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MEMORANDUM

To: The Members ' Independent Board of Inquiry into Informal Repression

From: Cheadle Thompson and Haysom

Date: 24 January 1990

Re: REPORT OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THE BOARD SINCE THE IAST MEETING

INVESTIGATIONS

1. Nofamela Affidavits

We continued to investigate the Nofamela allegations to

see if there was any independent corroborative material

to support his version.

Nofamela ment!ons in his statement about an incident in

1982 where he was told to go to Soweto in his own car

with Joseph Mamasolala, (another one of the former ANC

members who was turned), and to kidnap a certain activist

whom he named as Moabe. According to Nofamela, Moabe was

abducted from his home in Soweto and taken by him and

Mamasolala to a farm in Zeerust where he left Moabe. He

is not aware of what happened to Moabe. He does mention,

however, that he used his own car for this particular

initiative. A few weeks later his mother told him that a

group of men in a combi had come to his home near Brits

•

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looking for him. He reported this matter to Major

he would report -Vermeulen who told Nofamela that

Nofamela's vehicle

who were seeking

stole the vehicle

as being stolen, so that the people

Nofamela would think that those that

were the kidnappers. Nofamela's

venicle was then taken to the Zeerust farm where it was

hidden for a couple of months.

After numerous enquiries, we established that the

reference to Moabe was in fact a reference to a certain

Ernest Moabe Dipale, now deceased, who used to live in

Soweto. Dipale died on 9 August 1982 in detention,

whilst a s29 detainee. His death occurred four days

after he had been detained. However, the previous year,

he had been detained in mysterious circumstances. Thes~

circumstances fit exactly into the incidents described by

Nofamela. According to Dipale's family whom we

consulted, two men came looking for Moabe in late 1981.

They were referred to a neighbour's home were Moabe was

at the time. He was apparently forcefully taken out of

that home by these men and put into a car. A neighbour

was able to take do~~ the registration number of the

vehicle.

attorneys

has given

This registration number was given to their

and is the same registration number as Nofamela

us for his car. According to the family they

also tried

~hepolice.

to trace the registration number with

They had a cousin in the police at the time.

I

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Although the family would not admit this fact, a friend

-of the family confided to me that the family had arranged

for a group of men to go and try and find the individual

in whose name the car had been registered. He recalled

that the place was somewhere near Brits which is in fact

the registration address of Nofamela's vehicle.

some months after this

released in January 1982.

Dipale was detained for

arrest/abduction and then

According to his family

mentioned that he had

after he had been released, he

been blindfolded and driven to

various places and described certain incidents of

torture. He mentioned that Joseph Mamasalola was amongst

,those that took him away. Moabe knew Mamasalola when he

had been an ANC member in Botswana. Apparently Dipale

had been so severely assaulted during that period that he

had to be hospitalised in the General Hospital.

Unfortunately the circumstances of his detention were not

taken any further after his release and there is no

statement about this in his attorney's files.

It is not clear whether his subsequent death in detention

has any link to the earlier abduction. However, what did

happen is that on the night prior to his detention on 5

August 1982 a combi driven by a white man pursued Dipale

and a friend of his through Soweto and fired a shot at

them. Fortunately Dipale was able to make a get away.

(

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The following morning he was detained in terms of s29 and

then he died some days later. The court inquest found

that he had committed suicide by hanging himself.

We are also attempting to confirm an incident where

Nofamela describes having, in the company of Dirk

Coetzee, burnt motor vehicles owned by a white farmer in

the Eastern Cape. Nofamela is unable to name the white

farmer nor to explain why he was a target. A number of

incidents of anonymous violence against activists in the

Eastern Cape occurred during this period particularly in

the white community. We think that the person referred

to may have been an Arthur Arnot, who has since passed

away, whose vehicles were burnt although he was living in

a house and not on the farm. Arnot also had a number of

strange incidents happening to him.

