – quote ministers expressing their disappointment at the ANC’s allegations of possible state involvment.
“The ANC’s allegations that the government instigated violence and was involved in murder holds no water [Die ANC se aantygings dat die regering by die aanstigting van geweld en by moord betrokke is, is sonder enige grond],” the records note.
They note the ministers also decided that, in light of the massacre, the government should express its condolences to the victims’ families and that churches of various denominations should join in the mourning.
The records add that the then justice minister, Kobie Coetsee, wanted Judge Richard Goldstone’s commission of inquiry into “third force activities to examine allegations of possible security force involvement”.
At the same meeting, the Cabinet expressed concern about the breakdown of the Codesa talks after the ANC walk-out on June 23 1992. The ministers were briefed on the “contributing circumstances that led to the current situation” by National Intelligence Service operative Nel Marais.
The records say the Cabinet stressed the negotiations had to continue, and expressed an urgent need for “talks about talks”.
Notes from Cabinet meetings on the September Bisho massacre – when the Ciskei Defence Force gunned down ANC demonstrators, killing 29 and injuring hundreds -are similarly anodyne.
In April the next year, all the Cabinet records have to say of the Hani assassination is: “The minister of law and order informed the Cabinet of more arrests.”
Official minutes of Cabinet meetings began in 1978 on the instructions of former president PW Botha. Until then proceedings were jotted down in handwritten notes.