SADF ‘Third Force’-Related Officers Dismissed by De Klerk
On 19 December 1992, apartheid State President F.W. de Klerk announced that 23 members of the South African Defence Force (SADF), including two generals and four brigadiers, were being forcibly retired or suspended. This followed the findings of a commission of inquiry into illegal or unauthorised activities by the SADF, set up under Lieutenant-General Pierre Steyn.
In 1991, de Klerk enacted legislation that provided for the creation of the Goldstone Commission, led by Judge Richard Goldstone. In November 1992, the Goldstone Commission’s investigators raided a Pretoria office building that Military Intelligence (MI) used as an operational headquarters. The Goldstone Commission investigators seized documents that contained information that MI was running a dirty tricks campaign against the ANC. The goal of the MI secret operation was to frame ANC members for criminal activities. De Klerk appointed General Pierre Steyn, who was assisted by Lieutenant-General Alwyn Conradie of the apartheid South African Police, to investigate the Goldstone Commission’s findings.
On 18 December General Steyn, presented his preliminary findings to President De Klerk and senior members of the government at Tuynhuys in Cape Town. He did not hand the President a report as such but gave a briefing based on contributions from a variety of intelligence sources. The account alleged that these SADF members were part of covert “T