2. Poisoning Incidents in the Orange Free state .

We are presently investigating an incident where two

former ANC members were poisoned in the Orange Free

state. One was poisoned fatally the other was discharged

from hospital after being extremely ill. An attorney

from our firm has taken statements from individuals who

know of this incident and has also managed to get copies

of hospital records. The hospital records corroborate

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the poisoning. According to the informants, the poisoning is

linked to a member of the security branch based in Bloemfontein,

who is supposed to have supplied the poison to a hotel keeper in

the Bloemfontein township for the purposes of being given to

these two men. One of the men had in fact only been released

from detention on the day that he was poisoned. The incident is

a very strange one and still requires further investigation.

3. Police killings in the Eastern Cape

We were approached to investigate an incident which

occurred

policemen

vehicle

of our

in December 1989 where four black security

were killed when a bomb exploded under the

in which they were travelling. We sent a member

firm to Port Elizabeth and he held discussions

with various activists down there to ascertain what was

going on. The view of these people was that the security

policemen had been set up by another security policeman

because they were known to be leaking information

concerning death squad activities to local activists~

Unfortunately the activists were not able to approach the

families of the deceased policemen for fear of drawing

attention to themselves. The families are understood to

have briefed a local attorney who was reluctant to be of

any assistance to us. However, as far as we could

.ascertain he has not yet received any instructions from

these families.

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1989 to January 1990. A copy of that

report is annexed hereto marked "0". It

will be noted from this report that the

Board has played an active role in

gathering corroborating evidence

concerning allegations made by the death

row prisoner Almond Nofomela. It was

felt that the allegations made by

Nofomela were not being taken seriously

by the South African Police and

furthermore that the investigation being

conducted by Mr McNally, the Attorney

General of the Free state into the

Nofomela

stimulated

alleg ation s

with new

corroborating materi2.l.

needed to

evidence

be

and

consequently, the Board compiled a fairly

detailed report listing the result of its

investig ations into certain of the

incid ents det ailed by Nofomela while on

death row. At each stage of the process

of compiling this report and ultimately

presenting it to Mr McNally and General

Conradie in Bloemfontein as many members

of the Board as possible were consulted

by the attorneys for the Board in order

to ensure that there woul d be agreement

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Our researcher has discovered that Jeffery Bosigo and

- another policeman named

both testified before

by Nofomela, Ephraim Mfalapitso

the Denton Sub-Committee of the

u.S. Senate in 1982. This was a committee headed by a

Senator into ANC activities. Both Bosigo and

claimed to have been former ANC members, but

to the press reports did not disclose that they

right wing

Mfalapitso

according

were now

contacts

Committee.

policemen.

to get us

We

copies

have

of

asked our Washington

their testimony to the

5. Attempted Abduction of Mohammed Valli Moosa

Mohammed Valli Moosa is the acting general secretary of

the UDF. In December last year, whilst he was dr~ving

near Lenasia, he was forced off the road by a group of

black men who then attempted to abduct him. Fortunately

due to the intervention of other motorists, these men

then drove away. We took a statement from him regarding

the incident and investigated the details of the

abductor's car. It appears that this car had been stolen

a few days

Krugersdorp.

previously from a white man living near

We checked up that the vehicle had in fact

been reported stolen.

this incident as one

unclear whether there

The police however, have treated

of attempted robbery and it is

was any political motive to the

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incident. Nothing further has come of the police

-- investigation.

6. Phola Park - Death of an Activist

We were asked by the SACC to investigate the death of an

activist from Phola Park, a squatter community last

year. We made enquiries from the attorneys who had been

dealing with the matter but they have not been given

sufficient details yet from the community to allow us to

assess it. We have advised the community field worker

to follow this up with their attorneys with a view to a

forthcoming inquest.

incident is probably

squads.

7. Bophuthatswana Prisoner

It is our view, however, that this

unconnected to activities of hit

The SACC received a letter from a prisoner currently

serving a sentence in Mafikeng jail to come and see him

as he said he had information regarding hit squad

activities including the bombing of Khotso House. We

instructed another firm of attorneys, who see other

prisoners in this jail, to see this man and take a

statement from him. Their view, however, is that the man

was either dishonest or seriously disturbed and there was

no substance whatsoever to his complaints. We are aware

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of other prisoners who have also written to the SACC or

-- to other organisations requesting visits on the basis

that they can give "inside information". Thus far none

of these individuals has been able to provide any

information, and it appears

simply looking for ways to

whilst they are in prison.

