OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday
MUSLIM vigilante group Pagad’s shadowy G-Force core has been described by police as a “golden thread” running through various acts of terror – including the fatal bombing of Cape Town’s Planet Hollywood – in the Western Cape in the past two years.
Police investigating the August 1998 bombing of Planet Hollywood at Cape Town’s glitzy Waterfront, which killed two people, say at least two of the four Pagad members arrested in the Karoo town of Prins Albert in February 1999 are believed to have been involved in the bombing.
Afrikaans newspaper Beeld reported that special investigation teams from the security forces in the Western Cape made the critical breakthrough “a short while ago.”
A source close to the investigations team has descibed the latest information as “invaluable.”
“It forms a ‘golden thread’ linking G-Force to various acts of terror in the Western Cape. The G-Force is our worst problem.”
An official who was previously involved in the Pagad investigation said it had not been possible for police to infiltrate Pagad’s central core. “It is a very solid grouping made up of small, tightly-secured cells.”
Scorpions spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said almost all of the 40 suspects being detained have links to G-Force.
“This group is responsible for acts of urban terror.”
It is not known when further charges will be brought against the Prins Albert suspects, who remain in custody.
At the time of their arrest, the four men were in a car with Pagad’s Gauteng leader Ayob Mungalee, who claims to be a National Intelligence Agency (NIA) operative.
The latest developments case come against the background of an announcement by Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete that security forces are “in control of the situation in the Western Cape”.
Meanwhile, the security services would not comment on the possibility that Pagad could this week be banned in terms of harsh new anti-terrorism legislation.
A senior official did, however, confirm that security force actions would primarily be directed at G-Force