Vrye Weekblad
Encyclopedia
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 Neethling
had supplied poison to security police to kill activists.
journalists who found that the mainstream Afrikaans and English language media lacked the courage to take on the apartheid state. The paper was collectively owned by the founder members, who included editor Max du Preez
and journalist Jacques Pauw
. The editorial staff for the first edition of February 1989 comprised Karien Norval, Du Preez, Elsabe Wessels, Chris du Plessis, Pauw, Victor Munnik, and Koos Coetzee.
gangster. The case was dropped when Botha suffered a stroke early in 1989. Later that year, seven charges under state of emergency legislation were levied against Vrye Weekblad for advertising a meeting of a banned organisation. On November 17, 1989 it published extensive confessions of Dirk Coetzee
, a former commander of the Police Death Squad at Vlakplaas
. The story was published worldwide but none of the mainstream South African media covered it.
In May 1990, the newspaper revealed the inner secrets of the Civil Cooperation Bureau
(CCB) and described how Pieter Botes, a CCB commander, tried to kill anti-apartheid activist Albie Sachs
in Maputo
in 1988, and tried to undermine SWAPO in the run-up to the November 1989 elections in Namibia
. In 1991, a powerful bomb wrecked the offices of Vrye Weekblad. A CCB operative, Leonard Veenendal, later confessed to having planted the bomb.
In 1991 Judge Johann Kriegler ruled in favour of Vrye Weekblad in the Rand Supreme Court. But the Appeals Court overturned Kriegler's decision and ordered the paper to pay R90,000- and costs. (The ensuing legal battle cost both sides R2 million over five years, and forced the paper to close.)
The African National Congress
(ANC) criticized journalist Jacques Pauw's report in the January 17, 1992 issue that Patrick Lekota had offered money to a right-winger to assassinate Glory "September" Sidebe. Sidebe was a former ANC member who worked with Vlakplaas death squads, while Lekota was then a member of the ANC's National Executive Committee.
Just prior to its closure the paper was published out of an old bank building in Newtown, Johannesburg.
Dirk Coetzee
, the commander in charge of the South African Police's secret elite unit, Section C1, who were stationed at Vlakplaas
, a farm outside of Pretoria
. This elite section formed part of President P.W. Botha's so-called "Total Strategy", and were supposed to disable opponents to Botha's apartheid regime, whenever the country's courts were unable to do so. Section C1's methods included assassination
, kidnapping
, poison
ing and execution. Coetzee also revealed that General
Lothar Neethling
had supplied poison to the police, which would drug and eventually kill anti-apartheid activists. Well aware that it could have serious consequences for the newspaper, Vrye Weekblad decided not to withdraw Neethling's name from their reports.
The newspaper arranged for Coetzee to be safely taken out of South Africa and he eventually found asylum
in The Netherlands. On November 17, 1989, the story about Vlakplaas broke on the front page of Vrye Weekblad. The story was also used by other alternative newspapers in South Africa, although the local mainstream media preferred to ignore the story or deny its truthfulness. Across the world, however, the reports of Vlakplaas received widespread coverage.
The revelations about Section C1 prompted more revelations from other policemen and army officials about the dirty activities at Vlakplaas and other government institutions. In 1994, Colonel
Eugene de Kock
(who operated Vlakplaas at the time of the revelations), was given two life-sentences and an additional 212 years in prison, on charges of among other things, murder
, attempted murder, culpable homicide
, kidnapping, assault
and corruption
.
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...
national weekly newspaper that was launched in November 1988 and forced to close in February 1994. The paper was driven 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....
by the legal costs of defending its charge that South African police general Lothar Neethling
Lothar Neethling
General Lothar Paul Neethling was chief deputy commissioner of the South African Police in the apartheid era....
had supplied poison to security police to kill activists.
History
Vrye Weekblad ("The Free Weekly") was started as a result of frustration on the part of 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...
journalists who found that the mainstream Afrikaans and English language media lacked the courage to take on the apartheid state. The paper was collectively owned by the founder members, who included 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...
and journalist Jacques Pauw
Jacques Pauw
Jacques Pauw is a South African investigative journalist who is an executive producer of the Special Assignment current affairs programme on SABC. Pauw was a founder member and assistant editor of the anti-apartheid Afrikaans newspaper Vrye Weekblad...
. The editorial staff for the first edition of February 1989 comprised Karien Norval, Du Preez, Elsabe Wessels, Chris du Plessis, Pauw, Victor Munnik, and Koos Coetzee.
Threat to apartheid state
From the outset the state viewed the upstart paper as a threat. The minister of Justice, Kobie Coetzee, raised the cost of registering the newspaper from R10 to R40,000. As the owners could not pay, the first few editions of Vrye Weekblad appeared on the street illegally, and they were taken to court. In December 1988, former state president P. W. Botha sued Vrye Weekblad for R200,000 for defamation after the newspaper had exposed his links with a MafiaMafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
gangster. The case was dropped when Botha suffered a stroke early in 1989. Later that year, seven charges under state of emergency legislation were levied against Vrye Weekblad for advertising a meeting of a banned organisation. On November 17, 1989 it published extensive confessions of 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...
, a former commander of the Police Death Squad at 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...
. The story was published worldwide but none of the mainstream South African media covered it.
In May 1990, the newspaper revealed the inner secrets of the Civil Cooperation Bureau
Civil Cooperation Bureau
The South African Civil Cooperation Bureau was a government-sponsored hit squad during the apartheid era that operated under the authority of Defence Minister General Magnus Malan...
(CCB) and described how Pieter Botes, a CCB commander, tried to kill anti-apartheid activist 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...
