Document:Synopsis of "Who Really Killed Chris Hani?"

'According to South African intelligence sources, convicted assassin Janusz Waluś was intimately associated with the South African Institute for Maritime Research (SAIMR) …' We are told that according to a November 1990 article in the Sunday Times of London, an investigation by one South African intelligence agency 'determined that SAIMR was a front for Britain's MI6'.

 Summary  by Chris Nicholson dated 14 January 2025

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Subjects: Chris Hani, Patrice Lumumba, Dag Hammarskjöld, Olof Palme, Bernt Carlsson, Anton Lubowski, Janusz Waluś, SAIMR, MI6, Tienie Groenewald, Keith Maxwell, Craig Williamson, Third Force
Source: Chris Nicholson's website (Link)

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Synopsis of "Who Really Killed Chris Hani?"

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'What raises man above the beast is not the cudgel, but an inward music: the unarmed power of truth.'

- Boris Pasternak, Dr Zhivago

The telling of this tale was difficult and the facts were not found easily. Somehow, something told me, they had to be revealed. Silence did not seem to be an option. No doubt there will be consequences for me, but at least with this revolutionary act, the truth will shine.

And so the tangled and complex threads somehow come together. Dirty politicians, insatiably greedy businessmen, crooked arms dealers with boatloads of money, power-hungry global intelligence spooks, insane fanatics playing god and weaponising AIDS, and lawless criminals scrabbling for swag, all jerked the strings that left Chris Hani bloody and dead on the driveway of his humble Johannesburg home.

Four bullets from puppet Janusz Waluś's silenced gun changed the course of South African history. The bad guys pinpointed in this book won, freeing them to continue stealing the country blind of its profoundly immense mineral wealth.

Had Hani lived and been able to hold together the ANC and rid it of its rotten core, South Africa might have enjoyed a distinctively different outcome. Hani had proved moral, but it is a sad fact of history that his quest to share the country's riches brought together an unholy alliance determined to exterminate anyone who so much as thought of giving back some of the treasure they had yanked from the ground and with which they paid off those who had the power to interfere with their looting. Unfortunately, the gluttony endemic in international business, power politics, the dirty tricks departments of governments around the world and outright criminals have all conspired to pull off murders on a global scale that seem to have similar links.

We should never forget what Irish author S M Sigerson, author of the book on Michael Collins, said

'History repeats itself as do the methods used by those specialising in the elimination of leaders who unite people into a strong force for dignity, justice and self-determination.'

We have dealt here with six murders, spread over three decades, starting with Patrice Lumumba sometime in September 1961, Dag Hammarskjöld on 18 September 1961, then Olof Palme on 28 February 1986, Bernt Carlsson on 21 December 1988, Anton Lubowski on 12 September 1989, and finally, Chris Hani on 10 April 1993. Twenty-five years separated the first two murders but thereafter the others occurred within seven years.

Whether they were assassinated by gunmen on the ground or died following air crashes, there is one predominating theme: all these slain heroes were striving to take on the rich and powerful and redistribute the African continent's wealth to its citizens, more especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia and South Africa. Apart from Olof Palme, the killings all took place at the time of independence. In addition, it seems the intelligence agencies were actively involved.

South Africa with its US$2.5-trillion worth of resources in the world has the worst gap between rich and poor. And the results of the machinations of the rogues identified in this book are that there has been no change in that pattern; in fact for many, conditions have become worse. At their broadest, the patterns and trends in Southern Africa over the last half of the 20th century saw a decolonisation process taking place with Western colonial powers anxious to keep what wealth they could, even if they had to give up political power. Apart from their interests and shareholdings in South African companies, foreign, especially American and British, companies had an important presence in this land. These corporate interests would have taken a knock financially if Chris Hani and the South African Communist Party had their way in implementing the Freedom Charter provisions.

Evidence of this with regard to the United States of America was provided in a secret National Security Council document NSC 68 of 1950, which defined the goal of constructing a 'world environment in which the American system can survive and flourish'.

On the British side, Leo Amery's son Julian stated explicitly how important the riches were to Britain.

'The prosperity of our people rests really on the oil in the Persian Gulf, the rubber and tin of Malaya, and the gold, copper and precious metals of South and Central Africa. As long as we have access to these; as long as we can realise the investments we have there; as long as we trade with this part of the world, we shall be prosperous. If the communists [or anyone else] were to take them over, we would lose the lot.'

We saw how British commercial interests reacted when these untold riches were threatened by a democratic government in South Africa. Former Nationalist Government official Eschel Rhoodie said South Africa's mineral wealth was far more important to these nations than any moral or ethical considerations about ending apartheid. He divided the views of Western powers into two groups. The first being the Canadians, French, Scandinavians and Australians, who hoped to persuade the new South African Government to continue selling the crucial minerals to the West after majority rule. The second group, consisting of the Americans, British, West Germans and most of the NATO countries, believed a popularly elected government would nationalise resources and that desperate measures would have to be applied. We have seen those 'desperate measures' and their tragic consequences. The idealistic heroes and leaders who tried to stem this plundering tide and redistribute the wealth among the citizenry were the targets of these desperate measures. Patrice Lumumba, first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was murdered by SAIMR and its allies in 1961, as was United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld. Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, an avid anti-apartheid activist, was assassinated in 1986 by a hit squad sent by the Nationalist South African Government.

