Death Flight: Apartheid's Secret Doctrine of Disappearance by Michael Schmidt

Author:Michael Schmidt [Schmidt, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction, History, True Crime, Politics, South Africa, Illustrated
ISBN: 9780624088615
Publisher: NB Publishers
Published: 2020-08-29T23:00:00+00:00

On the night of 16–17 August 1981, the pseudo-operations unit carried out a raid on the Selous Scouts’ former André Rabie HQ at Inkomo, which had been converted into Zimbabwe’s primary national armoury with underground bunkers stockpiling weapons. Anthony Turton states that General Jannie Geldenhuys, at that stage Chief of the Army, later claimed ‘that a heavy arsenal of 455 and 900 kg Air Force bombs were stored there, making the target legitimate.’

This is questionable, as South Africa had not formally declared war on Zimbabwe, despite the fact that its ZANU regime’s open support for the ANC and the harbouring of MK guerrillas made it a distinctly hostile state and a de facto if not de jure enemy. Nevertheless, this appears to be the first large-scale armed assault by Barnacle in a foreign country, though it is not clear whether the raid was carried out by Branfield’s Urban Ops wing or Kriel’s Ops wing – or both.

Major-General Fritz Loots would have reported directly to Geldenhuys about this raid, and Geldenhuys would in turn have reported to the Chief of the Defence Force, General Constand Viljoen, and thence upwards to Defence Minister Magnus Malan and Prime Minister PW Botha. (Geldenhuys, who had reportedly been suffering from the onset of dementia, died on 10 September 2018 at his home in George in the Western Cape, aged 83, before this author was able to interview him about Barnacle.⁶)

Regarding the Inkomo raid, the TRC stated: ‘On 16 August 1981, an explosion at the Inkomo Barracks near Bulawayo destroyed weapons valued at approximately $50 million. The commander of the corps of engineers in the Zimbabwe National Army, Captain Patrick Gericke, was arrested soon after the attack. Gericke was suspected of having led a group in the attack, which resulted in bombs going off at intervals over a four-hour period. The fact that his release from prison in December 1981 was engineered by a Zimbabwean police inspector, Mr Fred Varkevisser, who may also have been a South African agent, suggests that he may have been acting on South Africa’s behalf. Along with Varkevisser’s family, they were then flown to South Africa in a light aircraft, after which Gericke joined the SADF.’⁷

Gericke and Varkevisser were members of Branfield’s stay-behind network of saboteurs in Zimbabwe, according to Jacques Pauw.⁸

Geldenhuys writes that it was this network that sprung Gericke ‘in a bold operation’ on 15 November 1981 on the direct orders of Loots via Barnacle.⁹ He also claims that ‘two Project Barnacle Piper Senecas arrived at Hartley (now Chegutu) airfield to fly the South African escapees, and the abducted Varkevisser, back to South Africa’. This is the sole mention of a second Piper Seneca under Barnacle’s control and probably refers to another ‘civilian’ aircraft operated clandestinely by the SADF.

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