Johan Velde van der Merwe

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General

Johan Velde van der Merwe

SSAS SOE
Born25 August 1936
Ermelo
NationalitySouth African
Police career
CountrySouth Africa
Service years1953-1995
StatusRetired
RankGeneral

General Johan Velde van der Merwe (born 25 August 1936) is a South African police officer.[1] He held senior positions in the Security Branch and was Commissioner of the South African Police from 1990 to 1995.[2]

Early life[]

Van der Merwe was born in Ermelo in August 1936 to a family of conservative National Party supporters.[1] He attended Ermelo High School and enjoyed sport.[3] After leaving school, Johan joined the South African Police in 1953.[4]

Career in the police[]

Early career[]

Interviewed after retirement, van der Merwe says that he enjoyed initial training.[4] In 1961 he was posted to Standerton in charge of administration of the new headquarters.[4] From 1963 to 1966 he worked in an administrative role at Security Headquarters.[5]

From 1966 to 1970, he commanded a border post at the South Africa-Lesotho border.[6] When interviewed, he said that the Lesotho government under Leabua Jonathan enjoyed far less support than his superiors thought.[7]

In 1970, he was posted to the Security Branch in Bloemfontein; he eventually took command throughout the Orange Free State.[8] Interviewed, he claimed to have helped to prevent unrest during the Soweto uprising in the Free State due to his close relations with parents of schoolchildren.[9]

From 1979 he was then posted to South West Africa,[10] now Namibia, which was then illegally under the control of the South African authorities.[11] He recalled in an interview that he had “almost unlimited legal powers” in Namibia due to the co-operation of the Administrator General; recalling his time in Namibia, he said that he “would not [have] miss[ed it]…for all the money in the world”.[2]

Time in the Security Branch and as Commissioner[]

In 1983 he was posted to Pretoria, where he rose initially from second in charge of the Security Branch to Head of Security, before becoming Deputy Commissioner and then in 1990 Commissioner of the South African Police.[2]

In 1985 he had a report sent to the minister requesting further powers, but was rebuked by Louis le Grange, then Minister of Police.[12] In van der Merwe's view, the apartheid government's response to the United Democratic Front (UDF) was hobbled by several factors: arrestees had the right to have the evidence against them furnished before the court, which would frequently identify informers, and it was very difficult to detain children who participated in the unrest.[13] He says that at that time “the main drive for us as a Security Branch [was] to protect our people” and to maintain law and order.[14]

Despite the handover of power from the National Party to a non-racial government of national unity under the provisions of an negotiated interim constitution,[15] van der Merwe remained Commissioner until 1995.

Retirement and application for amnesty[]

In 1995 van der Merwe resigned from the police force.[16] The Mail & Guardian reported that he was pressured to resign by the then Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi over accusations that he was obstructing investigations into other apartheid-era officers and alleged so-called Third Force activity.[16]

With several other security policemen, van der Merwe successfully applied for amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for various offences.[17]

However, in 2007, van der Merwe along with Adriaan Vlok, an apartheid-era Minister of Law and Order, and several others was convicted of the attempted murder of Frank Chikane, an anti-apartheid priest, in 1989, and received a suspended prison sentence.[18]

In 2016 van der Merwe demanded that the then president Jacob Zuma, former president Thabo Mbeki, and former senior ANC member Mac Maharaj should be charged for murder.[19]

Notes[]

  1. ^ a b TRC 1998.
  2. ^ a b c Foster 2005, p. 115.
  3. ^ Foster 2005, p. 107.
  4. ^ a b c Foster 2005, p. 108.
  5. ^ Foster 2005, p. 108-9.
  6. ^ Foster 2005, p. 109.
  7. ^ Foster 2005, p. 109-10.
  8. ^ Foster 2005, p. 110.
  9. ^ Foster 2005, p. 111-2.
  10. ^ Foster 2005, p. 112.
  11. ^ State Department 2009.
  12. ^ Foster 2005, p. 116.
  13. ^ Foster 2005, p. 117.
  14. ^ Foster 2005, p. 118.
  15. ^ SAHO 2014.
  16. ^ a b Staff Reporter 1995.
  17. ^ Foster 2005, p. 106.
  18. ^ McGreal 2007.
  19. ^ Drum Digital 2016.

References[]

  • TRC (22 July 1998). "Amnesty hearing of Johannes Velde van der Merwe day 3". Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Archived from the original on 13 April 2020.
  • Foster, D.H. (2005). The theatre of violence : narratives of protagonists in the South African conflict. Haupt, Paul., De Beer, Marésa., Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (South Africa). Cape Town: HSRC Press. ISBN 0-7969-2095-8. OCLC 60636397.
  • State Department (2009). "The End of Apartheid". Archive: Information released online prior to January 20, 2009. United States Department of State. Archived from the original on 2009-02-05. Retrieved 5 February 2009. South Africa had illegally occupied neighboring Namibia at the end of World War II, and since the mid-1970s, Pretoria had used it as a base to fight the communist party in Angola.
  • Staff Reporter (20 January 1995). "Meddling SAP chief forced out". Mail and Guardian.
  • SAHO (6 May 2014). "South African Government of National Unity (GNU) – 1994 – 1999". South African Government of National Unity.
  • McGreal, Chris (2007-08-17). "Apartheid-era minister guilty of attempted murder". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-04-13.
  • Drum Digital (20 May 2016). "Mbeki, Zuma, Maharaj must be charged for Church Street bombing - apartheid police general". Drum (News24).

See also[]

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