In December 1988, UN Assistant Secretary-General Bernt Carlsson was persuaded by mining giant De Beers to stop over in London on his way to the US. He then boarded Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie in Scotland killing all on board. The prospect of independence and majority rule terrified the huge mining companies who proceeded to tear the biggest alluvial diamonds from the coastal sands, whipping them out of the country. Carlsson was determined to take on the racketeers of capitalism and sue them for the wealth and resources plundered from Namibia before independence. We know that the British Government had a large stake in URENCO, which needed Namibia's uranium. Carlsson had instituted action against URENCO and was threatening to confront other large corporations, including the De Beers cartel, when he met his demise. Pik Botha's lies and the hint that he was warned before boarding the Lockerbie flight show clearly that South African intelligence and probably other agencies were pre-warned about the bomb.

Windhoek advocate Anton Lubowski was working hard to plan the new Namibia's future, including its mineral wealth. He was gunned down outside his home in 1989 because, it seems, there were those who could not tolerate a just future for the country. According to Judge Harold Levy's judgment, various CCB members were involved at the instance of the Nationalist Government.

The links between these deaths, including that of Hani, cannot be ignored. So let us pull together all these malignant strings. From the preceding chapters we know that Janusz Waluś was found guilty of killing Chris Hani and Clive Derby-Lewis was adjudged to be guilty as an accomplice. In South African law, an accomplice is a person who assists in the commission of the crime by aiding, counselling, commanding or encouraging the principal. It also includes procuring weapons to be used to commit the crime, which describes the role of Derby-Lewis, or serving as a lookout during the commission of the crime, which might well implicate Martin Carl van Zyl whose car number was on the hit list. It would implicate Peter Jackson, if he knew his car would be used for the hit on Hani. The persons must have had a common purpose, in this instance Hani's murder. In that event, each of them is liable as accomplices for anything done by the others in the furtherance of their objective to kill him. If for instance, members of the ANC Omega Strike Unit arranged for Hani's bodyguards to be off-duty, knowing that the purpose was to expose Hani to more danger, they would be guilty of murder as accomplices. The key element is, obviously, knowledge of the reason for which each individual act was being performed.

The fact that people were far removed from the commission of the crime does not exonerate them. A gang leader often sits at home puffing on his big cigar and sipping his single malt, while the gang carries out his reprehensible deeds. He is not only responsible, but also the ringleader and invariably punished the most severely. That is the case even in political offences, which is clear from a powerful extract of the judgment in the Adolf Eichmann case.

'These crimes were committed en masse, not only in regard to the number of victims, but also in regard to the numbers of those who perpetrated the crime, and the extent to which any of the many criminals was close to or remote from the actual killer of the victim means nothing, as far as the measure of responsibility is concerned. On the contrary, in general, the degree of responsibility increases as we draw further away from the man who uses the fatal instrument with his own hands.'

Furthermore, a person who conspires or incites any other person to commit any offence is guilty of an offence. The crucial issue is whether a communication was made to another with the intention of influencing him to commit the crime of shooting Hani. In seeking to find the people or organisations behind the murder, we might remind ourselves of our early enquiries. We asked if Plan A was to try reducing the African population so that it was not significant in all-race elections. The second motive was related to the desire of eliminating leaders with socialist agendas, such as Chris Hani.

The figure of General Tienie Groenewald looms large in either scenario. Regarding Plan A, the AIDS plot coalesced around Keith Maxwell, SAIMR and Dr Wouter Basson, and the documents provide strong evidence. An initial project involved spreading AIDS at ANC activists' camps before 1990. Hani would have been a prime target there. We know this effort was continued at mining camps, hotels and other venues at the instance of Military Intelligence's secret killing squad, the CCB. SAIMR played a central role. It appears to have organised and coordinated many of the events related. There is little doubt it had no benign objectives and was in fact a criminal syndicate. In a sense the organisation was the secret hit squad of big business, along with British and US Intelligence. Cooperation between big business and the state, more especially the intelligence agencies, has been central to the ongoing looting. The connivance with British and American intelligence agencies was illustrated by Major-General Jac Buchner in chapter 41 with his comments to an American journalist that their training was via the CIA and the Brits.

'By that I mean American techniques … it's a brotherhood.' General Tienie Groenewald added that no one should underestimate the involvement of foreign intelligence in Third Force operations: 'MI6, the CIA … South Africa was a pawn in the struggle between the big powers.'

Was there an unholy alliance between big capital and the state? If there was a conspiracy to kill Hani, who did it include? We recall that within five weeks of Hani's death, Executive Intelligence Review (EIR) asked the question, Did British intelligence kill Hani? The authors pinpointed the ANC and its possible role when his two bodyguards were given time off, the precise day the assassins struck. The magazine mentioned that this 'smelled of complicity from inside the ANC, and in fact Hani's factional ally Winnie Mandela charged that the ANC had killed him.'

