Thuli Nhlapo
The families of two police officers who disappeared in 1985 believe the South African Police Service (SAPS) discriminates against black members of the force.
Meshack Baloyi of Johannesburg and Nomsingiselo Maki of Stutterheim have abandoned an expensive, four-year battle for benefits from the SAPS.
Freddy Baloyi and Nosisi Maki, who infiltrated the African National Congress in exile, never returned to South Africa.
Their families had hoped that their police handlers, Anton Pretorius and Willem Coetzee, would disclose to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the two young constables.
“I know that submissions were made to the TRC but no one called us to testify or to listen to what happened to our brother,” said Baloyi’s brother, Meshack.
In terms of Section 38 of the SAPS Act 68 of 1995, if a member or employee of the service is reported missing, he or she shall be deemed to still be employed by the SAPS until a court issues an order presuming their death.
However, the SAPS has not paid the salaries, pensions and other benefits due to Baloyi and Maki despite a High Court order in April last year presuming them to be dead.
“We were told to either accept R200 000 as a settlement or forget it. Because we no longer had enough money to pay our attorney, we decided to stop the case,” said Meshack Baloyi.
Freddy Baloyi was employed in August 1983 as a constable and “secret agent”. His employment file states that his handler, Pretorius, sent him out of the country during October 1985. In December 1985 Baloyi disappeared.
Johannes Lekwalo, another SAPS agent who claimed to have been with Baloyi on the night of his death, said in December 1985 that they met four white men on the border of Botswana who questioned them about an Umkhonto weSizwe commander.
Lekwalo said the men started kicking Baloyi and another informer because they suspected they were telling lies.
“This is what we do with kaffirs who do not listen, we treat them like terrorists,” Lekwalo claims the white men told him before deciding he was not to be killed.
Lekwalo claims he then left the four men and shortly after he crossed the border he heard gunshots, and Baloyi crying for help.
Meshack Baloyi said when his family initially confronted the SAPS about his brother’s benefits, the head of secret service accounts Charl du Plessis cooperated by providing documentation and promised they were going to get “every cent due to Freddy”.
When contacted for comment, Du Plessis referred all questions to state attorney Ben Minnaar.
Minnaar had written a letter to the Baloyi family, saying the government was prepared to pay only Baloyi’s salary and benefits for the period between October 1985 and December 1985. However, a copy of Baloyi’s final salary slip is dated April 1991.
Maki’s mother, pensioner Nomsingiselo Maki said: “The white man who was my daughter’s boss did not tell us to come to the TRC. Except for old clothes that he gave us just after telling us that Nosisi died of malaria in Angola, we have not received any money from him or the SAPS.”
“Coetzee said the state was going to pay for Nosisi’s son’s education but nothing has happened. He is now running away from us,” Nomsingiselo Maki said.
She said she was struggling to support her grandson on her pension.
Two weeks of trying to get a comment from SAPS proved futile. A SAPS representative said Director Phuti Setati was waiting to discuss the “sensitive matter” with the national commissioner who was attending a conference.