When Colonel Eugene de Kock, Head of the C10 Vlakplaas Unit of the apartheid Security Branch, with former Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) operative, Glory Sedibe (aka “September”), who had been turned to work for the apartheid Security Forces (an “askari”), after De Kock had kidnapped him from Swaziland in August 1986, met a member of the apartheid Military Intelligence’s (MI) Directorate of Covert Collection (DCC) in Vienna, Austria, he was accompanied by a very prominent member of the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) Department of National Intelligence and Security (NAT/DIS or colloquially known as “Mbokodo”).
In that meeting, which was held on 22 November 1989, the “Mbokodo” man, who was well-known to September, was to be convinced to work as an agent for apartheid Military Intelligence. As they were discussing with this Mbokodo-cum-Security Branch agent, De Kock began asking about Thami Zulu. He recounted an incident in which Zulu and other ANC members wanted to shoot Special Agent Colonel Chris Deetlefs, Mr Labuschagne and other four members of the apartheid Security Branch at the Royal Swazi Hotel, while they were playing golf. Zulu was sent to fetch the weapons, and when he returned without them, he was recalled, arrested and detained in Zambia.
When the Mbokodo officer asked De Kock whether “Boniface” (alias for Thami Zulu) was an apartheid agent or not, De Kock said no he wasn’t. The man then commented that they made a terrible mistake by assuming that he was. He then further asked if Edward Lawrence (aka “Ralph” or “Fear”) was an agent or not, De Kock replied that Lawrence was not just a source but a very potent operative. The Mbokodo man then commented that they really made a terrible mistake about him as well. De Kock then got the idea at that point that both had been murdered within the ANC.
Ten years before this meeting, on 22 November 1983, just after midnight, apartheid death squads, led by Eugene de Kock, raided a house in Manzini, Swaziland, and killed three MK operatives, including Keith McFadden and Zwelakhe Nyanda. Ironically, the person who survived the raid was Edward Lawrence, known by several codenames (Ralph Mgcina, Cyril Raymonds, Leonard and Comrade Fear). He ran from the house naked and reported at the Swazi Police Station. No one could admit the simple truth: that they had gone to Manzini to save one of their own, one of the most important agents to have ever infiltrated the ANC.
Two days before this operation, MK operatives, Sthabiso Mahlobo (aka “S’khusele”) and David Jiba Bhengu (aka “Thomas Masiza”) were arrested in KwaShange Area near Pietermaritzburg. During the interrogation, Mahlobo was shown by the apartheid Security Branch a report he had compiled in Maputo, titled “Year of United Action Report”, saying that they got it from a highly sensitive source in the ANC.
Edward Lawrence was also responsible for ordering the killing of an innocent Ben Langa by MK operatives as well as the ambushes of nine MK members on 8 and 12 June 1988. According to the African National Congress’ (ANC’s) submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC):
“Deliberate disinformation resulted in attacks and assassinations in which dedicated cadres lost their lives. In one of the most painful examples of this nature, a state agent with the name of ‘Fear’ ordered two cadres to execute Ben Langa on the grounds that Langa was an agent of the regime … Once the facts were known to the leadership of the ANC, President Tambo personally met with the family to explain and apologise for this action.”
And besides these acts of betrayal, most of the arrests, such as that of several members of the ‘Operation Butterfly’ Unit on 23 December 1985, and deaths of MK and ANC underground operatives that were handled by the Natal Machinery were attributable to Comrade Fear. On the morning of 27 July 1988, following his interview by an ANC Panel of Inquest the night before, Lawrence complained of stomach pains and was later certified dead due to an intake of poison. During the TRC hearings, de Kock referred to Lawrence as “a very effective operative”.
“Comrade Fear”, MK commander Cyril Raymond (aka “Edward Lawrence”, aka “Ralph”, aka “Fear”) came under suspicion within the ANC and was detained and interrogated in the 1980s. He and his wife, Jessica, were summoned to Lusaka. Subsequently Raymond died in detention, reportedly drowning in his own vomit. Under questioning, he reportedly confessed to being a police spy and afterwards died in ANC custody.
However, according to Gayton McKenzie, “Comrade Fear is the reason why Prez JZ (Jacob Zuma) is chased, he handed the list of the different enemy agents within MK to Joe Nhlanhla (the former head of the ANC’s Department of Intelligence and Security — DIS) and Jacob Zuma. He was killed after confessing all names. Who killed him is the biggest question.’’ The list was handed over to then President Oliver Tambo and ultimately landed on the lap of the next President of the ANC, Nelson Mandela.
It is also interesting that recently the Chairperson of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Blade Nzimande, confirmed that such a list existed, as then ANC President, Nelson Mandela, informed them around 1996 as members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC about the existence of such a list and how it was to be handled.
Castro Khwela
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There are perhaps two important aspects which you have not covered is the brutal killing of GM Mxenge who had links to the Natal Machinery.
The second one was the arrest in November 1981 of members of the Natal Machinery. Those includedthe late Judge Ntobeko Maqubela, Litha Jolobe, the late Mboniswa Maqhutyana and Mpumelelo Gaba.
Fear, akaBruinou, Cyril, Ralph together with the late Zweli Mkhize were part of the tgen Natal Urban and rural Machinery!