Civil Cooperation Bureau - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The South African Civil Cooperation Bureau (CCB) was a government-sponsored hit squad during the apartheid era

History of South Africa in the apartheid era

Apartheid was a system of racial segregation enforced by the National Party governments of South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority 'non-white' inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and white supremacy and Afrikaner minority rule was maintained...

that operated under the authority of Defence Minister General Magnus Malan

Magnus Malan

General Magnus André De Merindol Malan was the Minister of Defence , Chief of the South African Defence Force and Chief of the South African Army.-Early life:...

. The Truth and Reconciliation Committee pronounced the CCB guilty of numerous killings, and suspected more killings.

Forerunners and contemporaries

When South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n newspapers first revealed its existence in the late 1980s, the CCB appeared to be a unique and unorthodox security operation: its members wore civilian clothing; it operated within the borders of the country; it used private companies as fronts; and it mostly targeted civilians. However, as the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) discovered a decade later, the CCB's methods were neither new nor unique. Instead, they had evolved from precedents set in the 1960s and 70s by Eschel Rhoodie’s

Eschel Rhoodie

Eschel Mostert Rhoodie was a South African politician, public relations man and spin doctor most famous as being one of the key players in the 1978-79 Information Scandal, also known as "Infogate" or "Muldergate"...

Department of Information (see Muldergate Scandal

Muldergate Scandal

The Muldergate scandal, also known as the Information Scandal, was a South African political scandal involving the Department of Information.South African Prime Minister BJ Vorster, Dr. Connie Mulder and Dr...

), the Bureau of State Security

South African Bureau of State Security

The South African Bureau for State Security was established in 1969 and replaced by the National Intelligence Service in 1980. The Bureau's job was to monitor national security...

(B.O.S.S.) and Project Barnacle (a top-secret project to eliminate SWAPO detainees and other "dangerous" operators).

From information given to the TRC by former agents seeking amnesty for crimes committed during the apartheid era, it became clear that there were many other covert operations similar to the CCB, which Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...

would label the Third Force
Third Force (South Africa)
The "Third Force" was a term used by leaders of the ANC during the late 1980s and early 1990s to refer to an unknown group believed to be responsible for a surge in violence in KwaZulu-Natal, and townships around and south of the Witwatersrand ....

. These operations included Wouter Basson’s

Wouter Basson

Wouter Basson is a South African cardiologist and former head of the country's secret chemical and biological warfare project, Project Coast, during the apartheid era. Nicknamed "Dr...

7 Medical Battalion Group

7 Medical Battalion Group is the specialist Airborne Medical Battalion of the South African Military Health Service. The Battalion's main task is to render medical support to the South African Special and Airborne Forces....

, the Askaris, Witdoeke, and C1/C10 or Vlakplaas

Vlakplaas

Vlakplaas is a farm 20km west of Pretoria that served as the headquarters of the South African Police counterinsurgency unit C10 working for the apartheid government in South Africa...

Besides these, there were also political front organizations like the International Freedom Foundation

International Freedom Foundation

The International Freedom Foundation , was a self-described anti-communist group established in Washington, D.C. founded in 1986 by former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Its purported aim was to promote individual and collective freedoms worldwide: freedom of thought; free speech; free association; free...

, Marthinus van Schalkwyk

Marthinus van Schalkwyk

Marthinus Christoffel Johannes van Schalkwyk is the Minister of Tourism in the Cabinet of South Africa. Formerly both Premier of the Western Cape and Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of South Africa, he was the leader of the New National Party from its inception on 8 September 1997 until...

's Jeugkrag

Jeugkrag

Jeugkrag was a short-lived South African youth group, surreptitiously funded by the apartheid government's department of Military Intelligence in an operation known as Project Essay...

(Youth for South Africa), and Russel Crystal's National Student Federation which would demonstrate that while the tactics of the South African government varied, the logic remained the same: Total onslaught demanded a total strategy.

Establishment

Inaugurated in 1986 with the approval of General Magnus Malan

Magnus Malan

General Magnus André De Merindol Malan was the Minister of Defence , Chief of the South African Defence Force and Chief of the South African Army.-Early life:...

, the CCB became fully functional by 1988.

