Evidence wa ka Ngobeni
The man touted in a newly published book as next in line to command military intelligence appears to have been pushed out of his job.
General Horace Doncaster, chief of intelligence processing a key military intelligence division was once a major figure behind a string of the apartheid government’s deadly operations.
The South African National Defence Force said this week Doncaster will retire in April next year. The Mail & Guardian understands that Doncaster took what is called an “employer initiated package”.
The details of Doncaster’s early retirement are not clear. However, the revelation about his future comes shortly after the publication of the book that predicted Doncaster was next in line to head military intelligence, while recording his extraordinary life within the apartheid military intelligence machinery.
The book, Unfinished Business: South Africa Apartheid and Truth by Terry Bell, a Cape Town-based writer, and Dumisa Ntsebeza, former head of investigations for the truth commission, fingers Doncaster for his alleged role in a number of the atrocities committed against anti-apartheid organisations in the 1980s and 1990s.
Doncaster headed one of the state’s most notorious units, military intelligence’s directorate of covert collections (DCC), in the 1990s. Despite this, the book reads, Doncaster did not apply to the truth commissin for amnesty.
As the head of the DCC Doncaster presided over the destruction of files and computer disks on apartheid’s covert operations before moving on to become one of the leading lights in the new dispensation.
According to the authors, less than three weeks after Doncaster’s 19th birthday he was appointed a second lieutenant in the infantry corps. After several stints on the borders, he was promoted to full lieutenant.
“Doncaster is one of the great survivors from the ‘sharp end’ of the repressive machinery of apartheid. His name is not widely known even within the military. For much of Doncaster’s career has been spent in the twilight world of military intelligence,” the book reads. Last year he was promoted from brigadier to the rank of general.
During his stint at the highly secretive DCC he helped organise information gathering, agents and operatives in Namibia and Angola, deciding on targets in the region and planning the operations to eliminate, neutralise or otherwise deal with the targets.
“This appears to have been his real fort. His citation for the Southern Cross medal, awarded to him in 1983, makes it clear that he was a key figure in the total strategy being employed at the time. This strategy included the mass murder of suspected members of the Namibian independence movement, Swapo, and the disposal of their bodies at sea,” the book reads.
The book gives details of Doncaster’s responsibilities. An internal appraisal in 1989 noted he was responsible for building up the terrorism section of military intelligence and was apparently central to planning and developing an effective disinformation division.
He also handled the DCC’s top spies and received a string of awards from the apartheid government for spearheading deadly military missions outside South Africa, including Mozambique.
Doncaster was directly involved in two infamous covert operations in Mozambique known as “Vine” and “Skerwe”.
Vine was conducted in October 1983; its targets, defined by Doncaster and his DCC “desks”, was an office converted from former servants’ quarters on the roof of a four-storey apartment block near Maputo’s diplomatic sector.
The apartment was an administration centre that processed African National Congress members travelling in and out of South Africa. Doncaster coordinated the bombing of the apartment and helped seize documents from the scene. “The explosives tore three holes in the concrete roof and ripped apart the rooms below, killing and injuring the several occupants,” the book reads.
Skerwe involved air strike attacks against what were assumed to be ANC houses in the Matola and Liberdade districts of the Mozambican capital.
Doncaster and his unit apparently collected and collated the information sent in from agents in Maputo, selected the targets and decided how the operation was to proceed.
“Estimates of those killed ranged from three to 64, but were probably closer to the higher figure. Several houses used by ANC members were certainly demolished with a still unknown number of casualties, while a local crche and a jam factory were also destroyed,” the book says.