We learn further from the piece about New Nation's comment that blaming 'the lunatic right-wing fringe is a poor attempt at exonerating the more sophisticated forces from culpability.' More than one killer is mentioned. EIR's report then addressed the central enquiry whether there were British intelligence links to the plot? The answer is affirmative.

'According to South African intelligence sources, convicted assassin Janusz Waluś was intimately associated with the South African Institute for Maritime Research (SAIMR) …' We are told that according to a November 1990 article in the Sunday Times of London, an investigation by one South African intelligence agency 'determined that SAIMR was a front for Britain's MI6'.

Also noted was Waluś's possible involvement with British intelligence when former MI6 Africa desk head Nicholas Elliott's hastily visited South Africa just days before the assassination for a meeting with Anglo head honcho Julian Ogilvie Thompson (chapter 13).

The EIR article identified factions within the ANC and 'the assassination eliminated Hani himself, who despite his moderate statements of the weeks preceding his death, was the leader of the "Stalinist faction" of the ANC, which believed in shooting its way to power, rather than negotiating'.

Juxtaposed against the Stalinists in the EIR report were their opponents in the so-called 'Leninist' faction, including inter alia Thabo Mbeki and Cyril Ramaphosa. 'According to intelligence sources, in the early 1980s ANC security forces obtained documentation that leading Leninists Thabo Mbeki, Hani's rival as heir apparent to Nelson Mandela, and Mzwai Piliso had been recruited as agents of MI6, which may explain why they both reportedly travel on British passports. Ramaphosa is also notorious for his connections to the Anglo-American Corporation.' The article concluded that the assassination of Chris Hani was clearly orchestrated from abroad.

A simple practical example may be useful. We know the weapon came from Military Intelligence sources, the car that Waluś drove came from Peter Jackson with all his business connections, and the security guards were released from their duties of protecting Hani for the day by the ANC handlers. So, the trio of suspects is indicated, Military Intelligence, Big Business and the ANC. If we are looking for leadership and control we need look no further than SAIMR and its funders and leaders in MI and Big Business, with Tienie Groenewald at the helm.

We must conclude there was always cooperation between big business and the state, more especially its intelligence and security agencies. Fernand Braudel said that capitalism only triumphed when it became identified with the state, when it was the state. Economist Sampie Terreblanche said that in South Africa the political side of the dual system was never powerful enough to restrain the capitalistic side to ensure the general well-being of society.

There are examples of cooperation between State agencies and the capitalism racketeers. The best examples are when the state and big business combine, such as URENCO and BAE in Europe and NAMDEB and DEBSWANA in Namibia and Botswana. Another example given in previous chapters was when Anglo and De Beers attempted a hostile takeover of Gold Fields and international detective agency Kroll investigated De Beers. The financial chief and director of Gold Fields, Anthony Hitchens, told Janine Roberts that De Beers financed some MI6 operations. All this makes perfect makes sense when we know that MI6 was dealing with matters that affected De Beers.

In investigating the partnership between the state through its intelligence agencies and big business, it was possible to identify a coalescence of interests. The meetings between politicians from the apartheid state, intelligence agencies and industry moguls obviously were ultra-secret. In most instances we were able to identify the perpetrators since the corporate interests had a strong motive to eliminate the people who were seeking to take away their ill-gotten gains and redistribute them amongst the populace. The conspiracy between companies and the Nationalist politicians and security forces was evident in the ultra-secret meetings of Le Cercle and SAIMR.

In chapter 13 we described the Le Cercle meeting in 1984 which addressed the serious threat of 'infiltration of Socialist parties of Europe and elsewhere by Communist agents'. Mention was made of 'Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, whose political views are on the extreme left …' Eighteen months later Palme was assassinated, with links to the South African security establishment.

It can be difficult to accept that companies commit criminal acts. Companies can be charged in criminal courts for murder and the complicit individuals are liable. The company can be a dangerous predator and we recall psychopathy expert Dr Robert Hare saying many actions of the captains of industry are psychopathic as they try to destroy competitors, or want to beat them one way or another. Businessman Robert Monks called the corporation 'an externalising machine, in the same way that a shark is a killing machine …'

Many cases are decided on circumstantial evidence, in which event the inferences drawn must be the only reasonable ones. We have explored in some detail how the law has on occasion admitted evidence of other instances of a similar nature to convict an accused. Similar facts are directed at showing the accused has acted in a similar way before and is therefore more likely to have done what is alleged against him.

Judge Levy, who heard the inquest into the murder of Anton Lubowski in Namibia, mentioned a number of murders in South Africa, including those of David Webster and activist attorneys Griffiths and Victoria Mxenge, and the revelations about the death squads led by Dirk Coetzee and Eugene de Kock. He remarked that 'the murder of Anton Lubowski was far too similar to those of the other activists merely to be a coincidence'.

Five of the six murders dealt with here – Hammarskjöld, Lumumba, Carlsson, Lubowski and Hani – were committed in the run-up to independence from colonial rule. Palme was the exception. However, he was a fiery apartheid opponent who was assembling European nations to bring an end to one of the most heinous regimes in world history.

Another common feature of the five is that global corporate vultures were stealing the countries blind and if the looting was to continue, the politicians, or their allies in question had to be stopped. In the great world of finance and greed, random acts are rare. My grandfather always used to tell me when trying to work out who committed certain acts, look to see who benefited from them.