In his 1997 submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, General Malan described the CCB as follows:

"15.1 Let me now deal with the matter of the CCB. The CCB-organization as a component of Special Forces was approved in principle by me. Special Forces was an integral and supportive part of the South African Defence Force. The role envisaged for the CCB was the infiltration and penetration of the enemy, the gathering of information and the disruption of the enemy. The CCB was approved as an organization consisting of ten divisions, or as expressed in military jargon, regions. Eight of these divisions or regions were intended to refer to geographical areas. The area of one of these regions, Region Six, referred to the Republic of South Africa. The fact that the organization in Region Six was activated, came to my knowledge for the first time in November 1989. The CCB provided the South African Defence Force with good covert capabilities.
15.2 During my term of office as Head of the South African Defence Force and as Minister of Defence instructions to members of the South African Defence Force were clear: destroy the terrorists, their bases and their capabilities. This was also government policy. As a professional soldier, I issued orders and later as Minister of Defence I authorised orders which led to the death of innocent civilians in cross-fire. I sincerely regret the civilian casualties, but unfortunately this is part of the ugly reality of war. However, I never issued an order or authorised an order for the assassination of anybody, nor was I ever approached for such authorization by any member of the South African Defence Force. The killing of political opponents of the government, such as the slaying of Dr Webster
David Webster (anthropologist)
David Webster was a social anthropologist in South Africa who was murdered by covert forces of the Apartheid state.-Life:...

, never formed part of the brief of the South African Defence Force."

Reports about the CCB were first published in 1990 by the now-defunct weekly Vrye Weekblad

Vrye Weekblad

Vrye Weekblad was a groundbreaking progressive, anti-apartheid Afrikaans national weekly newspaper that was launched in November 1988 and forced to close in February 1994. The paper was driven into bankruptcy by the legal costs of defending its charge that South African police general Lothar...

, and more detailed information emerged later in the 1990s at a number of TRC amnesty hearings. General Joep Joubert, in his testimony before the TRC, revealed that the CCB was a long-term special forces

South African Special Forces Brigade

The South African Special Forces Brigade is the only Special Forces unit of the South African National Defence Force ....

project in the South African Defence Force

South African Defence Force

The South African Defence Force was the South African armed forces from 1957 until 1994. The former Union Defence Force was renamed to the South African Defence Force in the Defence Act of 1957...

. It had evolved from the 'offensive defence' philosophy prevalent in P.W. Botha's security establishment.

Nominally a civilian organisation that could be plausibly disowned by the apartheid government, the CCB drew its operatives from the SADF itself or the South African Police

South African Police

The South African Police was the country's police force until 1994. The SAP traced its origin to the Dutch Watch, a paramilitary organization formed by settlers in the Cape in 1655, initially to protect civilians against attack and later to maintain law and order...

. According to Joubert, many operatives did not know that they were members of an entity called the CCB.

In the wake of the National Party government's Harms Commission, whose proceedings were considered seriously flawed by analysts and the official opposition, the CCB was disbanded in August 1990. Some members were transferred to other security organs. No prosecutions resulted.

Structure

The CCB consisted of four groups with different functions: an executive, a management board, two staff functions, eight operational sections known as regions, and an ad hoc collection of contractors.

The executive

There is much dispute about what senior military officers knew when. However it is common cause that the CCB was a unit of special forces

Special forces

Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...

at first controlled by the General Officer Commanding Special Forces, Major-General Eddie Webb
who reported to the Chief of the SADF.

The management board

The CCB operated as a civilian entity, so it had a chairman of the board and a group of 'directors'. The GOC

General Officer Commanding

General Officer Commanding is the usual title given in the armies of Commonwealth nations to a general officer who holds a command appointment. Thus, a general might be the GOC II Corps or GOC 7th Armoured Division...

Special Forces – Major General Joep Joubert (1985–89) followed by Major General Eddie Webb from the beginning of 1989 - was the chairman. The rest of the board included Joe Verster (managing director), Dawid Fourie (deputy MD), WJ Basson, Theuns Kruger, and Lafras Luitingh.

The staff functions

Although there is consistent evidence that the CCB had two staff function

Staff function

A staff function is a secondary business activity that supports the line functions of a business to achieve the objectives. In business management, staff functions are usually defined as all functions that are not line functions. The nature of this function is advisory...

s it is not clear what the names of these groups were and whether these remained the same over the life of the CCB. Region 9, is sometimes referred to as Intelligence or Psychological Warfare and elsewhere as Logistics. Region 10 is known as Finance and Administration or simply Administration.

The operational sections

Each region had an area manager and its own co-ordinator who reported to the managing director.

Region 1: Botswana - regional manager up to 1988 was Commandant
Commandant
Commandant is a senior title often given to the officer in charge of a large training establishment or academy. This usage is common in anglophone nations...

