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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Private detective Kevin Trytsman shot dead, Bedfordview
15:36 | 
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A Stuijt |
Kevin Trytsman, 50, controversial TRC-witness, shot dead at Bedfordview attorney office
2009-12-05
Private detective Kevin Trytsman, who once worked directly for ex-pres Thabo Mbeki, received amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after testifying he’d had access to a secret arms-cache as an Umkhonto-we-Sizwe cadre, and had links with two members of the apartheid-era death squad CCB, was shot dead with two gunshots in an attorney’s office in Bedfordview yesterday.
Picture by Wolfram Zwecker, Beeld journalist: the body of Kevin Trytsman is carried from attorney George Michaelides’ office in Bedfordview
Zwecker reports that Trytsman and attorney George Michaelides had a heated argument and that this ‘led to Trytsman being shot dead with two shots to the chest’.
He quotes Police inspector Roelene Marais as saying that the two men met shortly before 7am in the attorney’s office on the eighth floor of the Bedford Centre on the corner of Kirkby- and Smith Road in Bedfordview. “It is unclear as to what happened, but Trytsman was shot dead and Michaelides is in police custody and expected to appear Monday-morning at the Germiston magistrate’s court,’ Zwecker writes.
Apparently the two men had also met each other earlier before the incident at a coffee-bar near the office, during which a verbal row broke out between the two men – and security guards had to intervene to stop them from mauling each other. Trytsman and Michaelides then apparently arranged to meet at his office at 7am but Trytsman already stood waiting at his office at 6:40am.
His body was only removed at around 2pm from the office of the attorney after forensic experts carried out a reconstruction of the exact event.
Trytsman worked as a private investigator and debt-collector. He became known in South Africa because of his claimed connections with the Civil Cooperation Bureau, a purported hit-squad of the now defunct apartheid-era security agency Boss. He had testified about his knowledge of the CCB in the Truth and Reconciliation commission hearings, and was also alluded to be involved in a syndicate which had sold fake-shares in a transportation company. He was known to the police: having been in prison for theft and robbery.
Kevin John Trytsman, then 28, also was granted amnesty in respect of charges of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, vehicle theft and perjury after he applied for amnesty at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.. He said in his amnesty application that he was found in possession of an AK-47 rifle, two magazines and a car on a farm he was renting near Knoppieslaagte. Trytsman was given a suspended sentence for possession of the firearm, a fine for the possession of the magazines and a five-year jail sentence for vehicle theft.
sources:
- Truth and Reconciliation commission amnesty:
- “He told the Committee he had given the court false explanations for possessing the material - in fact he had been storing them on behalf of Umkhonto weSizwe. Mr Trytsman was sentenced in 1994. Motivating his application relating to the perjury charge, Mr Trytsman said that while awaiting trial on the other charges, he had been approached by one Ferdi Barnard and one Eugene Reilly regarding information about his MK commander. He had "to a certain extent" become friendly with Barnard and Reilly. Barnard had bragged to him that he had shot Dr David Webster and that Reilly had been driving him at the time. Mr Trytsman said he was called to give evidence at the inquest into Dr Webster's death but had failed to tell the inquest of Mr Barnard's statement.” Dr David Webster played a prominent role in various anti-apartheid organisations such as the End Conscription Campaign, Detainees' Parents' Support Committee and the Five Freedoms Forum. Although his murder was the subject of at least seven investigations - including the Harms Commission of Inquiry and an internal military inquiry - no-one has ever been prosecuted. http://70.84.171.10/~etools/newsbrief/1997/news0416 http://www.doj.gov.za/trc/media/1997/9704/s970415a.htm
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Trytsman also worked for Thabo Mbeki:
CAPE TOWN May 29 2000 -- Sapa DP warns AGAINST PRIVATE ANC INTELLIGENCE STRUCTURE - Revelations of a private African National Congress intelligence structure operating without the knowledge of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) are deeply disturbing, says the Democratic Party. Such a structure - not subject to parliamentary oversight and operating with the knowledge of President Thabo Mbeki - was a clear danger to democracy in South Africa, DP spokesman Ryan Coetzee said in a statement. "Environmental Affairs Minister Valli Moosa has admitted that his department paid R550,000 to an intelligence operative (that) his deputy, Joyce Mabudafhasi, was `forced' to hire... by Tito Maleka, a shadowy but powerful figure at ANC headquarters," he said. Of most immediate concern was the possible involvement of the president. "Ms Mabudafhasi told DP MP Antoinette Versveld that the operative, Kevin Trytsman, was appointed by the president. "Trytsman himself claims to have handed one of his reports directly to Mr Mbeki," Coetzee said. The DP was treating the matter with the utmost seriousness. "A private ANC intelligence capacity that is foisted on ministers, is accountable to Luthuli House (ANC headquarters in Johannesburg), that is not subject to parliamentary oversight and that operates with the knowledge of the president, is a clear and present danger to democracy," he said. The DP called on Moosa to say whether Trytsman was employed by his department on the instructions of Maleka, or anyone else at Luthuli House. Also, Intelligence Minister Joe Nhlanhla should say whether the NIA is aware of the existence of any private ANC intelligence structure. And Mbeki, or his deputy, Jacob Zuma, should say whether the president had knowledge of Trytsman's appointment, and whether he knew it was made without the NIA's knowledge. They should also reveal: - whether the president received a report from Trytsman; - whether the president knows if Maleka has instructed any other minister to appoint ANC operatives; and - whether Maleka works for any other government organ and, if so, what the nature of that work is. In a written reply to a parliamentary question last week, Moosa said Mabudafhasi had recommended Trytsman's appointment. The private investigator was appointed to examine allegations of corruption in the awarding of fishing quotas among members of the environment department's marine and coastal management division. The investigation was completed over 31 days in November and December last year, and cost the department over R550000. No evidence of corruption was found, Moosa said.
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Kevin Trytsman, Report to parliament on behest of Thabo Mbeki: :http://www.environment.gov.za/NewsMedia/MedStat/2000may25_1/25may2000_1.pdf
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