A PRIEST has implicated former South African National Defence Force Minister, Joe Modise, in the killing and torturing of former ANC members. Rustenburg priest Tlhomedi Mfalapitsa, testifying during a Truth Commission hearing in Pretoria, accused Modise of ordering the deaths of several people and said that in one instance Modise had personally tortured an ANC soldier with a golf club. Mfalapitsa said that Modise ordered the execution of Tembisile Tuku, also known as “Shorty”, in Lusaka between 1980 and 1981. Although he was not present at Tuku’s murder, Mfalapitsa said that he had conveyed Modise’s order to the camp commanders who carried out the instruction. Mfalapitsa also described how Modise used a golf club to beat the soles of a man’s feet. Modise, his assistant Keith Mokwepe and himself, Mfalapitsa said, had belonged to an ANC structure known as the ‘Operations’ department. However Modise’s lawyer told the hearing that his clients denied ever knowing Mfalapitsa and said they had no knowledge of an ‘Operations’ department. The lawyer said Mfalapitsa was attempting to discredit the ANC as he was a known Askari. Mfalapitsa had earlier testified that he defected from the ANC in 1982, to join the South African security forces at Vlakplaas.