Charl Naudé and thereafter Dawid Fourie, while Christoffel Nel handled the intelligence function.
Region 2: Mozambique and Swaziland - the manager was Commandant Corrie Meerholtz until the end of 1988. He was replaced by the operational co-ordinator, Captain Pieter Botes. while the intelligence function was performed by Peter Stanton, one of the few remaining ex-Rhodesians from the D40 and Barnacle eras.
Region 3: Lesotho - Fourie was also the manager in region 3.
Region 4: Angola, Zambia and Tanzania - Dawid Fourie was also responsible, taking it over in 1988 from Meerholtz. Christoffel Nel handled the intelligence function while Ian Strange was also involved in this region.
Region 5: International/Europe – Johan Niemoller appears to have been coordinator. In 1987, he was suddenly withdrawn following the arrest of a number of individuals living in England on charges of plotting to kill ANC leaders. Eeben Barlow
Eeben Barlow
Lt-Col. Eeben Barlow is a former member of the apartheid-era South African Defence Force and was the second-in-command of its elite special forces 32 Battalion Reconnaissance Wing. He later served in Military Intelligence as an agent handler and later as an operative and region commander in the...

, the founder of the private military company, Executive Outcomes
Executive Outcomes
Executive Outcomes was a private military company founded in South Africa by former Lieutenant-Colonel of the South African Defence Force Eeben Barlow in 1989. It later became part of the South African-based holding company Strategic Resource Corporation....

, then took command of Region 5.
Region 6: South Africa - formed on 1 June 1988; Staal Burger was regional manager; operatives included 'Slang' Van Zyl, Chappies Maree and Calla Botha. The TRC later receives eight amnesty applications related to four operations: 1) the attempted killing of Abdullah Omar, 2) the planned killing of Gavin Evans, 3) bombing of the Early Learning Centre in Athlone Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

on 31 August 1989, 4) the harassment of Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town in 1989.
Region 7: Zimbabwe - Various CCB members co-ordinated this region including WJ Basson and Lafras Luitingh. Others involved in sub-management were Ferdi Barnard (for a brief period) and Alan Trowsdale. Kevin Woods and three members of a CCB cell, Barry Bawden, Philip Conjwayo and Michael Smith conducted a Bulawayo bombing action.
Region 8: South West Africa - headed by Roelf van Heerden.

Unknown region: Operated by ex s.a.d.f members. Some names were: Micks MC Cloud(aka:Ausie) Schalk Van Der Merwe(aka:William Reid,Morise Morris,Reson)

Blue plans and red plans

Operatives were required to have a 'blue plan'. This referred to a front operation (mostly a business) funded by the CCB. Slang Van Zyl, for instance, started a private investigation business while Chappies Maree ran an electronic goods export company called Lema. Operatives were allowed to keep the proceeds of their activities.

Red plans, on the other hand, detailed the activities they would undertake against the enemy. Operations could be of a criminal nature as long as they had prior approval from the CCB bureaucracy. These mostly began with a feasibility study. If the report showed merit it was verified, then reviewed by a panel of five: the operative, the manager or handler, the coordinator, the managing director and in the case of violent operations, the chairman. Where loss of life was anticipated the chairman was required to obtain approval from the Chief of the Army or the Chief of Staff.

Known and suspected operations

To date there is no published record covering all operations conducted during the CCB's five year existence. It is estimated that 85-100 active operations were conducted, including:

Alleged harassment of
- Afrikaner dissident and Vrye Weekblad
  Vrye Weekblad
  Vrye Weekblad was a groundbreaking progressive, anti-apartheid Afrikaans national weekly newspaper that was launched in November 1988 and forced to close in February 1994. The paper was driven into bankruptcy by the legal costs of defending its charge that South African police general Lothar...
  
  editor Max du Preez
  Max du Preez
  Max du Preez is a South African author, columnist and documentary filmmaker and was the founding editor of Vrye Weekblad.-Vrye Weekblad:Du Preez founded Vrye Weekblad, an Afrikaans-language weekly newspaper, in November 1988...
  
  by pointing an RPG7 at him while forcing him to consume a large amount of mampoer or moonshine
- actor and playwright Hannes Muller for his role in Somewhere on the Border, a play banned by the authorities for its criticism of the South African Border War
  South African Border War
  The South African Border War, commonly referred to as the Angolan Bush War in South Africa, was a conflict that took place from 1966 to 1989 in South-West Africa and Angola between South Africa and its allied forces on the one side and the Angolan government, South-West Africa People's...
Alleged shooting of Danger Nyoni - 12 December 1986
Attempted contamination of drinking water in a Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

n refugee camp, by introducing cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...

bacterium into it, in an effort to disrupt that country's independence from South Africa - August 1989
Attempted assault on UN Special Representative, Martti Ahtisaari
Martti Ahtisaari
Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari is a Finnish politician, the tenth President of Finland , Nobel Peace Prize laureate and United Nations diplomat and mediator, noted for his international peace work....

