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Marianne Merten and Ivor Powell
Deon Mostert, the man arrested this week in connection with the recent Cape Town bombings, asked police informers to help carry out the bombings, according to police intelligence documents.
The documents say that Mostert told the police informers he had protection from three senior police officers tasked with investigating urban terrorism. The officers named are Director Leonard Knipe, head of the Western Cape serious violent crimes unit, Captain Mike Barkhuizen and a Captain Vermeulen, both seconded from the murder and robbery unit.
Mostert was arrested in Beaufort West on Tuesday while travelling in a stolen red car along with two anti-corruption detectives – hours after his identikit had been released countrywide. At the time of going to press he remained in custody as police representatives across South Africa struggled to provide a coherent explanation of the week’s events. The police are now refusing to release any more statements on the matter.
Western Cape MEC for Community Safety Mark Wiley said he has requested a meeting with outgoing police National Commissioner George Fivaz and his successor, Jackie Selebi, to discuss the Mostert saga. Wiley said he wants their reassurance that “any police officers who may be implicated in the investigation must summarily be withdrawn and, if need be, suspended”. Meanwhile, Mostert and his wife will be kept in a place of safety.
Wiley said that an immediate audit must be made of “all the evidence seized in connection with this case and duplicates kept in separate safe custody”.
Director Knipe has strenuously denied any link to Mostert, threatening to hit the Mail & Guardian with a R2-million defamation suit if it linked him to such allegations. Barkhuizen said he had “no comment at this stage. The allegations are ridiculous as far as I’m concerned.”
According to the documents in the possession of the M&G, Mostert was “used as an informer” by murder and robbery to frame People against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) members in bomb attacks.
The documents say Mostert claimed to have enjoyed “police protection in the form of Director Knipe, Mike Barkhuizen, Vermeulen from murder and robbery”.
It has also been confirmed that Western Cape intelligence head Director Attie Trollip was briefed in the first week of December about alleged “complicity of high-ranking police officers” in the Cape terror attacks. However, according to the document, Trollip has joined Knipe and other police in denouncing Mostert “as a bullshitter”.
In addition to the documents, a high- placed source has independently confirmed that one of the detectives probing the urban terror is linked to “ordering and manufacturing pipe bombs”.
The documents trace the origins of Mostert’s relationship with the police, starting with his role as an informer for the murder and robbery unit. The papers say Mostert was recruited “with the purpose of setting up certain members of Pagad in terms of providing them with pipe bombs and by so doing implicating them”.
Much of the detail in the intelligence papers is sourced to three unnamed key informants. The M&G has established the three are in fact gang “generals” in notorious Cape gangs who first made Mostert’s acquaintance in prison. Mostert allegedly deflected the gang leaders’ sexual advances in jail by claiming he was protected by senior policemen.
Part of Mostert’s tasks, according to the document, included recruiting others “to get involved with a group who would manufacture pipe bombs and other explosive devices and place them in tourist-related targets in Cape Town”.
The documents allege that police are in possession of photographs of the Blah Bar in Green Point and St Elmo’s pizzeria in Camps Bay at the times they were bombed. “They showed me photographs taken an hour before the Blah Bar bombing and photographs taken after the bombing. They were time-dated photos. They also showed me photos of St Elmo’s. This confirmed Mostert’s involvement.”
Sources believe Mostert was not the bomber, but organised surveillance of the two venues and recruited the team which placed the bombs.
A well-placed source has told the M&G that the two policemen in the car with Mostert this week appeared to be moving their operations out of Cape Town. The car was laden with documents and tapes of recorded conversations and videotapes of investigations into the Cape terror.
It remains unclear what possible motive senior policemen could have for stoking terrorism.
Despite previous criminal convictions and pending trials, Mostert is believed to have worked for the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) until about the middle of this year. The NIA this week denied any link to Mostert.
However, Mostert has also been linked to police intelligence structures, including the crime intelligence service, for at least two years. As recently as June he was allegedly used by anti-corruption police investigators to “pin down” possible elements within the service involved in urban terror.
Sources close to the investigation say Mostert’s release from jail was facilitated about six months ago at the request of National Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Jan d’Oliveira. It is understood D’Oliveira claimed members of the police’s anti-corruption unit had approached him, saying Mostert had information relevant to their investigation. D’Oliveira has told his superiors that he has had no contact with Mostert for six months.
The document alleges that Mostert freely moved in and out of jails in the company of policemen working for the anti- corruption unit. Pollsmoor prison area manager Freddie Engelbrecht confirmed Mostert had been at the jail last year. But on November 2 1998 he was taken to Cape Town Magistrate’s Court and never returned to Pollsmoor.
Sipho Ngwema, representative for National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ncguka, did not confirm or deny whether Scorpion investigators were questioning Mostert about alleged police complicity in the spate of bombings.
“At this stage I am not going to say what we got from him. We are questioning him about the bombing,” Ngwema said. “We will issue a statement after we [have] satisfied ourselves.” But Ngwema did confirm that Ngcuka’s unit had taken charge of the investigation, although that they had not been party to the arrests.
Fivaz late on Wednesday afternoon revealed Mostert had “made statements himself” about his involvement in the recent bombings, and that he will be charged in connection with a car stolen in Vereeniging earlier this year.
But on Thursday Western Cape police seemingly contradicted Fivaz, saying Mostert had only claimed “overall knowledge of bombings”.
Mostert’s arrest coincided with an extraordinary display of contradictory and misleading statements on the part of the police – including Fivaz. It now appears that some of the confusion could have stemmed from disinformation pumped out by officers linked to Mostert.
Events surrounding the identification and detention of Mostert have again highlighted splits and the lack of co- operation between intelligence officers and detectives in the province. Senior Superintendent Jeremy Veary, deputy head of police intelligence in the Western Cape, and Knipe have clashed frequently over methods used to investigate urban terror.
Mostert’s identity kit was released by Veary without consulting others and, more importantly, without a proper warrant of arrest. According to legal opinion, this could lead to a possible suit for damages. – Additional reporting by Paul Kirk