WEDNESDAY, 6.30PM
FORMER defence minister Magnus Malan told the Truth Commission today that murdered Swapo lawyer Anton Lubowski was a paid agent of South African Military Intelligence, which therefore had no reason to kill him.
Malan first made the allegations soon after Lubowski’s murder. “What I said in Parliament then I stick to. Check the Hansard,” Malan told a special Truth Commission sitting in Cape Town. He said documentary evidence supporting his allegations had been submitted to the Harms Commission.
Malan’s repeated claims that Lubowski worked as a South African agent have roused considerable anger in Namibia, where he is considered a Swapo martyr. His murder has been attributed to an Irish hitman, who was arrested and then let free, acting on the orders of the South African covert Civil Co-operation Bureau. The Namibian government is attempting to extradite CCB members from South Africa to face trial for the murder.
Malan admitted authorising the establishment of the covert Civil Co-operation Bureau as a SADF special forces section. “The role envisaged for the CCB was for it to penetrate the enemy… and disrupt the enemy. The CCB provided the SADF with good covert capability.”
Malan said he had authorised South Africa’s chemical and biological warfare programme, Project Coast, in 1981 to counter chemicals used by Cuban forces in Angola. “This project did not have sinister connotiations. At no time did I authorise the use of any chemicals developed by Project Coast.”
WEDNESDAY, 2.30PM:
MALAN told the truth commission this morning that he takes full moral responsibility for all actions by members of the SA Defence Force under his command.
Offering an “unqualified apology” for any unlawful actions by troops under his command, Malan also took the opportunity to chide his former cabinet colleagues for failing to take collective political and moral responsibility for SADF actions.
Malan also suggested that former security force members who committed crimes should be prosecuted. “Legal steps should be taken if necessary,” he said. The SADF had never considered itself to be above the law. Soldiers who transgressed the law were court-martialled, Malan said.
Malan said he would not apply for amnesty as he considered cross border raids legal acts of state. “I never regarded myself to be above the law. If with the wisdom of hindsight my authority, which I endeavoured to exercise with responsibility, should be regarded by some as culpable, I am prepared to face the consequences.”