, in Namibia - 1989. According to a hearing in September 2000 of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, two CCB operatives (Kobus le Roux and Ferdinand Barnard) were tasked not to kill Ahtisaari, but to give him "a good hiding". To carry out the assault, Barnard had planned to use the grip handle of a metal saw as a knuckleduster. In the event, Ahtisaari did not attend the meeting at the Keetmanshoop Hotel, where Le Roux and Barnard lay in wait for him, and thus escaped injury.
Attempted killing of
- Jeremy Brickhill in Harare
  Harare
  Harare before 1982 known as Salisbury) is the largest city and capital of Zimbabwe. It has an estimated population of 1,600,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area . Administratively, Harare is an independent city equivalent to a province. It is Zimbabwe's largest city and its...
  
  - 13 October 1987
- Reverend Frank Chikane
  Frank Chikane
  Frank Chikane is a South African civil servant, writer and cleric. He is a member of the African National Congress.-Biography:...
  
  by poisoning - 1989
- Father Michael Lapsley
  Michael Lapsley
  Michael Lapsley, known as Fr Michael, is a South African Anglican priest and social justice activist. He was born in New Zealand on 2 June 1949, and ordained to the priesthood in Australia, where he also joined the religious order the Society of the Sacred Mission.In 1973 he arrived in Durban,...
  
  , who lost both hands and an eye in a letter bomb attack in Harare - 28 April 1990
- Godfrey Motsepe in Brussels
  Brussels
  Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
  
  - 4 February 1988
- January Masilela — known as "Che O'Gara", his Umkhonto we Sizwe
  Umkhonto we Sizwe
  Umkhonto we Sizwe , translated "Spear of the Nation," was the armed wing of the African National Congress which fought against the South African apartheid government. MK launched its first guerrilla attacks against government installations on 16 December 1961...
  
  nom-de-guerre. On 30 September 2002, Masilela wrote to the South African Special Forces League conferring the Defence Minister's recognition of the SFL as being "legally representative of the interests of military veterans."
- Dullah Omar
  Dullah Omar
  Abdullah Mohamed Omar , better known as Dullah Omar, was a South African anti-Apartheid activist, lawyer, and a minister in the South African cabinet from 1994 till his death.-Early life and education:...
  
  - 1989
- Anton Roskam - incorrectly spelled Rosskam in TRC transcripts, received threatening letters, car was set alight
- Albie Sachs
  Albie Sachs
  Albie Sachs was a judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He was appointed to the court by Nelson Mandela in 1994 and retired in October 2009...
  
  - by bombing in Maputo
  Maputo
  Maputo, also known as Lourenço Marques, is the capital and largest city of Mozambique. It is known as the City of Acacias in reference to acacia trees commonly found along its avenues and the Pearl of the Indian Ocean. It was famous for the inscription "This is Portugal" on the walkway of its...
  
  in which he lost an arm and sight in one eye while in a car borrowed from Indres Naidoo thought to have been the actual target - 7 April 1988
Bombing of a Western Cape
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...

kindergarten - the Early Learning Centre - on the evening of 31 August 1989
Harassment of Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...

, by hanging a baboon foetus in the garden of his Cape Town home in 1989 in the hope that it would bewitch him
Killing of
- Tsitsi Chiliza, the wife of an ANC member killed in an operation targeted at Jacob Zuma
  Jacob Zuma
  Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is the President of South Africa, elected by parliament following his party's victory in the 2009 general election....
  
  - 11 May 1987
- Christopher, by injection on the way to Zeerust
  Zeerust, North West
  Zeerust is a commercial town situated in Ngaka Modiri Molema district North West Province, South Africa. It lies in the Marico valley, approximately 240 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg. It lies on the N4, the main road link between South Africa and Botswana. There are large cattle ranches in...
  
  in a vehicle in which operatives Danie Phaal and Trevor Floyd were traveling
- SWAPO activist Anton Lubowski
  Anton Lubowski
  Anton Theodor Eberhard August Lubowski was a Namibian advocate and SWAPO member assassinated by operatives of South Africa’s Civil Cooperation Bureau.-Education and early life:...
- Jacob 'Boy' Molekwane
- ANC activist, Gibson Ncube (also known by the surname Mondlane) by poisoning
- Matsela Polokela - some TRC documents misspell the surname 'Pokolela'
- Dulcie September
  Dulcie September
  September, Dulcie Evonne was born on August 20th, 1935 in Gleemore , Western Cape, South Africa. She died after being assassinated in Paris, France on March 29, 1988...
  
  in Paris
  Paris
  Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
  
  - 29 March 1988. French Secret Service
  Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage
  The Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage was France's external intelligence agency from 6 November 1944 to 2 April 1982 when it was replaced by the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure...
  
  involvement is alleged.
- Dr. David Webster
  David Webster (anthropologist)
  David Webster was a social anthropologist in South Africa who was murdered by covert forces of the Apartheid state.-Life:...
  