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 1988, and tried to undermine SWAPO in the run-up to the November 1989 elections 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...
. In 1991, a powerful bomb wrecked the offices of Vrye Weekblad. A CCB operative, Leonard Veenendal, later confessed to having planted the bomb.
In 1991 Judge Johann Kriegler ruled in favour of Vrye Weekblad in the Rand Supreme Court. But the Appeals Court overturned Kriegler's decision and ordered the paper to pay R90,000- and costs. (The ensuing legal battle cost both sides R2 million over five years, and forced the paper to close.)
The African National Congress
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...
(ANC) criticized journalist Jacques Pauw's report in the January 17, 1992 issue that Patrick Lekota had offered money to a right-winger to assassinate Glory "September" Sidebe. Sidebe was a former ANC member who worked with Vlakplaas death squads, while Lekota was then a member of the ANC's National Executive Committee.
Just prior to its closure the paper was published out of an old bank building in Newtown, Johannesburg.
Vlakplaas revelations
Late in 1989, Vrye Weekblad established contact with CaptainPolice captain
- France :France uses the rank of capitaine for management duties in both uniformed and plain-clothed policing. The rank comes senior to lieutenant and junior to commandant....
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...
, the commander in charge of the South African Police's secret elite unit, Section C1, who were stationed at 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...
, a farm outside of 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...
. This elite section formed part of President P.W. Botha's so-called "Total Strategy", and were supposed to disable opponents to Botha's apartheid regime, whenever the country's courts were unable to do so. Section C1's methods included assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
, kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
, 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....
ing and execution. Coetzee also revealed that General
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 Neethling
Lothar Neethling
General Lothar Paul Neethling was chief deputy commissioner of the South African Police in the apartheid era....
had supplied poison to the police, which would drug and eventually kill anti-apartheid activists. Well aware that it could have serious consequences for the newspaper, Vrye Weekblad decided not to withdraw Neethling's name from their reports.
The newspaper arranged for Coetzee to be safely taken out of South Africa and he eventually found asylum
Right of asylum
Right of asylum is an ancient juridical notion, under which a person persecuted for political opinions or religious beliefs in his or her own country may be protected by another sovereign authority, a foreign country, or church sanctuaries...
in The Netherlands. On November 17, 1989, the story about Vlakplaas broke on the front page of Vrye Weekblad. The story was also used by other alternative newspapers in South Africa, although the local mainstream media preferred to ignore the story or deny its truthfulness. Across the world, however, the reports of Vlakplaas received widespread coverage.
The revelations about Section C1 prompted more revelations from other policemen and army officials about the dirty activities at Vlakplaas and other government institutions. In 1994, Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Eugene de Kock
Eugene de Kock
Eugene 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...
(who operated Vlakplaas at the time of the revelations), was given two life-sentences and an additional 212 years in prison, on charges of among other things, 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...
, attempted murder, culpable homicide
Culpable homicide
Culpable homicide is a specific offence in various jurisdictions within the Commonwealth of Nations which involves the illegal killing of a person either with or without an intention to kill depending upon how a particular jurisdiction has defined the offence...
, kidnapping, assault
Assault
In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
and corruption
Police corruption
Police corruption is a specific form of police misconduct designed to obtain financial benefits, other personal gain, or career advancement for a police officer or officers in exchange for not pursuing, or selectively pursuing, an investigation or arrest....
.
Breaking news
According to Du Preez's submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Vrye Weekblad revealed:- November 1988: 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...
is the new commanding officer of the VlakplaasVlakplaasVlakplaas 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...
and committed a number of murders, including those of eight people in Piet RetiefPiet RetiefPieter Mauritz Retief was a South African Boer leader. Settling in 1814 in the frontier region of the Cape Colony, he assumed command of punitive expeditions in response to raiding parties from the adjacent Xhosa territory... - December 1989: Siphiwe Mthimkulu was tortured and poisoned by the Eastern Cape security police and was seen in SAPSouth African PoliceThe 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...
company on April 14, 1982 - January 1990: police tortured prisoners and supported Inkatha vigilantes against United Democratic FrontUnited Democratic Front (South Africa)The United Democratic Front was one of the most important anti-apartheid organisations of the 1980s. The non-racial coalition of about 400 civic, church, students', workers' and other organisations was formed in 1983, initially to fight the just-introduced idea of the Tricameral Parliament The...
supporters, and murdered activist David Mazwai - February 1990: a professor was an agent of the National Intelligence Service (the revelation led to a fine of R7,000 in terms of the Protection of Information Act)
- May 1990: the secret Civil Cooperation BureauCivil Cooperation BureauThe South African Civil Cooperation Bureau was a government-sponsored hit squad during the apartheid era that operated under the authority of Defence Minister General Magnus Malan...
(CCB) was run by the South African Defence Force. Later CCB member Pieter Botes explained how he bombed Albie SachsAlbie SachsAlbie 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...
in MaputoMaputoMaputo, 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 1988, how the CCB operated against the South-West Africa People's OrganisationSouth-West Africa People's OrganisationThe South West Africa People's Organization is a political party and former liberation movement in Namibia. It has been the governing party in Namibia since achieving independence in 1990...
and assassinated Anton LubowskiAnton LubowskiAnton 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:... - August 1991: police agent Larry Barnett transferred large amounts of money from the South African Police to Inkatha, and provided Inkatha with weapons
- June 1992: dirty secrets of the State Security CouncilState Security CouncilThe State Security Council presided over the National Security Management System of president P W Botha's apartheid regime in South Africa. Its function was to advise the government on formulating and executing national security policy. Botha himself chaired the SSC, which was served by a...