Lothar Neethling
Encyclopedia
General
Lothar Paul Neethling (29 August 1935 — 11 July 2005) was chief deputy commissioner (second-in-command
) of the South African Police
in the apartheid era
.
A highly-qualified scientist, General Lothar Neethling was alleged to have used police forensic laboratories for the production of poison
s to kill anti-apartheid activists, and to have developed chemical and biological weapons for use against the black population
in South Africa
.
He died of lung cancer in Pretoria
, aged 69.
s who were supporters of defeated Nazi Germany in World War II
came up with a plan to adopt as many as 10,000 war orphans. In the event, the German Children's Fund (GCF) managed to finance a group of only 83 orphans who arrived in Cape Town
in September 1948. One of them was 13-year-old Lothar Paul Tietz, who was adopted by the GCF chairman, Dr J C Neethling. In turn Lothar Neethling, cutting his ties with Germany soon after his arrival, adopted South Africa as his "new fatherland".
He excelled academically and, having absorbed all the elements of the Boer
culture in his teenage years, was fully accepted into the Afrikaner community.
Newspaper reporter Max du Preez claimed Neethling described himself as a "staunch Christian
."
s in chemistry
, one of which was from the University of California
. He was a prominent member of the Afrikaans Academy of Arts and Science, which awarded him its gold medal.
More widely, he was regarded as a brilliant scientist and was honoured by a number of international scientific organisations as well as receiving a medal from the government of Taiwan
.
(SAP) forensics
unit and in succeeding years was awarded seven SAP medals for forensic work undertaken. By the late 1970s, he had risen rapidly to become SAP's second-in-command
, chief deputy commissioner.
On October 20, 1986, following Mozambique president Samora Machel
's death in an air crash in South Africa
, General Neethling confiscated the aircraft's flight data
and cockpit voice recorder
s at the scene of the crash. Reportedly on instructions from foreign minister, Pik Botha
, he then refused to allow International Civil Aviation Organization
and SA Civil Aviation Bureau (CAB) crash investigators access to the flight recorders. CAB director, Rennie van Zyl, had to serve a writ
on Botha and Neethling before eventually receiving the two recorders on November 11, 1986. The three-week delay in starting the crash investigation was confirmed by SAP Colonel Des Lynch in evidence to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2001.
death squad, Dirk Coetzee
, were published in the anti-apartheid newspaper Vrye Weekblad
. Coetzee revealed that Neethling had developed a poison — Lothar's potion — which Coetzee would collect either from Neethling's home or from his laboratory, and administer to ANC
cadres. The Weekly Mail also covered Coetzee's story.
Neethling denied Coetzee's allegations and sued each newspaper R1 million
for defamation, but lost the case because the judge, Johann Kriegler, declared him to be an unreliable witness. Neethling remained in his post, and, with funding by the South African government, appealed against the judgment. The legal costs of the appeal, which took nearly five years, amounted to over R2 million. The appeal went in Neethling's favour, and he was awarded R90,000 for defamation. After being ordered to pay Neethling's costs, Vrye Weekblad was forced into bankruptcy
and closed in February 1994. The newspaper's editor, Max du Preez
, maintained that Neethling had lied in court and, after TRC hearings in September 1997, laid criminal charges of murder
, perjury
and fraud
against him. However, according to Du Preez, his charges against Lothar Neethling were never thoroughly investigated.
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Lothar Paul Neethling (29 August 1935 — 11 July 2005) was chief deputy commissioner (second-in-command
Second-in-command
The Second-in-Command is the deputy commander of any British Army or Royal Marines unit, from battalion or regiment downwards. He or she is thus the equivalent of an Executive Officer in the United States Army...
) of 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...
in 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...
.
A highly-qualified scientist, General Lothar Neethling was alleged to have used police forensic laboratories for the production of poison
Poison
In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
s to kill anti-apartheid activists, and to have developed chemical and biological weapons for use against the black population
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
in 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...
.
He died of lung cancer in Pretoria
Pretoria
Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
, aged 69.
War orphan
In 1948, AfrikanerAfrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
s who were supporters of defeated Nazi Germany in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
came up with a plan to adopt as many as 10,000 war orphans. In the event, the German Children's Fund (GCF) managed to finance a group of only 83 orphans who arrived in 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...
in September 1948. One of them was 13-year-old Lothar Paul Tietz, who was adopted by the GCF chairman, Dr J C Neethling. In turn Lothar Neethling, cutting his ties with Germany soon after his arrival, adopted South Africa as his "new fatherland".
He excelled academically and, having absorbed all the elements of the Boer
Boer
Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century, as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...
culture in his teenage years, was fully accepted into the Afrikaner community.
Newspaper reporter Max du Preez claimed Neethling described himself as a "staunch Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
."
Scientist
Lothar Neethling gained two doctorateDoctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
s in chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, one of which was from the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
. He was a prominent member of the Afrikaans Academy of Arts and Science, which awarded him its gold medal.
More widely, he was regarded as a brilliant scientist and was honoured by a number of international scientific organisations as well as receiving a medal from the government of Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
.
Police officer
In 1971, Neethling founded the South African PoliceSouth 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...
