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The Gaborone raids:
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November 16, 2000
THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION
Media Advisory
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Amnesty Committee will continue with the amnesty hearing regarding the Botswana raid where twelve members of the Security Forces are applying for amnesty.
Applying for amnesty before the Committee are Lodewyk De Jager, Johannes Meyer, Anton Pretorius, Willem Coetzee, Manuel Olifant, Philip Crause, Stanley Schutte, Christoffel Smit, Wikus Loots, Petrus Coetzee, Johan McPherson and Johannes Steyn.
All the other applicants have already testified before the Committee and Manuel Olifant will be the only applicant to still give evidence. There is a possibility that lawyers representing victims will call witnesses.
On June 14, 1985, twelve people were killed in Operation Plecksy, where houses and offices were attacked in Gaberone, Botswana. Eight of the dead were South African citizens. The others were Somalian citizens, a Basotho child and two Botswana citizens.
The applicants testified that what triggered the raid was an attack on the house of a Deputy Minister of the House of Representative in Cape Town. The hearing will be held at GISS Center, Mayfair in Johannesburg as from November 20 - 24.
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Former cadres oppose border-raids amnesty November 21 2000, iol.co.za
In a 1985 cross-border raid on Gaborone, Botswana, the former SA Defence Force did not hit any of its legitimate targets.
Instead it killed 14 people who were at most African National Congress sympathisers not involved in military activities, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard on Monday.
In testimony opposing the TRC amnesty application of Manuel Olifant - the last application from 12 former apartheid era security branch policemen involved in the attack - witnesses said the SADF killed civilians during the raid.
Muff Andersson, former member of Umkhonto weSizwe, (the former armed wing of the ANC), described SADF and security branch intelligence as "careless, ridiculous reconnaissance".
Andersson said the way the apartheid regime selected targets was arbitrary. People who were sympathetic to the ANC could not be regarded as legitimate targets, she said.
"They (the apartheid security forces) couldn't penetrate ANC intelligence structures but they wanted to make a statement.
"So they hit soft targets to make this statement to whites in South Africa - it's quite clear they did not care who was killed," said Andersson.
On June 12 1985, more than 100 SADF soldiers attacked houses in Gaborone that informers had "verified" were occupied by Umkhonto weSizwe cadres. - Sapa
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Last updated 18 September 2004