Aaron Nicodemus, Marianne Merten and Mungo Soggot
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is planning to bankroll the legal defence of three white farmers who are being sued for allegedly blinding and torturing an Mpumalanga farm worker.
The farmers belong to the Wakkerstroom Commando, one of the civilian army units set up countrywide under apartheid to combat black insurgents in rural areas.
The farm worker bringing the case, Moses Mayisela, was once recruited by the Wakkerstroom Commando, which co-opted black labourers to bolster its ranks.
Despite offering to pay and organise the defence of the farmers accused of torture, the SANDF has made no move to pay for Mayisela’s lawyers.
The Mail & Guardian reported last week how Mayisela (33) is suing Cornelius Greyling and his two sons, Barend and Willem, for R1,4-million for his permanent blindness, which he says was caused by torture in October 1996. Mayisela alleges he was handcuffed, kicked, punched and shocked. He claims his attackers sprayed his eyes with tear gas and covered his head with a balaclava.
The SANDF said this week the decision to “provide legal representation had not yet been finalised by the office of the state attorney”.
However, the Pretoria state attorney in charge of the case, Kobus Meier, confirmed that the army would be footing the Greylings’ legal bills.
Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota said he was surprised that the Department of Defence had instructed an advocate to act for the farmers. He said it was not normal procedure for the defence force to appoint lawyers as a matter of course for commando members. But he said he would have to get further details before commenting further on the matter.
Lekota’s initial reaction was: “I certainly would not wish for this thing to go on.” He said it would not matter whether the accused had been acting in an official capacity of the defence force or not.
The M&G is in possession of documents from the army approving the financial support of the farmers’ defence, and endorsing their choice of advocate, Jaap Cilliers, who was on the defence team in the marathon hit-squad trial of former defence minister Magnus Malan and other high-ranking army officers.
Cilliers, who is also representing chemical warfare boffin Wouter Basson, has represented the Greylings on other criminal charges allegedly related to their commando activities – including the criminal case following their alleged attack on Mayisela.
The man who has sanctioned the SANDF decision to bankroll the Greyling defence is Lieutenant LF Bopape, who wrote in an internal memo that “the Greyling[s] of Wakkerstroom Commando” are to be provided with “the necessary legal representation”. Bopape’s memo said Mayisela was also a member of the commando.
Another farm worker, Richard Hlatshwayo (38), is also suing the Greylings – for R300 000 – after he was allegedly sprayed with tear gas and given electric shocks.
The Greylings are no strangers to controversy. They have been accused of a string of attacks and assaults in the Wakkerstroom area, but have secured acquittals for all charges in the Wakkerstroom court.
According to the SANDF memo, the Greylings were acquitted of criminal charges related to the attack on Mayisela. However, police documents say the case was dropped by the prosecuting authority.
Mayisela is proceeding with his civil claim, and has hired Johannesburg attorneys specialising in personal injury claims – Malcolm Lyons & Munro – to take on his case in the Pretoria High Court.
The SANDF this week failed to provide a clear explanation for its policy on backing the defence of commandos involved in private, civil claims.
In reply to questions from the M&G, the SANDF said: “Each case is handled on merit and the office of the state attorney shall determine whether the member is entitled to legal representation. Treasury Instruction, Chapter W, stipulates that the state accepts liability for all claims arising from the acts or omissions of said persons instituted against the state or person.”
The SANDF implied it had not yet decided whether the Greylings had been acting in their official capacity as commandos when they attacked Mayisela. Instead, the SANDF’s reply read, the office of the state attorney would “determine whether the member was acting within the course and scope of his duties”.
According to Signet Mashego, who was employed by a now-defunct farm research project in Wakkerstroom, it is not the first time the army has defended Wakkerstroom Commando members in questionable circumstances.
The army’s commandos, originally made up entirely of former soldiers and white farmers, were supplied with arms, ammunition, and regular training by the then South African Defence Force.
They were supposed to quell violence and protect the property of white farmers. According to an SANDF representative this week, they provide “support [to] the South African Police Service and provide blanket protection in especially the rural areas”.
The SANDF said there are 183 commandos throughout the country, with a total of 62 629 members. Of those members, 41 610 are white. SANDF representative John Rolt said the army is “presently undergoing a closing or amalgamation of units”, but notes that it will be recommended that 182 commandos be kept on.
Located just outside Piet Retief in Mpumalanga’s south-east corner, the Wakkerstroom district and its commando have a long and ugly history of violence.
Many in the area had long suspected that the Greylings were leaders of the Wakkerstroom Commando, with Barend Greyling as its commander. Many also allege that he uses his employees to carry out attacks on other labourers.
The Human Rights Committee stands by earlier findings that the Wakkerstroom Commando has been responsible for 14 assaults on farm workers from October to November 1996. Workers complained of being punched, kicked and shocked with cattle prods.
In nearly all of those cases, complaints were lodged in the Wakkerstroom court. The accused were either found not guilty by the court and discharged, or the cases were forwarded to the public prosecutor in Pretoria and then dismissed.
The Greylings have vigorously denied the allegations against them, and have successfully sued a farm research NGO, Farmworkers Research & Resource Project, for defamation.
Mashego said this week the SANDF had previously launched a full-scale investigation into the violence in the Wakkerstroom district, bringing farm workers, land rights activists and even a Johannesburg journalist to testify. No charges were ever filed, and the investigation collapsed.
If the SANDF is now funding the Greyling’s defence, “I really do not know what is going on in this country”, Mashego said. “It is madness, madness.”
The Greyling’s reign of terror in Wakkerstroom appears to continue to this day. When a member of the Department of Land Affairs in Ermelo accompanied an M&G journalist to Mayisela’s home on Rooikop Farm, the official was noticeably nervous. He had never dared to pass the gate to the farm before.
When coming upon a bakkie, he warned, “Tell them you’re from the Department of Land Affairs in Nelspruit. They’ll hurt you if they know you’re journalists.” He advised the M&G photographer to hide her camera.
But unlike many of his neighbours, who have fled the area in the face of threats and violence from the Greylings, Mayisela is not leaving. “I would never leave. I am not afraid,” he said calmly last week.
Until this week, Department of Land Affairs Director General Geoff Budlender said he had believed the civil claim was a private dispute. “If in fact the military was involved it becomes an even more serious matter,” Budlender said. “We will continue to follow up this information.”