  - Wits University academic and anti-apartheid activist killed by Ferdi Barnard 1 May 1989, outside the Eleanor Street, Troyeville, Johannesburg home he shared with partner Maggie Friedman
Supplying materials to SAP members for the 1986 killing of KwaNdebele
KwaNdebele
KwaNdebele was a bantustan in South Africa, intended by the apartheid government as a semi-independent homeland for the Ndebele people. The homeland was created when the South African government purchased nineteen white-owned farms and installed a government....

cabinet minister Piet Ntuli

Operations planned but not executed

According to TRC records, CCB operatives were tasked to seriously injure Martti Ahtisaari

Martti Ahtisaari

Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari is a Finnish politician, the tenth President of Finland , Nobel Peace Prize laureate and United Nations diplomat and mediator, noted for his international peace work....

, UN Special Representative in Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

, and to eliminate the following:

Gavin Evans
Theo-Ben Gurirab
Theo-Ben Gurirab
Theo-Ben Gurirab is a Namibian politician who has been the Speaker of the National Assembly of Namibia since 2005; previously he was Prime Minister of Namibia from August 27, 2002 to March 19, 2005.-Political career:...
Hidipo Hamutenya
Hidipo Hamutenya
Hidipo L. Hamutenya is a Namibian politician. A long-time leading member of the South West Africa People's Organization , Hamutenya was a member of the Cabinet of Namibia from independence in 1990 to 2004...
Dr. Pallo Jordan
Pallo Jordan
Dr Zweledinga Pallo Jordan was the Minister of Arts and Culture of the Republic of South Africa from 29 April 2004 to 10 May 2009...

and Ronnie Kasrils
Ronnie Kasrils
Ronald Kasrils is a South African politician. He was Minister for Intelligence Services from 27 April 2004 to 25 September 2008...
Gwen Lister
Gwen Lister
Gwen Lister, is a Namibian journalist, publisher, apartheid opponent and press freedom activist.After receiving a bachelor’s degree from the University of Cape Town in 1975, she went to work as a journalist at Namibia's Windhoek Advertiser.In 1978 she co-founded the Namibian weekly Windhoek...
Winnie Mandela
Kwenza Mhlaba
Jay Naidoo
Jay Naidoo
Jay Naidoo is the co-founder of the J&J Group and founder of the J&J Development Projects Trust. He is the non-executive Chairperson of the premier development finance institution in Southern Africa, the Development Bank of Southern Africa...
Joe Slovo
Joe Slovo
For Joe Slovo Informal Settlement in Cape Town, see: Joe Slovo .Joe Slovo was a South African politician, long-time leader of the South African Communist Party , and leading member of the African National Congress.-Life:Slovo was born in Obeliai, Lithuania to a Jewish family who emigrated to South...
Oliver Tambo
Oliver Tambo
Oliver Reginald Tambo was a South African anti-apartheid politician and a central figure in the African National Congress .-Biography:Oliver Tambo was born in Bizana in eastern Pondoland in what is now Eastern Cape...
Daniel Tjongarero
Andimba Toivo ya Toivo
Andimba Toivo ya Toivo
Herman Andimba Toivo ya Toivo is a Namibian politician who was active in the independence movement. He was a founding member of the Ovamboland People's Congress in 1957, at the beginning of the independence movement....
Roland White
Roland White
Roland White is an American bluegrass music artist, performing principally on the mandolin.-Biography:At an early age, White formed himself, his two brothers and his sister into a bluegrass band which performed locally...

Known associates

While the CCB was a section of the SADF's Special Forces they were joined on many operations by individuals from other parts of the state's broad security apparatus, sometimes making it difficult to ascertain whether a specific person was part of the CCB or not. Of the estimated one hundred covert members, evidence exists that the following individuals were deployed as administrators or operatives:

Senior military decision-makers

Magnus Malan
Magnus Malan
General Magnus André De Merindol Malan was the Minister of Defence , Chief of the South African Defence Force and Chief of the South African Army.-Early life:...

- General, Minister of Defence (1980–1991)
Jannie Geldenhuys
Johannes Geldenhuys
General Johannes Geldenhuys, SSA, SD, SOE, SM, is a former South African military commander who served as Chief of the South African National Defence Force between 1985 and 1990....

- General, and Chief of the SADF (1985–1990)
Joep Joubert - held the rank of major general, Chairman of the management board (1985–89)
Kat Liebenberg
Andreas Liebenberg
General Andreas Liebenberg SSA SD SOE SM MMM was a South African military commander. He joined the South African Army as an infantryman in the early 1960s...

