The Sudden Arrest of the Western Cape “Mobile Unit”

The Sudden Arrest of the Western Cape “Mobile Unit”

In the morning of 16 May 1987, apartheid Security Branch Captain William Liebenberg produced a photo of Pieter Jacobs during his address to Sergeant McQueen, Sergeant Roman and Warrant Officer Edward Stoffels. He indicated that they are pursuing this suspect who was active in “terrorist activities”, and that he was expected to be at Klipfontein Road in Athlone that morning.

The other three policemen, McQueen, Roman and Stoffels departed from their meeting and proceeded to Athlone with the photo of Jacobs in their possession. Later that morning, in a passage running alongside Klipfontein Road, Stoffels sat reading a newspaper, with the photo of Jacobs inside the paper, when a woman gave him a signal, indicating that Pieter Jacobs was across the road, also reading a newspaper. Stoffels gave Roman and McQueen a nod, and just before 10:00, the three policemen walked up to Jacobs, who denied he was Pieter Jacobs when he was asked. Instead he claimed to be David Samuels. He was nonetheless arrested and taken to Manenberg Police Station, where he was handed over to Warrant Officer Johannes Nel.

These events began on 4 May 1985, when Quentin Michels was instructed by Ivor Adams in Gaborone, Botswana, to return to the Western Cape to recruit three other people into a cell that was to obtain safe houses for the storage of weapons and to host Comrades that were sought by the apartheid police. In the Western Cape, Michels approached his friends, Ashley Forbes and Pieter Jacobs to be part of the newly formed African National Congress (ANC) cell.

At midday, on 20 April 1986, Quentin Michels arrived at Cecil Esau’s home in Cape Town’s Wynberg suburb and handed over two bags containing limpet mines and hand grenades for Ashley Forbes, which he had received from Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Western Cape Commander, Lizo Bright Ngqungwana. Following the arrest of the Lizo Ngqungwana, and the leader of their cell, Quentin Michels in April 1986, Pieter Jacobs met an acquaintance, Donovan Jergens, on 21 May 1986, in Cape Town and asked him to assist them to go to Queenstown the following day. Jergens agreed and they decided to meet at Landsdowne Railway Station.

On 22 May 1986, Donovan Jergens and Jacobs met at the station as arranged and Jergens drove to Wetton Circle, where they picked up Ashley Forbes, who like Jacobs was seeking to leave the country to escape the wave of arrests in Cape Town. When they picked up Forbes, he was in the company of another friend, named Mark Henry, and Jergens transported all three of them to Queenstown. They then left the country for military training in Angola through Lesotho.

In December 1986, Ashley Forbes and Pieter Jacobs returned to South Africa after having completed their military training abroad. They then headed to Port Elizabeth, where they stayed at the Griffin Hotel under the aliases P. Philander and K. Samuels. Shortly afterwards, Nicklo Pedro received a call from Jacobs, who said that they had returned from Angola and needed accommodation in Mossel Bay. Pedro then went to meet Forbes and Jacobs and arranged a tent where they could sleep at Diaz Beach. When they conversed on the beach, Forbes asked Pedro whether he was willing to serve in their command cell as a contact person with the subordinate cell, to which Pedro agreed.

Following the encounter with Pedro, Forbes and Jacobs arrived in Cape Town on 23 December 1986, where they stayed in the Kensington Hotel under the Philander and Samuels aliases again. About six months before then, in July 1986, Pedro, who was also MK Commander Ashley Kriel’s friend, had recruited Clement Baatjies and Anwa Dramat into a cell referred to as the “Mobile Unit”.

When they resumed their operations, on the evening of 23 April 1987, Ashley Forbes drove Pieter Jacobs and Nicklo Pedro to a house belonging to Mr Nissan, who was believed to be a policeman, in Rangerslot, in Mitchell’s Plain. Jacobs and Pedro exited the car and Jacobs headed to one of the house’s windows, with Pedro going to the car that was standing next to the house. Pedro punctured the car’s tyres, as Jacobs broke the window with a stone and threw a hand grenade inside.

