Special Hearings — Armed Forces Hearings — 1997-10-08

GEN JOUBERT: Mr Chairman, may I start with the background?  When I left school in 1961, I joined the SADF as a volunteer, I had 32 years service as a soldier.  I've never had any other profession and only know one life and that is of a professional soldier.  During my career I had many command posts of which I would like to mention some - commander of junior infantry training, commander, 5th infantry battalion, commander 1, SA mechanised infantry battalion, infantry battle school, commander 82 mechanised brigade, commander sector 10, Ovambu in the present Namibia, commander in general of special forces, deputy head of information, deputy staff head of general staff.
 My career can be summed up in four phases.
Phase one, mainly training before the war started.
 Phase two, mainly conventional corporations.
Phase three, mainly involved in unconventional clandestine covert operations.
Phase four, mainly in a staff and consulting capacity.
 In a historical context I would like to highlight the following:
When I became aware - during those years of the previous dispensation and it's philosophies became widely known and became part of everybody's daily lives,  it was a time in which White people, especially the Afrikaner were politically very highly active and children were also being indoctrinated.  Even at schools, the previous dispensation's philosophies were openly propagated.  It was a shameful thing to think differently.
 The philosophy of military service as an honourable thing was already instituted in cadet training at school, section 31(a) of the Defence Force Act and the conscription service.  The likelihood of a war to gain control of the Republic was generally accepted.  These are the times in which we grew up, nobody doubted that the future belonged to the Coloured people but we must stress that the enemy was not the Coloured population but the churches propagated this as gospel.  
 And the activities of the liberation operations - when I started becoming self-sufficient around about 1961, was then in force.  Everyone, not only myself were exposed to one philosophy without question it.  As a soldier since 1961, I was already the product of perceptions formed beforehand and the protection of this former dispensation became my daily task.  I lived under military discipline and applied it.  I executed orders which I received from my superiors and I tried to execute these as best I could and I expected the same from my subordinates.
 I never doubted the political integrity of my leaders and accepted that the strategies, policies, planning which had been formulated at the highest level were in the best interest in the survival of South Africa.  My motivation was to execute the policies of the existing Government and to maintain order.  I believe that if I had to lead operations against the enemy, this was to combat communism and to prevent the subversion of the State.
 As a soldier my task was - as it was with everyone else, later on in the Defence Force Act, especially section 3(2):
"The defence of the Republic, prevention or suppression of terrorism, prevention or suppression of internal unrest, the preservation of life, protection of property, maintenance of necessary services, the maintenance of law and order, prevention of crime and co-operation with the South African police to be used in policing activities"
 My motives were always my duties.  My duty was always to execute my duties as a soldier, it has nothing to with racism, it was coincidental that the majority of the enemy had a particular skin colour and it's for this reason that my activities were associated with a certain skin colour.  If I'd still been in the defence force, my duty towards the present Government would have been exactly the same.
 It was mostly people of my group who needed the protection of the defence force.  The protection of the inhabitants of South Africa is apparent from many documents.  Since the early '60's, the enemy attained a certain identity, namely that of a liberation movement.  You've listened to a lot of submissions in this regard so I'm not going to expand on this.  It's also quite clearly quoted in General van der Merwe's application.
 It is not surprising that there was a strong perception under South Africans that liberation movements were the aggressors and that the security forces had to counter this aggression.  It is abundantly clear that the battle or the struggle took on dimensions where the security forces either had to give up or start using unconventional methods.  It was clear that the ANC rejected a peaceful solution, this is also known to the Commission and I won't expand on this.
 I would like to sketch the general aspects which I included in my application and I would like to quote because this fits in with what the Commission demands from us:
"Through my position as commander of special forces and in the course of my duties as commander of the special forces and within the environment of my wider competence and general orders which I received from my superiors, to the extent which I did not get detailed orders, I believed that I still acted within my competence"
 My application for amnesty is  - the actions I took were aimed against liberation movements and political parties, the ANC which was involved in a political and military war against South Africa.  And then also their assistants, activists and other people involved in the struggle with the aim of maximally disrupting these political and liberation movements.  All my actions were done bona fide in the belief that it was necessary to counter the military threat and due to my training and background, I believed that each action during this phase of the struggle was necessary and just to counter this threat.
 I received no compensation except my recognition which I got and no actions were made due to personal ...[inaudible] or any other considerations.  Through the support of the NP and the Freedom Front, I made these applications solely on the grounds of my position as a commanding general of special forces.  As a professional soldier, I was trained in a particular military culture and all that it entails.  Part of that was to execute the policy of the Government of the day as it was set out by the Government of the day.
 I never had any other motive than to perform my duty as a member of the defence force.  Every action I performed and every action in which I was involved was according to my perception, in reaction to the threat from the revolutionary forces.  The main aim was to stop this revolutionary onslaught.  I did not doubt that my actions were approved by my superiors.  The political military climate before and during these periods are contained in this submission.  By the nodal point of the SADF and also in what General Viljoen said, with which I agree and which I request that it be part of my application.
 The war had a clear military character which escalated up to the point that violence on all sides had grown enormously and that the actions by everyone impacted on helpless people.  Each party guilty of violence found it's own justification for it.  Any condemnation of this must be subjective or based on subjective moral considerations.  I want to refer you to the following information which is contained in this submission.  The nodal point where the nature and intensity of the struggle is apparent.  The quotes are here in the application, I'm not going to repeat all of them. 
 What I want to say, in the middle to late '80's, one of the main aims of the security strategy to halt the mobilisation of these revolutionary forces, especially the ANC's.  The acceptance of this aim contained far more than was immediately apparent.  In the mid '80's it was clear that the onslaught could not be countered in normal conventional ways, so the defence force or the security forces had to become unconventional themselves.  Military reaction depends on violence, uses violence as a means of achieving peace.
 The success or value of violence lies in it's intimidatory nature on participants, sympathisers and helpers must be disrupted and destroyed.  Against this background a large percentage of my training took place and as a result of this I took over command in 1985, as a result of my training.  I also briefly want to stop with the CCB and special forces and I refer to the submission on the nodal point where it refers to the special service and the CCB and I want to add the following:
 The special forces was a unit for overseas and internal operations.  They were there to gather information on operations and external affairs as the intensity of the struggle increased.  And before I took over command, the special forces started executing clandestine operations outside the borders against ANC bases but it's operations were for a long time restricted to intelligence gathering operations overseas.  Special forces consisted of reconnaissance units and a small group known as D40 which eventually became Barnacle and then the CCB.
 Under my command their task was generally expanded into a - to support the SA police in it's internal covert operations.  The members of Barnacle were all in civilian garb and the name was never was never accepted.  And because civilian front organisations were created, the name Civilian Co-operation Bureau was used.  It was done with the full knowledge of all people at the highest level but it operated according to it's own set of financial rules and regulations which had been approved at the highest level.
 Insofar as my actions are to be considered by this Commission, I declare that I committed these acts in my capacity as General Commander in the special forces, I saw it as part of my duty and that no personal enmity or any personal gains played a role in this at all.  My actions were never motivated by racist considerations, personal enmity or personal gain.  It was aimed at ensuring the survival of the Government of the day.  
 Individuals who were eliminated were identified as people who played a material part in the struggle or could play such a part and were thus a serious threat to the State.  I regarded it as my duty to counter this threat.  I considered the country to be in a state of full scale war.  I never questioned the validity of the war and only served the country to the fullest of my ability and convictions.