- General, and Chief of the SADF (1991–1993)
Eddie Webb - held the rank of major general, Chairman of the management board (1989–1990)
Pieter Johan Verster - mostly known as 'Joe' Verster, aliases 'Gerhard', 'Dave Martin', 'Jack van Staden' and 'Rick van Staden', held the rank of colonel, CCB Managing Director or general manager

Operatives and associates

Donald Dolan Acheson - an Irish mercenary nicknamed 'The Cleaner'
Eeben Barlow
Eeben Barlow
Lt-Col. Eeben Barlow is a former member of the apartheid-era South African Defence Force and was the second-in-command of its elite special forces 32 Battalion Reconnaissance Wing. He later served in Military Intelligence as an agent handler and later as an operative and region commander in the...

- also referred to incorrectly as "Eeban Barlow", intelligence operative, ex-member of 32 Battalion
South African 32 Battalion
32 Battalion was a special light infantry battalion of the South African Army, composed of black and white commissioned and enlisted personnel...

and at one point commander of Region 5
Ferdi Barnard - prominent Region 6 operative, convicted and jailed in 1998 for the murder of David Webster
Wouter Jacobus Basson - alias Christo Britz, one time coordinator of the Zimbabwe unit, not to be confused with his cousin Dr. Wouter Basson
Wouter Basson
Wouter Basson is a South African cardiologist and former head of the country's secret chemical and biological warfare project, Project Coast, during the apartheid era. Nicknamed "Dr...
Johannes Basson
Barry Bawden - cousin of Kit and Gary, Region 4 operative and member of Zimbabwe-based CCB cell known as Juliet
Guy Bawden - brother of Kit, Region 4 operative and member of Zimbabwe-based CCB cell known as Juliet
Kit Bawden - Region 4 operative and head of Zimbabwe-based CCB cell known as Juliet
Petrus Jacobus Botes - alias Bobby Greeff, held the rank of captain
Carl Casteling Botha - nicknamed Calla, a one time forward for the Transvaal rugby team
Gray Branfield - alias major Brian, and Mr. Z, killed 2004 in Kut
Kut
Al-Kūt is a city in eastern Iraq, on the left bank of the Tigris River, about 160 kilometres south east of Baghdad. the estimated population is about 374,000 people...

, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

during a gunfight between Shi'ite radicals and Ukrainian forces
Phillip Conjwayo - Zimbabwean policeman, Region 4 operative and peripheral member of Zimbabwe-based CCB cell known as Juliet
José Daniels – CCB operator working for Petrus Botes, in the period just prior to the first democratic elections in Namibia, was instructed to dump four bottles containing cholera bacterium into the water supply of a camp near Windhoek
Daniel du Toit Burger - also referred to as Daniël Ferdinand du Toit, alias Staal (meaning steel in Afrikaans) Burger also the name of an Afrikaans radio comedy of the time, held the rank of colonel, erstwhile owner of the Breakers Hotel in Berea, Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

http://academic.sun.ac.za/journalism/sji/1996/akkers96.htm and minder of a state-funded brothel http://www.dispatch.co.za/2001/06/27/editoria/LP1.HTM, recruited into the CCB by Verster on 1 June 1988 after vacating his position as head of the SAP's Brixton Murder and Robbery Unit http://www.doj.gov.za/trc/decisions/2001/ac21232.htm
Trevor Floydhttp://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20000513/ai_n14312969 - testified in the trial of Wouter Basson
Wouter Basson
Wouter Basson is a South African cardiologist and former head of the country's secret chemical and biological warfare project, Project Coast, during the apartheid era. Nicknamed "Dr...

that he smeared poisonous ointment received from Basson http://ccrweb.ccr.uct.ac.za/archive/cbw/20a.html on the door handle of the car belonging to Peter Kalangula
Peter Kalangula
Peter Tanyangenge Kalangula was a Namibian political and religious leader.-Biography:Peter Kalangula was born at Omafo in Ohangwena Region, Ovamboland on 12 March, 1926 and after studying at St Mary's School, Odibo trained as a teacher through correspondence. In 1966 he began theological studies...

; Basson denied the allegation; Implicated in the same trial by Danie Phaal, a Project Barnacle colleague, of murdering a fellow operator known only as Christopher in February 1983 http://ccrweb.ccr.uct.ac.za/archive/cbw/20.html
Dawid Fourie - alias 'Heine Müller', held the rank of commandant and one time deputy head of the CCB
Edward James Gordon - nicknamed 'Peaches', informer, involved in the attempt on the life of Dullah Omar http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/misc/trc04.html
Corrie Goosen - associate of Ferdi Barnard, alleged to have been a diamond smuggler http://152.111.1.251/argief/berigte/rapport/1998/03/22/7/2.html
André Wilhelmus Groenewald - alias Kobus Pienaar http://www.doj.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/TRC%20VOLUME%202.pdf
Isgak Hardien - nicknamed Gakkie, an informer and gangster based in the Western Cape who earned R18,000 for placing a limpet mine
Limpet mine
A limpet mine is a type of naval mine attached to a target by magnets; they are so named because of their superficial similarity to the limpet, a type of mollusk....