On the same evening, Anwa Dramat, who was wearing rubber gloves and a balaclava, jumped over the locked front gate of the home of Constable Jones at 115 Bonteheuwel Avenue with a grenade in his hand. About halfway between the gate and the house, he threw the grenade through the window immediately to the right of the door, which he ran towards to avoid the shrapnel. After the explosion, Dramat exited the premises and dumped the grenade pin during the escape.

Following the arrest of Pieter Jacobs and his handing over to Warrant Officer Johannes Nel at Manenberg Police Station on 16 May 1987, Lieutenant Liebenberg and Warrant Officers Nel and Jeffrey Benzien proceeded to Dunster Road in Athlone the same day, as part of a police team of six or seven men, with Pieter Jacobs accompanying them. This occurred after Pieter Jacobs had been subjected to excessive torture by the apartheid Special Branch in Cape Town, led by Warrant Officer Benzien.

According to his Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Amnesty application, “Benzien admitted that after Jacobs was brought to Culemborg he was handcuffed and then questioned about the whereabouts of Ashley Forbes. Benzien said that Jacobs was evasive in his answers and appeared to be playing for time. He was then subjected to torture by the ‘wet bag’ method. He was also subjected to electric shock treatment and in this he was assisted by John Kotze. Benzien said that he could not remember to which part of the body electric shock was administered and it was only when he was reminded by Jacobs, that it was his rectum and in his ear that Benzien conceded that it could be so.”

Furthermore, “Benzien admitted that the interrogation and torture of Jacobs commenced shortly after nine o’clock in the morning and continued until after 2pm (14:00) after which time the wet bag was used on him on several occasions. Benzien conceded that Jacobs was subjected to cruel treatment for a long period of time. He said that he would have used any means at his disposal to get Jacobs to reveal where his compatriot was hiding and at one state whilst Jacobs was being suffocated by the wet bag, Benzien admitted saying to him: ‘Peter, I will take you to the verge of death as many times as I want to, but here you are going to talk, and if it means that you will die, that is okay.’”

When they reached Dunster Road in Athlone, Lieutenant Liebenberg and Warrant Officers Nel and Jeffrey Benzien proceeded to house number 4, where they headed to a free-standing garage situated on the property. At approximately 14:15, the policemen took up positions by the front door, with Liebenberg holding Jacobs in front of him. Benzien was directly behind, armed with a 9-mm Beretta sidearm as well as a Beretta shotgun. Liebenberg also had a key in his possession, and used it to unlock the door, which opened outwards.

When entering, Benzien held Jacobs half in front of him. Liebenberg then looked to the left and shouted, “Hello Ashley”. Benzien entered next and pointed his gun leftwards. There were two beds parallel to each other, with Ashley Forbes on the one to the left, nearest to the windows, and his toes sticking out of the bed. Liebenberg warned him not to make any sudden movement. Thereafter Ashley Forbes was arrested.

The arrests of Pieter Jacobs and Ashley Forbes meant that the other members of the “Mobile Unit” were now in danger of being arrested. On midday 15 August 1987, a beige Toyota Corolla was searched by policemen at the Tele Bridge border post between the Transkei and Lesotho with two so-called Coloured ladies. At just that time, Warrant Officer Vuyile Gcaba arrived with an elderly lady and young man who had been dropped by the same Corolla.

The young man, who gave his name as “Denver Pedro”, was Nicklo Pedro, and the elderly lady was “Yasmina Pandy”. When the Security Branch in Aliwal North was called, Captain William de Lange took Pedro out of the office and asked him if he knew Ashley Forbes, and when he admitted knowing him, the three ladies and Nicklo Pedro were arrested.

FREEDOM OR DEATH, VICTORY IS CERTAIN!

Sources:
Marianne Thamm, “Crime Intelligence: Who is Major-General Peter Jacobs?”, Daily Maverick, 29 Mar 2018.
Tarryn-Leigh Solomons, “Former MK Guerrilla Nicklo Pedro Remembered”, Cape Times, 17 May 2021.
Ashley Forbes, “I Do Not Recognise This Animal That Calls Itself The ANC”, Daily Maverick, 30 November 2022.
Cornelle Carstens, “’Mandela of Mossel Bay’ Truly Free at Last”, George Herald, 13 May 2021.
Thula Simpson, “Umkhonto we Sizwe: The ANC’s Armed Struggle”, Penguin, 2016.

Castro Khwela
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