Apartheid strongman takes his secrets to the grave
Denying his role in countless deaths, apartheid top cop Johan van der Merwe never disclosed all he knew, writes Tymon Smith
OHe presided over the most violent and lawless period of SA’s history
n August 28, a press release from The Foundation for Equality Before the Law noted with “deep regret” the passing of foundation “member and stalwart” Gen Johan van der Merwe. The release went on to suggest that Van der Merwe was an “icon” ,a “sharp intellect” and “a campaigner for equality before the law”. He was 86 years old.
The foundation, founded at the commencement of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), is, according to its website, “primarily aimed at combating the unilateral prosecution of former police force members involved in the conflict of the past”. For many years Van der Merwe — head of the security branch from 1986 to 1988 and national commissioner of police from 1990 to 1995 — was the foundation’s chief public face.
In 2016 he called for former members of the ANC national executive committee, including former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma and Zuma’s former presidential spokesperson Mac Maharaj, to be prosecuted for their roles as high-level members of the party’s military structures, which he said had sanctioned the 1983 Church Street bombing in Pretoria that left 19 people dead and 217 injured.
Last year, Van der Merwe made an appearance in an online video produced by AfriForum calling for equality before the law, saying prosecutions should target not only former members of the apartheid regime but also those from the other side of the struggle who had failed to meet demands for amnesty from the TRC.
Van der Merwe had been granted amnesty by the TRC for several incidents, including the bombing of Khotso House in 1988, for which he blamed former president PW Botha.
He and his former boss, apartheid-era minister of law and order Adriaan Vlok, had struck a plea bargain with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and received suspended sentences in 2007 for their involvement in the poisoning and attempted murder of Rev Frank Chikane in 1989.
Van der Merwe, Vlok and their co-conspirators never applied for amnesty for their roles in the Chikane poisoning. Rather, the facts of the matter were revealed during the post-TRC prosecution of Dr Wouter Basson. In a 2009 interview with journalist
De Wet Potgieter, Van der Merwe claimed that because not all of those involved in the Chikane incident were willing to apply for amnesty, he would ultimately have been denied amnesty and so decided not to apply.
That suggests that Van der Merwe and Vlok only gave evidence in cases in which information supplied by others could implicate them and where they could put the blame on superiors.
A year after their suspended sentences were handed down, Vlok, Van der Merwe and their coaccused in the Chikane matter — former police Maj-Gen Chris Smit and colonels Gert Otto and Manie van Staden — applied for a presidential pardon during a process introduced by the Mbeki government to deal with the unfinished business of the TRC. The process was eventually struck down by the courts because of its failure to include representations from victims. In a submission objecting to Vlok and his co-accused’s pardon application by organisations including the International Centre for Transitional Justice, it was noted that Van der Merwe’s account of the events was “remarkable for what it does not disclose”.
In particular, Van der Merwe’s recollection of a meeting with high-ranking members of the South African Defence Force — where a list of political activists to be targeted for suppression and possible “elimination” was handed out — was suspiciously sketchy. Van der Merwe could only recall the conveniently deceased chief of the army Gen Kat Liebenberg as having been present, and when asked whose names were on the hit list he could only remember Chikane’s name and that of deceased former apartheid “enemy number one” Joe Slovo.
Though he would later make much of the fact that members of the ANC’s executive should be charged for sanctioning policies that led to the deaths of civilians, Van der Merwe was unwilling to accept similar responsibility for his involvement in intelligence structures within the apartheid government. As head of the security branch, Van der Merwe sat in meetings of the Botha government’s State Security Council where terms such as “make a plan” and “eliminate” were frequently used to refer to the regime’s opponents.
Claims that Van der Merwe stepped into the caretaking role of national commissioner of police at a pivotal moment during the transition and helped to steady the ship also cannot be accepted at face value. The truth is that during this period, as estimated by the Human Rights Commission, 14,000 people — more than during any other period under apartheid — died as a result of political violence. Much of this violence was investigated by the TRC and attributed to third force activities on the part of the security forces to destabilise the country and scupper negotiations.
As the memo submitted in objection to his pardon plea noted, “Far from maintaining law and order, Van der Merwe presided over the most violent and lawless period of SA’s history. As the leading institution responsible for safety and security, the SAP could have nipped the violence in the bud through effective and impartial policing. Thousands of lives could have been saved.”
In 1995, when Van der Merwe announced his resignation from the police service, it was reported that this was the result of pressure placed on him by his then boss, safety & security minister Sydney Mufumadi, because of Van der Merwe’s “alleged meddling, or toleration of meddling, in investigations into the third force”.
Even if one accepts that Van der Merwe’s argument for equality before the law for alleged perpetrators from both sides of the struggle, it is evident that not all of those granted amnesty told the truth about everything they knew.
If victims on both sides had been treated with the dignity and respect they were promised and given the closure they deserved, then perhaps we could, as AfriForum demands, “close the book” on the transgressions of the past.
Instead, men like Van der Merwe who sanctioned murder continue to ensure that too many questions remain unanswered to leave the past behind.