Giving judgment on the appeal by Janusz Waluś and Clive Derby-Lewis, Appeal Judge Hoexter spoke of 'the known facts, as far as they go …' leaving many puzzled as to what lay hidden. It is important to remember that Christelle Terreblanche found the documents on SAIMR and Hammarskjöld's murder in the file that should have contained material on Chris Hani. The file had been purged of that material but whoever sanitised it thought that the documents about SAIMR were irrelevant.

Waluś was asked if he responded to a SAIMR advert and whether he joined the organisation. He denied it, but we have good reason to disbelieve him. Keith Maxwell gave De Wet Potgieter an alphabetical list of SAIMR members, consisting of 202 names with addresses and phone numbers – including that of Janusz Waluś.

SAIMR's complicity in killing Lumumba and Dag Hammarskjöld is manifest from the letters, as is the cooperation between British and American Intelligence agencies. The later attempted coup in the Seychelles underscores SAIMR's malevolence, with cooperation from the US, including the CIA.

The most serious allegations relate to SAIMR's role in conspiring to kill black people by spreading the AIDS virus, a campaign masterminded by 'Dr' Keith Maxwell. If the organisation was prepared to go to those lengths to stop a black majority at the non-racial elections, to orchestrate Hani's murder would be as easy as pie.

General Tienie Groenewald is central to the whole saga. Not only was he Chief Director of Military Intelligence, which was behind virtually everything in the Hani murder, he headed SAIMR. White supremacist and convicted academic Mike du Toit said in his book that 'While Groenewald was still employed at Military Information, he brought into being the SA [Institute] of Maritime Research (SAIMR), which was believed to consist of 49 right wing nationalist organisations.'

Other facts link the general to Hani's murder.Groenewald definitely knew Waluś and had met him prior to the murder. His underling Fourie, in his Military Intelligence duties, had phoned and chatted to Waluś a month before Hani's killing. Waluś's diary, which had many entries linking him with Military Intelligence, BAE and criminal enterprises, had been purged of information relating to the crucial days before Hani's murder.

Why did they choose the Pole with the staring blue eyes? We previously quoted from The Star of Johannesburg of 22 April 1993, 12 days after Hani's death, that 'Waluś himself was linked to "third force"-style violence as part of a film crew which would mysteriously show up in black townships just as residents were being shot by unknown gunmen … the degree of such "third force" violence now striking South Africa would be impossible without complicity of at least sections of the National Party government's security forces …'

Most significantly, Deetliefs and his colleague spent some 11 hours persuading Waluś not to mention Groenewald.

Many have pondered for years why Waluś did not tell the truth to the TRC and so gain amnesty. The only possible reason was that he feared for his life if he did so. The proof of this has been found in the threats to kill him uttered by his interrogators at the end of the nocturnal inquisition.

If Waluś worked for SAIMR and Groenewald was in charge of the South African side, we have to explore which organisations were behind SAIMR. The documents handed to Archbishop Tutu at the TRC hearings mentioned a secret 'Operation Celeste' and were headed with SAIMR's Johannesburg address. Keith Maxwell explained that SAIMR was revived after the World War II. We saw how 'Lieutenant' Bob Wagner was sent to the USA to be trained by Rear-Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the head of an organisation that would become the CIA (chapter 12). Anglo American provided him with the required metallurgy accreditation and training.

In the Congolese operations concerning Lumumba and Hammarskjöld, we know Anglo's interests in TANKS on whose board Harry Oppenheimer of De Beers and Anglo American sat. SAIMR's Johannesburg address and the very fact that it is called the 'South African' suggests South African involvement. The assistance Anglo gave to British MI5 agent Ritchie to get a radio transmitter to help Tshombe in the Congo also indicates the giant corporation's close involvement with SAIMR.

When Maxwell met the murdered Dagmar Feil's mother, he told her about another connection between SAIMR and Anglo. Apart from the vast accumulation of circumstantial evidence linking the apartheid regime's chemical warfare to Maxwell and his lieutenants, we know that the AIDS campaign was linked to Dr Wouter Basson, because Jones said he received the contaminated samples from Roodeplaat laboratories in little pink vials. His knowledge of laboratories and their layout confirms this conclusion.

We recall film maker Mads Brügger being put through on the phone to Anglo American head Julian Ogilvie Thompson. Thompson seemed to know a lot about Dagmar's family and made a veiled threat on the telephone to Dagmar's mother.

Motive is crucial when evaluating circumstantial evidence. Perhaps this is as good a stage as any to consider which companies had the most to lose from majority rule and the redistribution of wealth in South Africa. If one were to look at Anglo-American Corporation in 1988, one would find a company that dominated the country's economic landscape. As journalist Summa said in an important passage of an article he wrote on the business giant, 'The ANC charter calls for nationalisation of the mining and banking sectors. Anglo operations are prime targets for nationalisation should a black-majority government come to power …'

Summa saw a synchronicity in the objectives of Anglo and the apartheid state. 'While Anglo has not always rubbed apartheid officialdom the right way, both the company and the white-minority regime are keenly aware that they are on common ground in preventing a change of state power to a black majority committed to reducing the gap between the few wealthy, and always white, property owners and the majority of workers who have nothing.' These are echoes of the notion that for capitalism to flourish it must identify with the state and in fact become the state.

