MONDAY, 4.30PM
THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearing in Pietersburg in the Northern Province on Monday heard a former security policeman tell how six Umkhonto we Sizwe members were killed in an ambush near the Botswana border in 1987.
Mathews Sehlwana, 43, said his task as member of the security police was to gather information about the movements of African National Congress insurgents planning cross-border raids from Botswana. Informants told him six infiltrators were seeking transport to South Africa. He offered to assist them, saying his father was a taxi owner. At the time, he was operating as a member of an anti-insurgency unit commanded by Captain Koos van den Berg. He informed Van den Berg of the infiltration plan.
Police plans to ambush the insurgents were carefully rehearsed, and Sehlwana went ahead with an arrangement to pick up the six men in a minibus provided by police. Sehlwana said he was under the impression the insurgents would be arrested. He was not certain whether the six would be armed. On July 10, 1987 he picked up the six men at a prearranged spot near Alldays in Northern Province and drove them to a bridge, where police were waiting. He jumped out of the vehicle at a given point, and a shootout occurred. The six men were killed.
He said he saw Captain Tokkie Fuchs of Pietersburg shooting one of the MK members dead. Fuchs is one of 15 policemen applying for amnesty this week. Sehlwana told the hearing he was paid R2000 “for a job well done”. He had not expected the bonus, thinking the operation was part of his job as a member of the security police.
The hearing continues.