How the apartheid government turned the ocean into a graveyard
Ex-security force members describe how, from the late 1970s, activists were murdered and dumped in the sea
27 September 2020 - 19:29
In the late 1970s, as the apartheid government fought a desperate and dirty battle to stay in power, its security forces devised a chilling tactic. A shadowy, top-secret unit called Delta 40 was established, tasked with the murder of hundreds of ANC, PAC and Swapo members. Victims’ bodies were flung from aircraft into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South West Africa (Namibia). Michael Schmidt’s new book, Death Flight: Apartheid’s Secret Doctrine of Disappearance, exposes these sinister missions. In this extract from chapter 28, informants Danie Phaal and Johan Theron testify to crimes committed in some of apartheid’s darkest hours...
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