SAIMR was a large organisation that needed massive funds to accomplish its objectives. Maxwell said the orders came from Britain and South Africa, and so must the money. A document showing SAIMR's finances mentioned precious stones, medical clinics and a mysterious fund on the Isle of Man. Alexander Jones, who gave an explosive account of its activities, including its murderous AIDS campaign in Brügger's movie, explained who was behind the secret organisation he had served for so long. He said that SAIMR was prepared to quell anyone resisting a white form of manipulation on the African continent for a price. Elaborating on the general enemies of a change to democracy and wealth redistribution, Jones said, '… Where there are minerals, gold, diamonds, oil and stuff, and we all know which countries do, he (Hammarskjöld) was a threat. He was killed because he was going to change the way Africa dealt with the rest of the world financially.'

The entities with the most to lose were corporate businesses worldwide. As Jones said, the greedy wanted what others had and did not want to pay for it. 'That is why they come to Africa because Africa seems to be easy and Third World.' But it all changed when Africa started fighting back.

The evidence of SAIMR's existence is overwhelming. Apart from the documents and evidence in Brügger's movie, we have the newspaper reports about SAIMR's role in the negotiations between the ANC and right-wing parties in the 1990s. One report recorded that Maxwell 'would only say it represented … business organisations and concerns from the private sector, who were worried about political developments in the country.' This is further evidence of the private sector's complicity, including Anglo's assistance with recruiting mercenaries for the Congo.

From the time of Lumumba and Hammarskjöld's murders, we note the complicity of the intelligence agencies of mainly Britain and the United States. This points to governments being committed to protecting the interests of their private companies doing business in foreign lands.

We have learned in this book that the intelligence agencies had secret powers to dispose of the enemies of colonialism and fight for the resources of their countries, by fair means or foul. And we know from earlier chapters that Britain and America reaped huge benefits from Africa and South Africa either by ripping out their resources or simply taking out dividends from companies doing business there. Anglo American was set up with substantial shareholders in Britain and America.

It is clear that the US and British intelligence agencies cooperated in killing Lumumba and Hammarskjöld. Plus, they assisted in the failed Seychelles coup. The intelligence agencies' role is also significant in the death of Olof Palme and the Lockerbie disaster, including Bernt Carlsson's murder.

Alexander Jones said intelligence agencies were behind SAIMR and General Tienie Groenewald, who falsely denied he knew anything about SAIMR, but said Maxwell had British intelligence links in the same breath. With SAIMR's 200 members and their various plots and coups, they needed tons of money. Only governments and mega corporations had that sort of money.

With the intelligence agencies, we have to consider the plethora of companies gathered around GMR and Craig Williamson. There are other relationships that confirm the partnership between business and intelligence agencies. The link between the Waluś family and British Government-owned BAE, the presence of Peter Jackson (owner of the car Waluś used), and the fact that the police were told to stay clear of Jackson. Sanders concluded that the real benefits of the influence war could be detected in the British share of the R30-billion South African arms procurement deal. He quoted Punch magazine which reported in September 2001 that MI6 spent more time and resources helping major British arms companies to secure contracts than perhaps any other business. '… The main beneficiary of MI6 intelligence is British Aerospace plc (BAE) …'

We have noted several features that point to others being involved, including the role of Arthur Kemp with his military intelligence and right-wing connections. Kemp provided the hit list to Derby-Lewis's wife Gaye and Waluś added manuscript notes, including the BMW model and its registration number. Given the definition of an accomplice as someone who assists in the commission of the crime, it is difficult to see how he avoided being charged and convicted. In the alternative, it is difficult to see how he can escape the charge of conspiring or inciting Waluś to commit the murder.

The same can be said for Martin Carl van Zyl who owned the BMW and was linked to the GMR network connected to Intelligence spook Craig Williamson. It was incredible that Van Zyl's car would be there at the time of the planned murder. We have noted all the lies he told.

After Waluś's arrest, the red Ford was kept in police custody. The police found the false number PLB 577T, the registration of another red Ford Laser motor car, inside. So meticulous were the murder preparations that the false number plates were not only designed to fool any curious witness and police investigator, but actually belonged to a similar car. The plates were purchased at a Sandton hardware shop on 2 March 1993. Sandton is where SAIMR and Keith Maxwell were based according to all the documentation.

To find another Ford Laser, someone must have had access to computers listing vehicle details - which suggests intelligence agencies. The significance of the Snapstix was that there was timely preparation - even to the extent of finding a red Ford Laser's registration number. Had that number been affixed to the vehicle, the innocent owner of the other Red Laser would have been able to establish his own alibi, but Waluś and his handlers would have escaped identification.

Chris Hani's neighbour Michael Buchanan was first on the scene and he has connections with intelligence. We have seen Evelyn Groenink's marvellous detective work on all the shady organisations linked to Italian tycoon Giovanni Mario Ricci's GMR addresses and post box numbers. These were also linked to Craig Williamson and Military Intelligence.

