7.1.1 In the 1 970s and 1 980s the Dutch Reformed Church was convinced that the war being waged on the country's borders - and later also, in a sense, internally - was a just struggle. Ds CP Naude, chaplain general of the SA Defence Force from 1983 to 1990, writes: "No believer can justify a war. The whole theory of a just war is highly fallible and, in virtually all cases, is applied subjectively from a specific perspective. Defensive war, however, is accepted worldwide as a necessity. In the case of South Africa, the threat was also supported by forces aiming to promote the Communist expansionism of the Soviet Union and its ally Cuba, and others. The outspoken atheism of these forces was, by implication, a threat to religious freedom." [translation] (From a written answer to an enquiry, 23 June 1997).
7.1.2 Ds JA van Zyl, chaplain general from 1996 to 1983, concurs: "For me as a Christian, the war was justified because, in our view, it was being waged against an anti-Christian philosophy which would have wiped out, or at least harmed, Christian civilisation in South Africa. For us, the war was about the upholding, survival, protection and promotion of the Christian faith. [translation] (From a written answer to an enquiry, 23 June 1997).
7.1.3 Ds C Colyn, chaplain general of the SA Police Force from 1975 to 1990, gave the following answer to the above question: "When I look back and have to express an opinion on the struggle of that time, 1 realise that it was a tremendously dangerous, stressful and, for many, traumatic time. We were involved in a revolutionary struggle in this country. The SA Police were placed at the forefront of this struggle to maintain law and order and to fight off the 'onslaught' against South Africa. If this struggle, which we experienced as a violent and bloody 'onslaught', is now being referred to lightly as a mere freedom struggle, then that is an oversimplification of a very complex situation in which many people, including many members of the SA Police, made the supreme sacrifice. South Africa was involved in, and was the focal point of, Communist attempts at expansion and world domination, and this ideological struggle was seen by some South Africans as a solution to our country's political problems.
"Because revolution and anarchy with a high level of violence form part of the Communist ideology, the SA Police had to act against this 'onslaught'. 1 associated myself whole-heartedly with this action of the SA Police and 1 do not apologise for that. The Chaplains' Service played a spiritual role during this struggle by spiritually preparing our men and women to perform their task in difficult circumstances. My chaplains and 1 were very close to our people, and by means of border visits, the distribution of literature, spiritual work, visits to the homes of policemen maimed in the struggle, interviews and personal contact we tried to put the 'pain' and 'grief' of the struggle into a spiritual perspective and to communicate to them the comfort as well as the inspiration of the Gospel.
"Personally, I buried too many policemen and dealt with the pain of too many grieving families to have another view of the struggle now." [translation] (From a written answer to an enquiry, 20 July 1997).
7.1.4 Van Zyl, Naude and Colyn served in the Chaplains' Services as ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church. Their answers to the questions reflect their personal views.
7.2.1 Van Zy] states: 'I was not aware of covert activities in the RSA which were unchristian, destroyed human life and contravened Christian legitimacy. 1 would certainly have raised my voice against them if they had come to my notice."
7.2.2 Naude writes: "Because the 'need to know' principle was applied strictly in the SADF, as it is in all effective forces, the chaplain general was by definition not involved in the planning and execution of covert operations. I was therefore not aware of them.
"The covert activities which have been 'revealed' at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recently are difficult to evaluate because the accusations have not -thus far, at any rate - been tested and do not actually involve the SADF. Where SADF members have been charged in court, they have been found not guilty."
7.2.3 Colyn writes: "if 1 had known of covert activities by the Police Force, they would no longer have been covert activities. The security forces in every country of the world have covert activities. Particularly when a country's survival is threatened, and things happen such as those which happened in South Africa, covert activities are essential. Because 1 understand the necessity of covert activities in a threatened situation, 1 have no objection to them in principle. Illegitimate actions by individual members of the Police Force, such as those currently alleged, are not necessarily part of covert activities. In my view one should guard against condemning an entire Police Force if individual members of that force allegedly overstep the mark. If the allegations that members of the Force were guilty of such offences are true, that is sad. If 1 had been informed, and if 1 had known of improper activities of the kind now alleged to have been committed, 1 would not have hesitated to present my Christian testimony.
"Sadly, though, it appears that the church too, in its attitude and utterances, has been swept along by the sensational way in which reports of alleged offences by members of the Police are conveyed in the media, when those allegations cannot be tested by cross-examination and the leading of evidence."
