Wally Mbhele
Truth and Reconciliation Commission officials claim police Superintendent Frans ”Lappies” Labuschagne, accused of a series of assassinations of senior African National Congress members in Swaziland, has applied for amnesty.
Labuschagne, also suspected of involvement in setting up foreign affairs director Robert McBride for arrest in Mozambique, is believed to have announced this bombshell during his appearance before the truth commission’s investigative in-camera hearing on June 30.
No one knows exactly how he applied, but sources at the truth commission say he did so under a false name.
Labuschagne’s amnesty application will come as a shock to the families of his victims, who have made several submissions to the truth commission for assistance in tracing the perpetrators of gross human rights violations against their family members.
The truth commission has consistently denied that he applied for amnesty since he was exposed as the man behind the apartheid hit squads operating in Swaziland in the Eighties.
Commission officials preferred not to be named when discussing Labuschagne’s application. One said the application was ”not for the violations we called him [to testify] for”.
Asked to list the specific violations to which Labuschagne has admitted, the official said they were in connection with the killing of, among others, Cassius Maake, Paul Dikeledi and Theophilus ”Viva” Dlodlo – all former senior ANC cadres who were based in Swaziland in the Eighties.
But another official who attended Labuschagne’s in-camera hearing said: ”His name does not appear on the list of amnesty applicants. As far as I know, Lappies told the inquiry he wished he could have applied for amnesty, but he did not know the proper procedure and method for doing so.”
Labuschagne had been called to answer detailed allegations including torture, conspiracy, murder and, most recently, his alleged links in the entrapment of McBride.
At the in-camera hearing, Labuschagne is believed to have made an emotional and ”heart-rending” submission which moved hardened commissioners. They praised his honesty and ”full disclosure” about his shadowy past in the apartheid machinery.
He is understood to have made far- reaching disclosures to the truth commission after colleagues he allegedly worked with in the third force co- operated with its investigators.
It is understood he revealed his links to the former Mozambican rebel movement Renamo in destabilising that country’s security. He also named an apartheid spy who sold out Maake, Dikeledi and Dlodlo.
Labuschagne’s cover was first broken by former third force commander Eugene de Kock, who spilled the beans to Dlodlo’s wife, Felicia, after she visited him in prison.
Sources say one of Labuschagne’s former colleagues who has co-operated with the commission is Henry van der Westhuizen, a former security police officer based in Nelspruit. Van der Westhuizen was also allegedly a member of a hit squad which raided ANC bases in Swaziland.
Commission representative John Allen refused to be drawn into whether Labuschagne has applied for amnesty, arguing that the legislation governing the body does not permit him to reveal names of amnesty applicants until their hearings are scheduled.
”The practice is that we announce the name only a week or two ahead of the hearing, unless the applicant himself wants it to be known. The [amnesty] committee’s decision is that it is confidential until the public hearing has been scheduled.”
A senior commission official said Labuschagne ”is trying to make up for something else. I think what may happen is we may end up recommending prosecuting him for some of the things we called him about.
”We called him to ask him about those things which we knew. But then he told us about those things he had done and applied for amnesty.”