TUESDAY, 5.00PM
THE “Wit Wolwe” (white wolves), the shadowy rightwing group that rose to prominence after self-confessed Wit Wolf Barend Strydom went on a killing spree in Pretoria in 1988, never existed, but was a propaganda project of the Vlakplaas police hit-squad unit, Afrikaans daily Beeld reported on Tuesday.
Quoting an unnamed former Vlakplaas operative, the newspaper said the “Wit Wolf” project was launched in the period preceding Strydom’s November 15 1988 mass-murder spree, in which he shot dead eight black passersby in Pretoria’s Strijdom Square.
In his trial, Strydom claimed to be the leader of a Wit Wolf cell made up of three members. At the time, investigating officer Commissioner Suiker Britz said he was convinced there was no such organisation.
According to the anonymous former Vlakplaas operative, his former colleagues would telephone newspapers and claim responsibility for racial crimes in the name of the Wit Wolwe. He claimed that was how Strydom came upon the name “Wit Wolwe”. Beeld cited a telephone call it received in August 1988 in which a caller claimed the “Wit Wolwe” were responsible for a teargas attack.
The newspaper claimed the same man called again on August 31 to claim responsibility for the bombing of Khotso House in the name of the Wit Wolwe. Then police commissioner General Johan van der Merwe told the truth commission last year that the Khotso House bombing was the work of the SA Police, on the orders of president PW Botha. The newspaper listed several further “Wit Wolf” claims it received prior to Strydom’s massacre.
Strydom’s attorney Wim Cornelius has said Strydom is seeking amnesty from the truth commission only for the Strijdom Square massacre, and that no other “Wit Wolwe” have applied for amnesty. The Vlakplaas claims have a bearing on Strydom’s amnesty application because, in order to qualify for amnesty, a criminal act must have been politically motivated. If it is shown that Strydom acted alone, he will not qualify for amnesty.
At this stage, though, amnesty is a mere formality, as Strydom released from jail in a mass release of political prisoners from all sides negotiated in pre-election multi-party talks.
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