The attack on the Highgate Hotel in East London 13 years ago was not carried out by the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla), but by a ”third force”, a former police investigator said.
Captain Daryl Els, now of the Scorpions, said he was ”99%” sure the apartheid-era security forces were involved in the Highgate attack on May 1 1993. Five people were killed and survivors were seriously wounded.
If the perpetrators are to be identified, said Els, ”a dedicated team will have to be set up with the authority from a ministerial level”.
Els was speaking after meeting this week in East London with Highgate survivors and Pan African Congress (PAC) president Letlapa Mphahlele.
Els was formerly of the serious and violent crimes unit and was part of the national task team that investigated the attacks linked to Apla in the run-up to the 1994 election. Mphahlele was the Apla operations commander at the time.
Both Els and Mphahlele agree that the attack was not carried out by Apla but by a ”third force” — probably elements of the apartheid-era security forces.
The motive would have been to whip up support for the right wing before the 1994 election.
It was the first time Els and Mphahlele had met.
”Personally it surprised me at the time when it was reported in the newspaper,” said Mphahlele. He has never been able to find anyone in Apla who did it or knew about it.
Mphahlele pointed out that Apla has freely admitted responsibility for its attacks, including the Eikenhof incident that killed three people in March 1993 and for which African National Congress (ANC) members had been wrongly jailed.
Apla claimed responsibility at the time, but Els dismissed this as it was done days later, while Mphahlele said he had never been able to establish who had made that claim. Both said it was the
liberation movement’s strategy at the time to claim for incidents even if they were not responsible.
Els listed his reasons for believing that other perpetrators were responsible and Mphahlele said this matched his information.
At Highgate, attackers wore black or dark blue uniforms and balaclavas, used AK47s, a hand grenade and teargas, which Apla did not.
Apla used R1s, R4s and R5s as they could not get ammunition for AK47s.
Els described the attackers’ withdrawal under tear gas as ”a first”.
Some attackers had camouflage paint on their faces, raising speculation they were white.
Apla routinely hijacked vehicles to use in attacks, which were later found abandoned. No vehicles were reported stolen or hijacked in East London before the Highgate attack and the vehicle was never found.
Els said the Highgate attackers had more training and had far greater accuracy in shooting than those in Apla incidents.
Apla re-used their weapons, so attacks were linked ballistically.
”The AK47s used at Highgate were never linked ballistically before or after that attack to anything, which shows that they were used specifically for that attack and destroyed,” said Els.
Police investigators received intelligence reports from different branches of the security forces on other attacks, but nothing on Highgate.
Apla carefully documented all its attacks and these documents were seized from Apla in Mthatha in 1994 and in Lesotho in 1995.
”There is not a shred of paper that talks about the Highgate Hotel,” said Mphahlele, with Els agreeing.
They agreed it was possible that askaris — former guerrillas who were ”turned” and worked for the apartheid police — could have been used in the attack.
The main askari base was Vlakplaas, but there was an askari unit in East London, which for years was based just minutes away from Highgate.
The askari units were closed down nationally by the police the day before the Highgate attack.
Els has been unable to forget Highgate.
”It was one of the few cases that I’ve never solved — it’s always been a problem, and the fact that I suspected a ‘third force’ to be responsible for this attack.”
Police tried to disclose their belief in the third-force attackers at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, but were told they could not without concrete evidence.
Els said the meeting with the survivors and Mphahlele had been ideal.
”We could confront one another and he could deny and I could put my facts as well. At no stage did we contradict one another.”
Highgate survivors want the truth
Meanwhile, survivors of the attack on the Highgate hotel want the investigation re-opened after hearing that their attackers were probably the security forces.
”We are shocked to hear that there’s a ‘third force’ involved,” said Neville Beling, on behalf of the other survivors.
”We now want to know the truth, who the third force is and why they attacked the Highgate Hotel.”
The survivors want the investigation re-opened and want to see the police files.
They met this week in East London with Els and Mphahlele.
Apla was the armed wing of the PAC during the liberation struggle.
It was the first time the Highgate survivors had met as a group and Beling said it was ”very moving”.
For 13 years, they believed that Apla attacked them.
Some believed the perpetrator was Dumisani Ncamazana, currently jailed for murder. Ncamazana was responsible for a second, minor attack with a rifle grenade on the Highgate in which nobody was injured, but he was incorrectly linked to the first attack in media reports.
Nine survivors or relatives of victims attended the meeting, which was arranged by the Grahamstown-based Spirals Trust and facilitated by Ginn Fourie, whose daughter, Lyndi, died in the Apla attack on the Heidelberg Tavern in 1993.
Fourie has reconciled with Mphahlele, who confirmed having ordered that attack.
”Having gone through that with Letlapa, I know how important it is to find out who did it,” said Fourie.
Beling was 20 when the attack took place. He endured 35 operations and was permanently disabled.
”I have dedicated my life to trying to find who the culprits are,” he said.
”Today I can say I’m sorry I had this terrible disgust for them [Apla],” said Bernice Whitfield, who lost her husband Derek in the attack. — Sapa