Big business and the Nationalists were successful in preventing their mutual fears of nationalisation and Nuremberg-style trials. The quid pro quo for the ANC was access to money via ventures such as the Arms Deal. Chris Hani was vehemently opposed to the Arms Deal while Joe Modise, Mbeki and others are alleged to have received bribes, the former from BAE and the latter from the German ship-building companies.

The September 1992 Military Intelligence memo by secret hit-squad Directorate of Covert Communication (DCC) operative Commandant Anton Nieuwoudt explained that they could work with Joe Modise, 'but Chris Hani is a radical, and the radical faction has to be neutralised.'

We have examined Alex Vasiliades's role and that he might well be a co-assassin. He should not be confused with Alex Kouvaris of the Johannesburg Greek underworld who was linked to General Tienie Groenewald and according to Scholte supplied Thabo Mbeki with drugs.

Furthermore, we have met the murderous CCB and noted their implication in killing Anton Lubowski, plus the allegations against Eeben Barlow regarding the murder of Bernt Carlsson and other Lockerbie bomb victims. The closeness of Kouvaris with the CCB is supported by numerous allegations of CCB meetings at the Park Lane involving Burger and other members of his cell. Most significantly we have reliable information that Waluś was close friends with Kouvaris, a CCB agent, and in the same circle moved figures like John Kipp from the CIA, and the mastermind of the whole operation, General Tienie Groenewald.

Scholte also linked Mbeki with Tito Maleka, in charge of the Omega Strike Unit operated by the ANC. Mbeki accused Winnie Mandela of spreading gossip about his womanising. None of this should be of importance save for one crucial factor: Winnie Mandela had spoken to Tito Maleka, who supplied this information.

The memos that passed between apartheid intelligence agent Eugene Riley and his Military Intelligence handlers revealed that the command to assassinate Hani came from Tito Maleka, Mbeki's close confidant. The journalist Benson Saili related that one of the memos referred to what double agent Ramon told him. Saili said this memo 'makes a mockery of the insistence by Janusz Waluś and Clive Derby-Lewis that they acted alone in the murder of Hani. Hani's death was plotted by a syndicate, with Waluś and Derby-Lewis utilised solely as fall guys – Lee Harvey Oswald-style.'

In a sense we have the clearest summary of the whole plot to kill Hani from double agent Ramon. He was in the heart of the darkness surrounding this tragic saga. In a press interview, he pointed out that the plot to kill Hani had been 'a conspiracy on both sides of the spectrum', and that, 'it involved both ANC and apartheid security establishment members'.

The result of this was a compact that saw the black elite become rich and the other blacks pitifully poor – and still South Africa has the biggest gap between rich and poor. O Africa! How blessed in its people! How cursed in its rulers! This quote (author unknown) is spot-on about how corrupt many African leaders have been after emancipation from colonial rule.

In summing up the effect of personal motives relating to Thabo Mbeki and Joe Modise: The Hani Memo and the mutual hatred between them would be an additional reason for Hani to be eliminated. We have seen the ANC's role and the fact that Hani's security guards were withdrawn. The three messages showing the knowledge that Hani would be killed beforehand are clear. Before Hani was killed, the National Intelligence Service had known there was a plan to do just that.

NIS informant Ramon, who also had acquaintances in the ANC, had told his NIS handler before the murder took place about this plan's existence. The handler, Eugene Riley, was a close associate of fellow gangster-policeman Ferdi Barnard, who had been convicted for David Webster's murder. Ramon's information suggested 'rivals' in the ANC itself planned to kill Hani.

Hani and Mbeki were sworn adversaries following the Hani memorandum and antagonism about Hani on the Arms Deal and South Africa's economic policy. Hani was a communist who wanted redistribution, whereas Mbeki was a neoliberal and the darling of British Intelligence and the capitalist classes.

The industry bigwigs must have applauded Hani's death as it left the way clear for Mbeki to bring about the Arms Deal, secure the bribes attached to that, stop prosecutions of apartheid criminals and halt any nationalisation of the economy. The death of Hani also paved the way for Mbeki to become deputy president and after Mandela retired, president of the Republic of South Africa.

'The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.' ― Albert Einstein

In South African law, there is a form of criminal prescription, called a Statute of Limitations in US law, which provides that after a set period of time, certain crimes cannot be prosecuted any longer. For example, theft and other crimes have a prescriptive period of 18 years in South African law. There is no prescriptive period on certain serious crimes such as murder, rape and treason. So the murderers of the six slain heroes that are the subject matter of this book, and of the thousands, if not millions, who were killed during the plot to spread AIDS, can and should be brought to book, investigated, prosecuted and if found guilty, sentenced appropriately.

Provided that the accused worked together and each performed their separate roles, they would be all guilty as accomplices, as long as they knew what the real purpose was. With Hani it was to make sure he was eliminated. If the security forces provided the gun, the captains of industry the car that carried Waluś on the day in question and the ANC made sure the security guards were off-duty, then they would all be guilty of murder. Of course, SAIMR would have executed the planning in all probability through General Tienie Groenewald.

