From: shaze@cs.ubc.ca (Scott Hazelhurst)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: Re: SADF Purge
Date: 2 Jan 1993 16:33:51 -0800
Organization: Computer Science, University of B.C., Vancouver, B.C., Canada
NNTP-Posting-Host: tolmie.cs.ubc.ca


From Guardian Weekly (week ending 26 December)

PRETORIA PURGE SPARES MILITARY HARDLINERS by David Beresford

Suspicions of a continued cover-up of South Africa's
"third force" controversy persisted when it emerged that
President FW de Klerk's dramatic "purge" of the military 
does not include key officers implicated in the long-running
scandal over dirty tricks.

Officials contacted senior officers, many at holiday homes around
the country, to inform them that they were among the 23 whom the
president had decided to suspend or prematurely retire for alleged
involvement in illicit political activities, including murder.

Tensions in South Africa arising from the purge were compounded by
renewed attacks on whites in the eastern Cape and Orange Free State.
Police reinforcements were rushed to the Lesotho border and roadblocks
were thrown up on Transkei's border after two incidents in which a
14-year old girl was killed and five members of an Afrikaner family
wounded.

The girl died when three men launched a gun and grenade attack on a 
white farm near Ficksburg, the second attack in the area in 10 days,
before fleeing across the Lesotho border. The local MP, Charl
Hertzog, said that his rightwing Conservative Party would launch
"retribution" raids across the border unless the government neutralised
bases of the Azanian People's Liberation Army, the military wing of the
Pan-Africanist Congress, which he claimed were situated in the former
British protectorate.

The five whites were wounded earlier on Saturday about five miles
inside the Transkei homeland when gunmen opened fire on their car from
a passing vehicle. The attack follows a series of seemingly random
attacks on whites in the region over recent weeks, including a 
gun and grenade attack on a wine-tasting dinner in King William's Town
in which five people were killed. Apla has claimed responsibility.

Although the authorties refused to confirm names of those involved in
President de Klerk's purge of the military it emerged that the most
senior officers axed were Major-General Hennie Roux, chief of staff
of the army, and Major-General Chris Thirion, deputy chief of staff
intelligence.

Significantly the president failed to act agains the hardline chief
of the defence force, General "Kat" Liebenberg, the highly controversial
chief of the army, Lieutenant-General Georg Meiring, or the head of
military intelligence Joffel van der Westhuizen.

Others who are to go reportedly include two senior intelligence officers, the
director of army communications operations, Brigadier Ferdie van
Wyk, and the director of covert operations, Brigadier Tolletjie
Botha.

It was last month's raid on the secret base of the directorate of
covert operations by the Goldstone Commission of Enquiry into the 
causes of political violence in South Africa which led to the 
investigations culminating in this weekend's purge. Judge Goldstone
found that Brig Bptha hired a notorious killer, Ferdi Barnard, to
head an operation aimed at discrefiting the African National Congress.
Brig van Wyk has also been named as a key planner of a smear 
campaign against the ANC, codenamed Project Echoes, intended to
show links with the ANC.

But Gen Meiring, who seemingly has not been sacked, was also 
implicated in Project Echoes, having personally authorised the
operation. The general has also made a series of overtly political
statements in recent months, showing himself to be hostile towards
the ANC.

It is regarded as unlikely that Gen van der Westhuizen, who has
also been publicly accused of responsibility for the murder of
four anti-apartheid activists in the 1980s, was unaware of this
porject. It is also difficult to see who Gen Liebenberg can escape
command responsibility for the actions of senior staff, if only
as the country's top-ranking military officer.

His hawkish reputation, coupled with his background as a former
chief of special forces--the section of the military at the centre
of the "third force" scandal--makes him, understandably, a subject of
much suspicion.

The purge of the military is the closes the government has come
to admitting the existence of a conspiracy in the security forces
aimed at derailing the negotiating process. At his hastily-arranged
press conference on Saturday announcing his crackdown, President de
Klerk continyed to deny there was evidence of a formal third force.

Bu he conceded that "there were indications that some activities
and individuals might have been motivated to prevent success in
constitutional goals". The president also said that the investigations
would "lead to the conclusion that some activities led to the
deaths of people".

While declaring that the infomration at his disposal "indicates
a serious and unacceptable state of affairs", he did not "think
the extent of the actions could lead to the jeopardy of
of state security".

[....stuff omitted...]

The Conservative Party which has a huge following among whites
in the armed forces described the purge as  a "calamitous blunder"
and "treachery". It was "an intimidatory tactic aimed at forcing
the remaining SADF members to toe the party line and to accept the
government's sellout to their alliance partners, the ANC, and permit
the amalgamation of the remains of the SADF with the ANC's
Umkhonto we Sizwe and the PAC's Apla killers."

The ANC, congratulating President de Klerk for finally acting
against the military, said his action nevertheless disclosed 
"a crisis of mahor proportions which has a direct bearing on the 
negotiating process". It said that "transparency is essential"
to continued investigations into the conspiracy.
-- 
---shaze@cs.ubc.ca----------------------------------------------------------
   Scott Hazelhurst    
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african