Harms Commission

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The Harms Commission of Inquiry into Certain Alleged Murders
DateFebruary 1990 to September 1990
DurationSix months
Location Pretoria, South Africa
Also known asHarms Commission
Participants
Outcome
  • Controversially rejected claims of the existence of an assassination squad within the South African police and army
  • Found 'certain individuals' were guilty of breaking 'common law'

The Harms Commission of Inquiry into Certain Alleged Murders, known as the Harms Commission, was established by South African apartheid-era President F.W. de Klerk on 31 January 1990 as a public inquiry to investigate politically motivated assassinations of opponents of the apartheid regime by clandestine death squads within the South African police and the army. [1] [2]

Contents

Chaired by Judge Louis Harms, the hearings were held at the Dutch Reformed Church office building in downtown Pretoria between February and September 1990. By June 1990, the commission had heard testimonies from 250 witnesses - ordinary people, policemen and members of the South African army's Civil Cooperation Bureau, an undercover military unit accused of murdering political opponents of the apartheid government. [3]

Background

The commission was established after a public outcry following disturbing revelations made in October 1989 by Almond Nofomela, an askari who was based in Vlakplaas, of his membership in a police hits squad that targeted and killed activists of the African National Congress (ANC) and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). Nofomela revealed that his previous commander at Vlakplaas was Dirk Coetzee and Coetzee, who was in hiding in Britain and meeting with journalists and ANC intelligence officials, confirmed Nofomela's claims; and soon gave details of this assassination squad to Vrye Weekblad, an anti-apartheid Afrikaans-language weekly - shocikg the whole world. Soon after these revelations, De Klerk as President was put under immense public pressure to act on the allegations; which resulted in the establishment of the Harms Commission. [4] [5]

Findings

To the shock of the domestic and international communities opposed to the racist apartheid regime who described it as "whitewash" [6] and "large-scale cover up" [3] , the Harms commission released its findings on 13 November 1990 and found no evidence that the police and army clandestinely murdered opponents of the apartheid government . Three former police officers - Dirk Coetzee, Almond Nofomela and David Tshikalanga - were called to come testify at the inquiry and all gave evidence of their involvement in the Vlakplaas counterinsurgent assassination unit but Judge Harms rejected their evidence as being not trustable. Thus the assassinations of Sizwe Kondile, Griffiths Mxenge, David Webster and Anton Lubowski remained a mystery; which forced De Klerk to establish the Goldstone Commission in 1991 [7] [8] .

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References

  1. ↑ Human Rights Watch World Report 1990 - South Africa, Refworld.org, 1 January 1991. Retrieved 28 January 2025
  2. ↑ Commission of Inquiry Into Certain Alleged Murders: Report - 201 pages. Author: L. T. C. Harms. South Africa: Government Printer. ISBN   9780621134100
  3. 1 2 Witnesses hinder Pretoria inquiry, New York Times, 18 June 1990. Retrieved 28 January 2025
  4. ↑ Dirk Coetzee meets his end, Daily Maverick, 8 March 2013. Retrieved 28 January 2025
  5. ↑ Dipale comes down to two apartheid collaborators, ahmedtimol.co.za, 12 March 2021. Retrieved 28 January 2025
  6. ↑ South Africa's death squads, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law A report by The Southern Africa Project PDF, 20 September 1990. Page 69
  7. ↑ Harms releases report, sahistory.org.za, article published 16 March 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2025
  8. ↑ Dirk Jonanens Coetzee, sahistory.org.za. Retrieved 28 January 2025

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