Horrific crimes such as those described in this book have occurred in the past. We can learn much from how society dealt with the criminals involved. Perpetrators of the Jewish Holocaust were tried at Nuremberg and either hanged or given lengthy prison sentences. We can take a leaf from the book of the various law enforcement agencies who zealously hunted them down and brought them to book. Why should it be any different with those who killed Hani and the five others where murders were conducted to maintain the plunder of Africa?

The South African State has a huge justice budget of nearly R23 billion and many thousands of prosecutors, investigators, scientific and otherwise, who, on a daily basis, hunt down evidence and prosecute offenders, from shoplifters to fraudsters and murderers. Over the ages, our courts have emphasised that the NPA should give attention primarily to the most serious crimes before dealing with lesser infractions. Sadly, in many instances the rich and powerful remain beyond the reach of our prosecuting authorities and continue to walk free. If the prosecuting authorities do not take on the powerful racketeers, then one can assume they are captured.

As far as investigations and prosecutions of the perpetrators of the six slain heroes, plus Dagmar Feil and Debbie Campbell are concerned, one can only describe the role of prosecutors as the nemesis of docility. I am not only referring to South Africa, but also Sweden, where three of the victims were domiciled, as well as the United Kingdom and United States of America, where some of the crimes were planned. Failure to prosecute the offenders in question has serious consequences for society. One of the certain signs of a failed state, said American writer Noam Chomsky, was when an important arm of government, such as the prosecuting authority, was captured in this manner.

One should never say the lives of some are worthier than others, but it certainly would be anomalous if the murder of persons who laid down their lives to make a better life for others should be left unprosecuted, whereas others are subjected to the full might of the law. We are talking about prominent personalities: Dag Hammarskjöld, United Nations Secretary-General and virtual President of the World; Olof Palme, Sweden's Prime Minister; Bernt Carlsson, UN Assistanty Secretary-General and Commissioner General for Namibia; Anton Lubowski, advocate and probable future Minister of Justice in a new Namibia; and Chris Hani, probable successor as President of South Africa to Nelson Mandela.

All this illustrates how powerful the forces of corporations acting in concert with governments can be in securing their goals - covering up and preventing any investigation and prosecution of offenders with impunity. These slain men were trying to safeguard Africa's riches from the looting Western steamroller corporates.

Had Chris Hani survived all that might have been very different. Irish author S M Sigerson, author of the book on Michael Collins, asked the right question:

'What if he had lived? is a key question at the heart of every assassination. Who profits from political murders? What kind of government, what kind of society has proceeded from them? Is it too painful, too fearful, to consider precisely what we've lost by assassins' bullets, what we were left with in its place, or how lasting the damage has proved?'

If we look at what has happened many would query that there has been much change for the masses in South Africa. No one could have put it better than Frantz Fanon, author of the "Wretched of the Earth":

'The leader ... asks the people to remember the colonial period and to look back on the long way they have come since then… The peasant who goes on scratching out a living from the soil and the unemployed man do not manage, in spite of public holidays and flags, brightly coloured though they may be, to convince themselves that anything has really changed in their lives.'

In 2013, the World Bank reported that the number of people living in extreme poverty in Africa had risen in the previous three decades from 205 million to 414 million. In 2010 fuel and mineral exports from Africa were worth $333 billion, more than seven times the value of aid that went in the opposite direction. This is before factoring in the vast sums spirited out of the continent through corruption and tax dodges. Africa's ruling elites further drain their countries of funds, stashing huge sums in offshore bank accounts and overseas property. Small wonder then that the World Bank estimates a whopping 40% of Africa's private wealth is held offshore.

Dubbed the world's 'poorest' continent, Africa has phenomenal resources. With only 2% of global GDP, it holds 15% of the planet's oil, 40% of its gold and 80% of its platinum. But with its mineral deposit stash being a third of those found on earth has proved a curse instead of a blessing.

After the 1994 elections the goal was set to change all that had bedevilled the past. It could not have been clearer. 'We the people of South Africa, recognise the injustices of the past … believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it … adopt this Constitution so as to … improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person …'

Now almost three decades later, this wealth has not been divided equally at all, according to the Governor of the South African Reserve Bank. In a lecture on 1 August 2018, he said that South Africa was one of the most unequal countries in the world: 10% of the population owns more than 90% of all wealth while 80% have no wealth to speak of. A country or continent is only prosperous when great general wealth is distributed evenly among the people. What could be simpler?

The predominance of multi-nationals in the global economy has resulted in large-scale tax evasion worldwide. In February 2020, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revealed that every year worldwide an estimated US $600 billion worth of tax fails to reach state coffers but ends up in secret jurisdictions. The South African Revenue Service (SARS) estimated that in 2005 South African taxpayers held more than R500bn in overseas accounts to avoid taxation. South African economists have estimated that from 1980-2000, 37% of the value of all capital formation in South Africa was moved offshore, depriving the South African economy of an astonishing $238bn since 1980.

In more recent times, the position has not improved and Business Day of 20 December 2018 stated that conservatively, the South African fiscus lost at least R7 billion a year because of large multi-nationals shifting revenue to lower tax jurisdictions. The top 10% of foreign-owned firms account for 98% of the total estimated tax loss.

