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.
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 “Third Force” campaigns intended to discredit the African National Congress (ANC).
The activities included horrifying allegations of the involvement of SADF elements in fomenting and provoking violence between black factions in the townships; carrying out political assassinations; invoking a murderous reign of terror (specifically by the 5 Reconnaissance Regiment) on black commuter trains; stockpiling weapons; and collaborating with the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in what seemed as an effort to provoke a military crackdown against new freedoms for black South Africans.
The substance of the presentation by General Steyn was that components of the SADF – the Military Intelligence’s Directorate Covert Collection (DCC), Army Intelligence, Special Forces and the