on the premises of the Early Learning Centre http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=ct20000316093733290C150166
Theodore Hermansenhttp://www.doj.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/TRC%20VOLUME%202.pdf
André Klopperhttp://www.ccr.uct.ac.za/fileadmin/template/ccr/pdf/demob_sept.pdf
Koos - CCB medical coordinator, who received, on the instructions of Wouter Basson
Wouter Basson
Wouter Basson is a South African cardiologist and former head of the country's secret chemical and biological warfare project, Project Coast, during the apartheid era. Nicknamed "Dr...

, 16 bottles containing the cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...

bacterium on 4 August 1989, and six more twelve days later from Dr. A. Immelman of Roodeplaat Research Laboratories
Roodeplaat Research Laboratories
Roodeplaat Research Laboratories was a front company established in 1983 by the South African Defence Force to research, test and produce biological weapons within a covert operation known as Project Coast....
David Komansky, (not to be confused with the Merrill Lynch executive of the same name) a commodities broker from Johannesburg who received R29 million from the CCB to establish a business in Britain for procuring arms.
Theuns Kruger - alias 'Jaco Black', financial manager
Kobus le Roux implicated with Ferdi Barnard in the plot to kill Ahtisaari
Jackie Lonte - recruited to deal with United Democratic Front supporters, founder of the 10,000 strong Cape Flats
Cape Flats
The Cape Flats is an expansive, low-lying, flat area situated to the southeast of the central business district of Cape Town. To many people in Cape Town, the area is known simply as 'The Flats'....

gang 'The Americans'
Hans Louwhttp://www.dispatch.co.za/2003/01/13/southafrica/EMACHEL.HTM http://www.africanstudies.uct.ac.za/postamble/vol2-2/assassination.pdf - claimed he belonged to a squad which plotted to kill president Samora Machel
Samora Machel
Samora Moisés Machel was a Mozambican military commander, revolutionary socialist leader and eventual President of Mozambique...
Lafras Luitingh - held the rank of major, one time coordinator of Zimbabwe unit
Leon André Maree - nickname ‘Chappies’ (also the name of a popular South African chewing gum)
Cornelius Alwyn Johannes Meerholz - nicknamed Corrie, alias 'Kerneels Koekemoer', held the rank of commandant, after transferring to 5 Reconnaissance Regiment
Tai Minnaarhttp://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/SAfrica/Biological/2428.html - once held the rank of major-general in the SADF, founder member of the Bureau of State Security, had been a CIA operative in 1970s Cuba
Mr C - operated in Mozambique and Swaziland, once delivered a parcel to Windhoek on behalf of Pieter (most likely Petrus) Botes http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/TarkArticle.aspx?ID=244519
Mr R - alias 'Frans Brink', medical doctor, member until the beginning of 1990 http://ccrweb.ccr.uct.ac.za/archive/cbw/37.html
Edwin Mudingi, former Selous Scout member of the same cell as Hans Louw
Mike Sutcliff - held the rank of commandant today Durban city manager
Christoffel Nel - alias 'Derek Louw', held the rank of colonel, one time head of intelligence unit
Johan Niemoller, jr. - also referred to as Joseph Niemoller, until 1987 coordinator of (European and International) unit
Nico Palmhttp://www.iss.co.za/PUBS/Books/PeaceProfitPlunder/Chap5.pdf - foreign operative, involved in the CCB front company Geo International Trading as an explosives expert
Danie Phaalhttp://www.doj.gov.za/trc/amntrans/2000/200927ct.htm - or DJ Phaal, CCB head of security, also known as Frank, James or Johan
Jao Pinta - involved in the murder of Florence and Fabian Ribeirohttp://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/TarkArticle.aspx?ID=280806
Ruiz da Silva - involved in the murder of Florence and Fabian Ribeirohttp://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/TarkArticle.aspx?ID=280806
Eugene Rileyhttp://www.sabcnews.co.za/politics/government/0,2172,14187,00.html - also referred to as Eugene Reilly
Noel Robey - involved in the murder of Florence and Fabian Ribeirohttp://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/TarkArticle.aspx?ID=280806
Michael Smith - ex-Rhodesian soldier, Region 4 operative and member of Zimbabwe-based CCB cell known as Juliet http://www.carteblanche.co.za/Display/Display.asp?Id=3126
Migiel Sven Smuts-Muller - ex-31 Battalion member http://ccrweb.ccr.uct.ac.za/archive/cbw/37.html
Peter Stanton - ex-Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...