The new ANC government allowed at least seven South African conglomerates to list on overseas stock exchanges with the promise the move would increase foreign investments in the country. This has not happened and annual dividends leaving the country that averaged R2 636 million from 1994 to 1999, shot up to R34 076 million for 2001. Given these staggering statistics it is tragic that no prosecuting authority has attempted to investigate the deaths not only of activists trying to remedy these injustices, but also Dagmar Feil and Debbie Campbell. The only conclusion must be that the robber barons have captured the state and its institutions, including the NPA. This is the only explanation for the lack of initiative by the police and prosecution services.

Intrepid journalists undertook most of the investigations disclosed in this book. They rightly sensed that great injustices came to pass. Despite their revelations being published, in most instances, these all bore no fruit. No head of any prosecution authority in any country authorised thorough investigations. Laughably, in the Hani matter, the prosecution services in South Africa limited their search to only Clive Derby-Lewis and Janusz Waluś. The investigation docket even had a sinister note not to conduct any sleuth work on Peter Jackson, who owned the vehicle used by Waluś on the day of the murder.

As has been painstakingly recorded in this book, the families of these slain heroes have been robbed, not only of their loved ones, but also of justice. A case of the most odious injustice. Let's make no mistake, failure to investigate and prosecute the criminals identified in this book is not only a flagrant iniquity, but a breach of the social contract the government has with the people of South Africa.

So, what happens when no prosecutions are instituted and the social contract is breached? In his leading work "The Social Contract", constitutional lawyer J W Gough said:

'[The social contract] defines the terms on which that society is to be governed: the people have made a contract with their ruler which determines their relations with him. They promise him obedience, while he promises his protection and good government [including prosecutions, without fear or favour]. While he keeps his part of the bargain, they must keep theirs, but if he misgoverns the contract is broken and allegiance is at an end.'

In essence, what's asked of us and what we receive establish relations of reciprocity with the government. A healthy social contract means good governance (which includes prosecutions without fear or favour) and solidarity from the citizens. One has to shudder at what will occur in this land 'when the contract is broken and allegiance is at an end.' There is a return to the 'eye for the eye' of the Old Testament and jungle justice. We go back to the world described by philosopher Thomas Hobbes as 'nasty, brutish and short.' Tempting as that might be for the families of the victims, it must not happen.

We must comfort ourselves that the facts are recorded here – on a plate as it were for an ardent prosecutor. Alas, in South Africa we have a toothless National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), which time and again fails in its core business: prosecuting suspects. For months, public pressure to prosecute those fingered in the Zondo Commission findings has reached a deafening crescendo. Yet what has been done in the months since the final part was published on 22 June 2022? Zero … and counting.

In a properly functioning criminal justice system, a well-run and independent NPA definitely would go a long way towards preventing the corruption so endemic in our State administrations. So, unfortunately, we have reached a point where emotion and intellect coalesce, knowing that in all probability the masterminds and paymasters of Chris Hani's abhorrent assassination will walk the earth scot-free. The only solace is knowing that these perpetrators will forever wrestle with their guilt and demons, living in a void, a death.

Chris Hani fell like a shooting star, blazing an invigorating trail on the South African landscape. With triumphant assertion, he fought for a way that was fair and equitable for our people. The very definition of a true statesman. His light was snuffed out far too soon.

Afterword

'He who does not bellow the truth, when he knows the truth, makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.'

Charles Pequy, a poet and essayist, whose life straddled the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The great German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche said he only liked books that were written with blood, because blood was spirit. The telling of this tale was difficult and the facts were not easily found. Somehow, something told me, they had to be revealed. Silence did not seem to be an option. No doubt there will be consequences for me for as Oscar Wilde cynically observed

'If one tells the truth, one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out.'

Peter Davis undertook an initial editing job on the first draft and injected some much-needed punch to the account. Deborah Ewing took up the manuscript and helped with smoothing over the drafting infelicities of the writing. Finally, Mariette Greyling helped in trimming down the length and in adding her own brand of style to the writing.

I have to thank my family for their support over the many years of the writing of this book. My wife, Jillian, has endured with good patience my unceasing recitation of the sordid details of the rogues involved. And my daughters, Jessica and Juliette, have commented shrewdly, from time to time, on the values of solid scholarship and the dangers of conspiracy theories.

Otherwise, I dedicate this book to the heroes whose lives I have attempted to portray. They did not shrink from boldly and courageously exercising their duties to fight for the rights of the oppressed. Not for them a fair fight, with a chance to match weapons with their adversaries, but gutless attacks with sinister bombs and merciless weapons. Their lives stand in stark contrast to the cowardly perpetrators of their deaths.

Chris Nicholson.

References

1. Pierre Holstein, Citigroup 2010, GetSmarter.co.za

2. Terreblanche Empires location: 10,803.

3. (Kindle Locations 5316-5320). Jacana. Kindle Edition.

4. Ibid.

5. Passage quoted in Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, 1965.

6. Sanders page 453 note 47.

7. Terreblanche Empires location 665.

8. Farrell-Robert, Janine. Glitter & Greed: The Secret World of the Diamond Cartel. Red Wheel Weiser. Kindle Edition pages 214-5.

9. Bakan location 972.

10.Ibid location 1127.

11.Sanders page 323-4.