De Klerk knew about security branch crimes, inquiry hears
Former security branch officer Paul Erasmus says the then government and former president FW De Klerk were aware of the crimes committed by the police.
Erasmus testified at the inquest into the death of medical doctor and unionist Neil Aggett, who was found hanging in his cell at John Vorster Square, now Johannesburg Central police station in 1982.
His death was ruled a suicide at the initial inquest, but his family believes critical evidence was not taken into account.
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Erasmus was a stationed at John Vorster Square at the time of Aggett's death.
He told the court at the time it was hard to distinguish between criminality and the law as security branch officials acted with impunity.
The crimes ranged from torture in detention to fraud.
"The regime of those knew exactly what was going on, to imply that they didn't and what came out of the TRC is absolute rubbish, with the amount of publicity that all these matters received that they didn't know what happened can be interpreted in two ways, either they were too useless to know or they turned a blind eye. People like De Klerk turned a blind eye, as he was in cabinet meetings where cover-ups were discussed,"
On Tuesday, he told the court that the security branch set out to cover up Aggett's death and told him to dig up the past to suggest he was suicidal from a young age.