From: barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us (Mr Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS: SOUTH AFRICA: FIVE MINISTERS NOW IM
Originator: barnhart@gagme
Organization: Evanston, Illinois
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 07:44:10 GMT

Area: Environment
Title: SOUTH AFRICA: FIVE MINISTERS NOW IMPLICATED IN GONIWE MURDER


an inter press service feature

by eddie koch

johannesburg, aug 20 (ips) -- the 1985 assassination of an
anti-aparthied veteran, matthew goniwe, continues to haunt
president frederick de klerk with five of his cabinet ministers
now implicated in the debacle.

the crisis was intensified this week by the murder of an
informant who had given the media evidence of army involvement
in the assassination of goniwe.

only hours after opposition leader zach de beer held a
high-level meeting with de klerk to discuss the murder of the
informant, andre de villiers, the president said he would
consider appointing an independent inquiry into the 1985
murders.

the african national congress claims that deputy
constitutional development minister, tertius delport, had
received information from de villiers about the special unit's
(known as the hammer) activities before the informant was shot,
but delport denies the allegations.

delports involvement now brings to five the members of de
klerk's cabinet who have been linked to the goniwe debacle since
a top-secret army message, ordering the now-disbanded state
security council to arrange goniwe's ''permanent removal from
society'', was leaked to the media in july.

goniwe and three resistance leaders were abducted and killed
while travelling on a road near the eastern cape city of port
elizabeth about five weeks after the message was sent to the
state security council in 1985.

adriaan vlok, minister of correctional services, has been
questioned by the attorney general's office in the eastern cape
which has in it's possession a document showing that vlok led a
committee of the state security council which discussed goniwe's
work as a teacher in the region before he was killed.

the newsletter africa confidential which receives information
from western intelligence sources, reports that foreign minister
pik botha, justice minister kobie coetsee, and water affairs
minister magnus malan, all served on the state security council
at the time the message was transmitted to its operatives.

responding to growing pressure de klerk said he was
confident an inquiry led by the attorney general's office in the
eastern cape, the region in which goniwe operated, would lead to
the prosecution of people responsible for the murders.
(more/ips)


south africa: five (2)

''this possible breakthrough could result in prosections. if
it does not then another option is to appoint a judicial inquiry
or refer the matter to an existing commission,'' de klerk said.

but he declined to answer questions as to why general van der
westhuizen -- the army's powerful intelligence chief -- has not
been axed even though there is strong evidence that he approved
the goniwe operation.

asked if he still had confidence in the general, de klerk
said: ''i have confidence in the (legal) process... no one is
guilty before being proven guilty.''

there are also growing fears that low-level officers involved
in the actual murder of goniwe will be scapegoated leaving
senior politicians and officers unscathed.

three other witnesses who provided information about hammer
operations to the media or the attorney geeneral have gone into
hiding in the wake of de villiers's murder.

information supplied by these sources include a grisly report
that one of the four men killed on the night of goniwe's
murder had his hand severed before the bodies were mutilated
and dumped.

a member of that unit has told reporters the 'hammers' were
involved in the operation to kill goniwe. the unit was designed
as a reaction force to neutralise anti-apartheid activists and
disrupt the ''enemy'' during counter-insurgency operations.

meanwhile, democratic party official, eddie trent, has
submitted a memorandum to the president concerning the de
villiers murder and urging a top-level probe into the whole
goniwe affair.

''during the beginning of the past parliamentary session,
andre de villiers visited me. he gave me information concerning
the connection between a panel-beating business... and the sadf.
he identified a sadf unit called hammer,'' trent said in a press
statement released thursday.

the south african defence force (sadf) has confirmed the
existence of a hammer unit but categorically denies that the
force was involved in the goniwe murders. (end/ips/ec/tvh/oa/92)




-- 
Mr. Aaron Barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us -- posting from Evanston, Illinois
Newsgroups: sanet.talk.politics,soc.culture.african