n, intelligence operative
Pierre Theron - auditor of CCB books and keeper of share transfer certificates for related front companies http://www.unidir.org/pdf/articles/pdf-art1854.pdf
Ian Strange - alias Rodney, involved in the Angola, Zambia and Tanzania region
Alan Trowsdale
Charles Wildschudt (formerly Neelse)
Stefaans van der Walt - alias Anton du Randt http://ccrweb.ccr.uct.ac.za/archive/cbw/37.html
Willie van Deventer - claimed membership of CCB, and to have been part of the Gaborone raid in which ANC member, Matsela Pokolela, was killed http://www.stanford.edu/class/history48q/Documents/EMBARGO/2chap2.htm
Roelf van Heerden - alias 'Roelf van der Westhuizen', one time head of South West Africa operations
Ferdi van Wyk - Brigadier, also named as the Military Intelligence contact used by Marthinus van Schalkwyk
Marthinus van Schalkwyk
Marthinus Christoffel Johannes van Schalkwyk is the Minister of Tourism in the Cabinet of South Africa. Formerly both Premier of the Western Cape and Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of South Africa, he was the leader of the New National Party from its inception on 8 September 1997 until...

in the covert funding of the front organization Jeugkrag
Jeugkrag
Jeugkrag was a short-lived South African youth group, surreptitiously funded by the apartheid government's department of Military Intelligence in an operation known as Project Essay...
Abram van Zyl - aliases 'Thinus de Wet' and 'Andries Rossouw', nickname 'Slang' ' onMouseout='HidePop("30523")' href="/topics/Afrikaans">Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...

), responsible for the Western Cape operations of Region Six, and for Ferdi Barnard; left the CCB in October 1989
Leonard Veenendalhttp://www.stanford.edu/class/history48q/Documents/EMBARGO/2chap7.htm
Athol Visserhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1845962060 - nickname 'Ivan the Terrible', a high-ranking CCB operative, posted to London in the 1980s to plan the elimination of key opponents of apartheid that allegedly included Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

prime minister Olof Palme
Olof Palme assassination
The assassination of Olof Palme , the Prime Minister of Sweden, took place on 28 February 1986 in Stockholm, Sweden, at 23:21 hours Central European Time . Palme was fatally wounded by gunshots while walking home from a cinema with his wife Lisbet Palme on the central Stockholm street Sveavägen...

.
Kevin Woods - Region 4 operative and member of Zimbabwe-based CCB cell known as Juliet

Associates who died mysteriously

Edward James Gordon - killed 1991 http://www.stanford.edu/class/history48q/Documents/EMBARGO/1chap12.htm
André Klopper - murdered Thursday 11 May 1995 a week after amnesty ensured his release from jail; found next to a road in Elandsfontein; ex-SADF Special Forces members Mathys de Villiers (Kaalvoet Thysie) and Heckie Horn were tried for his murder and acquitted
Jackie Lonte - murdered in the 1990s http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/article.aspx?ID=448683
"Corrie" Alwyn Meerholtz - died in a car crash on 24 November 1989
Tai Minnaar - died in September 2002 http://www.forensic-intelligence.org/amerithrax.pdf after a chemical and biological weapons deal in which he was involved went wrong http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?area=%2finsight%2finsight__national&articleid=20017
Eugene Riley – was killed in January 1994 http://www.sacp.org.za/main.php?include=docs/pr/1997/hani.html after probing the killing of Chris Hani
Chris Hani
Chris Hani, born Martin Thembisile Hani was the leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress . He was a fierce opponent of the apartheid government...

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A229714
Dave Drew - (Major - SADF attached to Special Forces) - Died under suspicious circumstances http://ccrweb.ccr.uct.ac.za/archive/cbw/37.html

Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Although the entire truth about the Civil Cooperation Bureau may never be known, South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission(TRC) concluded that:

"...the CCB was a creation of the SADF and an integral part of South Africa’s counter-insurgency system which, in the course of its operations, perpetrated gross violations of human rights, including killings, against both South African and non-South African citizens. The Commission finds that the activities of the CCB constituted a systematic pattern of abuse which entailed deliberate planning on the part of the leadership of the CCB and the SADF. The Commission finds these institutions and their members accountable for the aforesaid gross violations of human rights."

As per the policy of the TRC, its findings were set out, but no action was taken.

According to General Malan, the CCB's three objectives — comparable to those of the British Special Operations Executive

Special Operations Executive

The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...

(SOE) — were:

to infiltrate and penetrate the enemy;
to gather Information; and
to disrupt the enemy.

In his testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Malan declared that he had never issued an order or authorised an order for the assassination of anybody, and that the killing of political opponents of the government never formed part of the brief of the South African Defence Force