8. Alexandra Town Councils

that many prisoners are

gain financial assistance

We ' consulted with members of the Alexandra civic

Organisation, regarding allegations of hit squads

connected to the Town Council. We are presently

investigating these allegations with the help of members

of the civic organisations. They have a statement from

an existing member of the Town Council who suggests that

a hit squad had been formed by other councillors with the

collusion of senior employees of the Town Council.

Despite making these allegations, the councillor

concerned has not kept appointments to see us, to take

further instructions on his

allegations may be partially

treated with some scepticism.

9. Individual's Complaints

allegations.

correct but are

These

being

\.

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A number of individuals have made statements to the Board

concerning allegations of harrassment that they have

experienced. A Pretoria businessman who was involved

with the ·"Standing for Truth" campaign has given us

information concerning a large number of incidents that

have effected him in the recent months. Despite the fact

that police have been informed on every occasion that he

has experienced harrassment, including bullets shot at

his home, there has thus far been no prosecution of any

individual.

We also consulted with a man who said he had been

abducted by a group of men in 1986 who blindfolded him

and took him away in a combi. He was taken to a place

which he describes as a farm and then later the Sandton

Police station.

him believing he

It appears that these men had abducted

was an ANC member who had undergone

training. When after interrogation it became apparent

that they had the wrong person, he was then taken back to

his home. Nothing further came of the incident. He

himself was too scared to take up the matter with the

police. He has given us a statement of his experiences

but has requested that, at least for the time being, this

information remains confidential.

10. Information and Documents Received by the Board

· -

e \

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We have also received documentary information from

various sources. Lawyers for civil Rights in Washington

has sent us some extensive information on hit squads

elsewhere in the world which they have taken from their

files and other sources.

Kobus Pienaar an attorney in Port Elizabeth has made a

detailed study of the disappearance of COSAS member

Siphiwe Mtimkhulu, who was allegedly poisoned whilst in

detention in 1982. He has given us a complete dossier of

all' this information.

11. Briefings

Members of the Board and/or ourselves have attended a

number of briefings on the hit squad issue. Last year in

December a briefing was held for diplomats which was

attended by a number of the Johannesburg based Board

members. The Board's report to the McNally committee as

well as other documents that have been prepared by the

Board in the past were given to the diplomats and Board

members also briefed diplomats on the latest

developments.

The Board has also been involved in the SACC campaign

around the death squad issue. We attended a meeting of

'various interested parties at the commencement of the

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campaign, as well as attending a meeting with members of

-- the International Red Cross.

12. Research

The Board continues with its task of assembling,

collating and analysing information that comes to it.

This information comes both from press reports and other

secondary sources. To this end the Board has retained

the services of two part time researchers, Chris Orr (a

law' student) and Jo-Anne collinge (a former commercial

journalist now employed at the South African Research

services) .

Another investigative journalist Martin Weltz from Cape

Town was asked to do an analysis of all the information

that emerged so far for the purposes of preparing a

report on what direction should be taken with future

investigations. He is presently working on this at the

moment.

We also continue with r egular meetings with various

journalists working on the story to keep up to date with

their information.

13. General

. 1

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A press statement was issued after the state President's

-- announcement that no independent judicial committee was

to be appointed to investigate the hit squad issue. We

also requested a copy of the McNally report from both the

Ministers of Justice, Law and Order and the state

President. We only received a reply from the Minister of

Law and Order who said that the request had been handed

to the Commissioner of Police for his consideration. No

response has been forthcoming from the Commissioner.

This information has also been given to the press.

We were requested ' by the Union of Democratic U~iversity

Staff Association (UDUSA) to assist them in their

gathering of information concerning the death of the late

David Webster. UDUSA had set up a telephone answering

service to take information from anyone having

information about Webster's death. So far no concrete

information has emerged from this service, and we have

not been required to see anyone referred by them.

Collection Number: AG2543 INDEPENDENT BOARD OF INQUIRY (IBI) Records 1989-1996 PUBLISHER: Publisher:- Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand Location:- Johannesburg ©2012

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