The South African Civil Cooperation Bureau (CCB) ( (BSB)) was a government-sponsored death squad during the apartheid era. The CCB, operated under the authority of Defence Minister General Magnus Malan. The post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Committee pronounced the CCB guilty of numerous confirmed killings, and significantly more suspected killings that were difficult to trace, particularly due to the destruction of evidence.SAPA. (1999). Joubert authorises car bomb that killed Piet Ntuli.
Forerunners and contemporaries When South African 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 Department of Information (see Muldergate Scandal), the Bureau of State 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 would label the Third Force. These operations included Wouter Basson's 7 Medical Battalion Group, the Askaris, Witdoeke, Experimental Group Program (also called "Clandestine Cooperation Bureau") and C1/C10 or Vlakplaas.
Besides these, there were also political front organisations like the International Freedom Foundation, Marthinus van Schalkwyk's Jeugkrag (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 Minister of Defense General Magnus Malan and Chief of SADF General Jannie Geldenhuys, the CCB became fully functional by 1988. As a reformulation of Project Barnacle, the nature of its operations were disguised, and it disassociated itself from all other Special Forces and DMI (Directorate of Military Intelligence) structures. The CCB formed the third arm of the Third Force, alongside Vlakplaas C1 and the Special Tasks projects.O'Brien, Kevin. "The Use of Assassination as a Tool of State Policy: South Africa's Counter-Revolutionary Strategy 1979–92 (Part II)." Terrorism and Political Violence 13.2 (2001): 131
In his 1997 submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, General Malan described the CCB as follows:
Reports about the CCB were first published in 1990 by the weekly Vrye Weekblad, 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 project in the South African Defence Force. 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. According to Joubert, many operatives did not know that they were members of an entity called the CCB.Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report, Volume 2, pp. 137–8. Retrieved 4 May 2007
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.Human Rights Watch. (1991). The Killings in South Africa: The Role of the Security Forces and the Response of the State. . Accessed 16 May 2007 Some members were transferred to other security organs.Transcript of proceedings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (Day 18), 29 September 2000. Accessed 17 May 2007. No prosecutions resulted.
Structure The CCB consisted of four groups with different functions:Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report, Volume 2, pp. 139. Retrieved 4 May 2007 an executive, a management board, two staff functions, eight operational sections known as regions, and an ad hoc collection of contractors. The overall size of the CCB never exceeded 250–300 full-time personnel.O'Brien, Kevin A. The South African Intelligence Services: From Apartheid to Democracy, 1948–2005. Routledge, 2010., pg. 134–135
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 at first controlled by the General Officer Commanding Special Forces, Major-General Eddie Webb who reported to the Chief of the SADF.
Management board The CCB operated as a civilian entity, so it had a chairman of the board and a group of 'directors'. The GOC 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.
Staff functions Although there is consistent evidence that the CCB had two staff functions 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.
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 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. 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 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. ▪Pseudo Unit: Operated by ex S.A.D.F. members. Members named: John McCloud (ex Rhodesian) (aka:Ausie), Willem Schalk Van Der Merwe, aka: (William Reid, William Bennet).
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.Amnesty Committee. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa. Application in terms of section 18 of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, 34 of 1995. AC/2001/232. Accessed 17 May 2007. Proceeds from all blue plan activities vastly exceeded the funding CCB received from the state. A large private sector was created, which employed tens of thousands of people. Former security officers not in the CCB ran these companies alongside CCB officers. In the December 1993 Goldstone Commission, the task group found that ex CCB members were involved in various illegal activities including gun and drug smuggling
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.
The 'red plan' targeted victims and detailed action to be taken against them. The scenario, as described by Max Coleman in A Crime Against Humanity: Analysing the Repression of the Apartheid State, was as follows:
Known and suspected operations To date there is no published record covering all operations conducted during the CCB's five-year existence. Some of the active operations conducted included the following: Alleged harassment of Afrikaner dissident and Vrye Weekblad editor Max du Preez by pointing an RPG7 at him while forcing him to consume a large amount of mampoer or moonshineAuthor unknown. (2005). Die geskiedenis van Vrye Weekblad in 170 bladsye. Die Burger. Accessed 12 December 2007 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 Alleged shooting of Danger Nyoni – 12 December 1986 Attempted contamination of drinking water in a Namibian refugee camp, by introducing cholera bacterium into it, in an effort to disrupt that country's independence from South AfricaAssociated Press. (1990). Paper Says Pretoria Put Germs in Namibian Water. The New York Times, 12 May. Accessed 17 May 2007.. – August 1989Burgess, S. & Purkitt, H. (undated). The secret program. South Africa's chemical and biological weapons. Accessed 22 May 2007. Attempted assault on UN Special Representative, Martti Ahtisaari, 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. Bombing of a Western Cape kindergarten – the Early Learning Centre – on the evening of 31 August 1989 Harassment of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, by hanging a baboon foetus in the garden of his Cape Town home in 1989 in the hope that it would bewitch himBaboon foetus 'sent to bewitch Tutu’. Independent Newspapers Youthvote. Supplying materials to SAP members for the 1986 killing of KwaNdebele cabinet minister Piet Ntuli