(SAP) forensics
Forensics
Forensic science is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to a legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or a civil action...
unit and in succeeding years was awarded seven SAP medals for forensic work undertaken. By the late 1970s, he had risen rapidly to become SAP's second-in-command
Second-in-command
The Second-in-Command is the deputy commander of any British Army or Royal Marines unit, from battalion or regiment downwards. He or she is thus the equivalent of an Executive Officer in the United States Army...
, chief deputy commissioner.
On October 20, 1986, following Mozambique president Samora Machel
Samora Machel
Samora Moisés Machel was a Mozambican military commander, revolutionary socialist leader and eventual President of Mozambique...
's death in an air crash in South Africa
Mozambican Tupolev Tu-134 air disaster
The Mozambican presidential Tupolev Tu-134A-3 aircraft crashed just inside South African territory on October 19, 1986. The aircraft was carrying Mozambican president Samora Machel and 43 other occupants on a flight from Mbala in Zambia to the Mozambican capital Maputo when it crashed 35 nm west...
, General Neethling confiscated the aircraft's flight data
Flight data recorder
A flight data recorder is an electronic device employed to record any instructions sent to any electronic systems on an aircraft. It is a device used to record specific aircraft performance parameters...
and cockpit voice recorder
Cockpit voice recorder
A cockpit voice recorder , often referred to as a "black box", is a flight recorder used to record the audio environment in the flight deck of an aircraft for the purpose of investigation of accidents and incidents...
s at the scene of the crash. Reportedly on instructions from foreign minister, Pik Botha
Pik Botha
Roelof Frederik "Pik" Botha is a former South African politician who served as the country's foreign minister in the last years of the apartheid era...
, he then refused to allow International Civil Aviation Organization
International Civil Aviation Organization
The International Civil Aviation Organization , pronounced , , is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It codifies the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth...
and SA Civil Aviation Bureau (CAB) crash investigators access to the flight recorders. CAB director, Rennie van Zyl, had to serve a writ
Writ
In common law, a writ is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court...
on Botha and Neethling before eventually receiving the two recorders on November 11, 1986. The three-week delay in starting the crash investigation was confirmed by SAP Colonel Des Lynch in evidence to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2001.
Lothar's potion
Three years later, in 1989, Neethling's reputation as a "genius chemist" became tarnished after revelations by a former commander of the SAP's VlakplaasVlakplaas
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...
death squad, Dirk Coetzee
Dirk Coetzee
Dirk Coetzee was co-founder and commander of the covert South African Police unit based at Vlakplaas. He and his colleagues were involved in a number of atrocities including the murders of Sizwe Khondile and Griffiths Mxenge...
, were published in the anti-apartheid newspaper 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...
. Coetzee revealed that Neethling had developed a poison — Lothar's potion — which Coetzee would collect either from Neethling's home or from his laboratory, and administer to ANC
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
cadres. The Weekly Mail also covered Coetzee's story.
Neethling denied Coetzee's allegations and sued each newspaper R1 million
South African rand
The rand is the currency of South Africa. It takes its name from the Witwatersrand , the ridge upon which Johannesburg is built and where most of South Africa's gold deposits were found. The rand has the symbol "R" and is subdivided into 100 cents, symbol "c"...
for defamation, but lost the case because the judge, Johann Kriegler, declared him to be an unreliable witness. Neethling remained in his post, and, with funding by the South African government, appealed against the judgment. The legal costs of the appeal, which took nearly five years, amounted to over R2 million. The appeal went in Neethling's favour, and he was awarded R90,000 for defamation. After being ordered to pay Neethling's costs, Vrye Weekblad was forced into bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
and closed in February 1994. The newspaper's 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...
, maintained that Neethling had lied in court and, after TRC hearings in September 1997, laid criminal charges of murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
and fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
against him. However, according to Du Preez, his charges against Lothar Neethling were never thoroughly investigated.
See also
- Eugene de KockEugene de KockEugene de Kock is a former colonel of the South African Police force during Apartheid in South Africa. Dubbed "Prime Evil" by the media, he was the commander of C1 unit of the South African Police counter-insurgency group, well known for kidnapping, torturing and murdering hundreds of...
- Dr MengeleJosef MengeleJosef Rudolf Mengele , also known as the Angel of Death was a German SS officer and a physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. He earned doctorates in anthropology from Munich University and in medicine from Frankfurt University...
- Mozambican Tupolev Tu-134 air disasterMozambican Tupolev Tu-134 air disasterThe Mozambican presidential Tupolev Tu-134A-3 aircraft crashed just inside South African territory on October 19, 1986. The aircraft was carrying Mozambican president Samora Machel and 43 other occupants on a flight from Mbala in Zambia to the Mozambican capital Maputo when it crashed 35 nm west...
- Craig WilliamsonCraig WilliamsonCraig Michael Williamson , a former South African police major, was exposed as a spy in 1980, and was involved in a series of state-sponsored overseas bombings, burglaries, kidnappings, assassinations and propaganda during the apartheid era.-Infiltration:In the late 1970s, Craig Williamson had...