The Missing Persons Task Team (MPTT) located in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) will exhume remains believed to be those of Xolile 'Valdez' Sam, an MK commander in MK's Special Operations Unit who was killed on 7 November 1988 in Voloorus in a joint operation by members of the then Vakplaas unit and the Germiston and Witbank Security Police. The exhumation will be conducted in Vosloorus Cemetery, East of Johannesburg on Sunday, 26 June 2011.
His biography
Born in Port Elizabeth on 2 July 1957, Xolile Sam was politicized during the 1976 student revolt and went into exile in 1977. He joined the ANC's Umkhonto we Sizwe, where he was known as Valdez Mbatha or Thabang, and underwent military training in Angola. In 1980, he was recruited to the ranks of MK's Special Operations Unit, and participated in a number of sabotage operations inside South Africa in the early 1980s. He also served in operations to combat Unita attacks on the Eastern Front in Angola.
In 1988 Valdez entered South Africa and commanded a Special Operations unit in the East Rand area. His unit became the subject of intense security attention after the car bomb on 24 October 1988 outside the Witbank security police offices that left three people dead. According to former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock, the Germiston and Witbank Security Police obtained information through telephone tapping about a house in Vosloorus where a senior MK member was thought to be based.
Members of Vlakplaas and the police's Special Task Force accompanied the Germiston and Witbank security police members to the area on 7 November 1988.
On arrival at house 369 Bembo Street in Vosloorus, Valdez was spotted jumping over a wall at the back of the house and was shot by Vlakplaas member Leon Flores with an Uzi machine gun. Seriously wounded in the leg, Valdez was then placed by Eugene de Kock inside a large police transport vehicle and handcuffed to the metal seats. He was then tortured and suffocated by De Kock and others in order to extract information from him.
Valdez died in the police truck shortly thereafter. He was subsequently buried as an unidentified pauper in a separate pauper section of Vosloorus cemetery. The NPA's Missing Persons Task Team will exhume the grave and conduct forensic examination in order to confirm the identification. Once this is completed, he will be reburied by his family in Port Elizabeth.
Five members of Vlakplaas applied for and received amnesty for their role in the death of Valdez. They were Eugene de Kock, Willie Nortje, Johan Tait, Sakkie Bosch and Leon Flores. Valdez's wife, Thandi Shongwe, met with De Kock at the TRC amnesty hearing and thereafter decided not to oppose his amnesty application as he also assisted her with obtaining information regarding Valdez's burial site.
The exhumation will be done in the presence of Valdez's family members.
Details are as follows:
Date: 26 June 2011
Time: 10h00 to 13h00
Venue: Vosloorus Cemetery, Vosloorus, East of Johannesburg
RSVP and enquiries:
Advocate Mthunzi Mhaga
Cell: 072 198 6863
E-mail: mcmhaga@npa.gov.za
Source: Sapa
