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'Third force' hit EL hotel
29/11/2006 15:24 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The attack on the Highgate hotel in East London 13 years ago was not carried out by the Azanian People's Liberation Army (Apla) but by a "third force", a former police investigator says.
Captain Daryl Els - now of the Scorpions - said he was "99%" sure the apartheid-era security forces were involved in the Highgate attack on May 1 1993. Five people were killed and survivors were seriously wounded.
If the perpetrators are to be identified, said Els, "a dedicated team will have to be set up with the authority from a ministerial level".
Els was speaking after meeting in East London with Highgate survivors and PAC president Letlapa Mphahlele.
Els was formerly of the serious violent crimes unit and was part of the national task team which investigated the attacks linked to Apla in the run-up to the 1994 election. Mphahlele was the Apla operations commander at the time. Security forces
Both Els and Mphahlele agree that the attack was not carried out by Apla, but by a "third force" - probably elements of the apartheid-era security forces.
The motive would have been to whip up support for the right wing before the 1994 election.
It was the first time Els and Mphahlele had met.
"Personally it surprised me at the time when it was reported in the newspaper," said Mphahlele.
He has never been able to find anyone in Apla who did it or knew about it.
Mphahlele pointed out that Apla had freely admitted responsibility for its attacks. This included the Eikenhof attack in which three people had died and for which ANC members had been wrongly jailed.
Apla claimed responsibility at the time, but Els dismissed this, while Mphahlele said he had never been able to establish who had made that claim. Liberation movements' strategyBoth said it had been the liberation movements' strategy at the time to claim for incidents even if they hadn't been responsible.
Els listed his reasons for believing that other perpetrators were responsible and Mphahlele said this matched his information.
At Highgate, attackers wore black or dark blue uniforms and balaclavas, used AK47s, a handgrenade and teargas, which Apla did not.
Apla used R1s, R4s and R5s, as they could not get ammunition for AK47s.
Els described the attackers' withdrawal under teargas as "a first".
Some attackers had camouflage paint on their faces, raising speculation they were white.
Apla routinely hijacked vehicles to use in attacks, which were later found abandoned. No vehicles had been reported stolen or hijacked in East London before the Highgate attack and the vehicle was never found. More training than Apla
Els said the Highgate attackers had more training - included far greater accuracy in shooting than those in Apla attacks.
Apla reused their weapons, so attacks were linked ballistically.
"The AK47s used at Highgate were never linked ballistically before or after that attack to anything, which shows that they were used specifically for that attack and destroyed," said Els.
Police investigators received intelligence reports from different branches of the security forces on other attacks, but nothing on Highgate.
Apla carefully documented all its attacks and these documents were seized from Apla in Mthatha in 1994 and in Lesotho in 1995. "There is not a shred of paper that talks about the Highgate hotel," said Mphahlele, with Els agreeing. Askaris
They agreed it was possible that askaris - former guerillas who were "turned" and worked for the police - could have been used in the attack.
The main askari base was Vlakplaas, but there was an askari unit in East London which for years was based just minutes away from Highgate.
The askari units were closed down nationally by the police the day before the Highgate attack.
Els has been unable to forget Highgate.
"It was one of the few cases that I've never solved, it's always been a problem." TRCPolice tried to disclose their belief in the third force attackers at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, but were told they could not without concrete evidence.
Els said the meeting with the survivors and Mphahlele had been ideal.
"We could confront one another and he could deny and I could put my facts as well. At no stage did we contradict one another."
- SAPA
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