Police head admits to Khotso House bombing

Appearing before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission(TRC), General Johan van der Merwe former South African Police Services(SAPS) National Commissioner (1990-1995), admitted that he gave the order in 1988 for the SAP to blow up Khotso House on 31 August 1988. The building was the headquarters of the South African Council of Churches(SACC) and housed a number of other progressive organisations. Van der Merwe claims that Adriaan Vlok, the then Minister of Law and Order conveyed this order directly from President P. W. Botha. In two-hour talks with the TRC, Botha denied ordering the bombing of Khotso House. He claimed that the allegations implicating him in the bombing were based on untested and unproven hearsay. On the following day Deputy President, Thabo Mbeki said in a press statement; “At last we have been vindicated. The apartheid regime, at its highest levels, ordered the bombing of Khotso House as an attack on the heart of the Church, its mission and being.” Click here for van der Merwe's TRC statement. Click here for de Klerk's TRC admission re knowledge of the state order to bomb Khotso House.