Dulcie September was one of the highest ranking ANC officials killed outside of South Africa during the struggle against apartheid, but 33 years on her murder remains a mystery. September was the ANC Representative for France, Switzerland and Luxembourg, and was based in Paris from 1983-1988.
This was a particularly dangerous time, considering that European arms companies were supplying the apartheid regime with weapons in violation of the UN arms embargo imposed on South Africa in 1977. Even though 1983 saw the election of a socialist government in France, relations with South Africa continued, but September pushed back and called for full economic and military sanctions, and exposed collaboration with the apartheid regime in her speeches.
September’s dogged determination to investigate the dark underworld of collusion and arms deals between the apartheid regime and European companies made her a prime target. A former apartheid assassin said in an interview about September’s murder: “She was making a nuisance of herself.”
According to Hennie Van Vuuren's book "Apartheid, Guns and Money," the South African embassy in Paris served as a sanctions busting office, staffed with over 30 Armscor officials who would broker arms deals with European companies. They would fly to Belgium and Luxembourg to meet with banks which would then facilitate sanctions busting, and send money through as many as 850 different bank accounts to hide the money trail. If September had stumbled across some information relating to this she would have certainly been a target.
September’s strong connections with French trade unionists directed her to arms shipments, and she was able to track ships ladened with arms travelling to Durban, often sailing under the flags of other countries. September had also begun investigating alleged collusion in nuclear weapons development, which must have raised major red flags.
As the brave and determined activist she was, September did not hide the fact she was aware of the sanctions busting activities of French arms companies, and made public calls for the French public to demand that French companies halt their covert dealings with the apartheid regime. The threat she posed to the interests of those profiting from these lucrative dealings cannot be understated given that the arms deals between Europe and the apartheid regime between 1974 and 1994 had been worth R500 billion. What was also clearly at stake was the fighting capability of the apartheid regime’s military machine.
Craig Williamson called September “a soft target” as she was without any security while operating in Paris, and admitted that she was on a kill list. September wrote reports from the ANC mission in Paris, which currently sit in the ANC archives at Fort Hare and are now declassified, which outline the surveillance she was under, and threats to her life. She reported having her phone bugged and getting calls at odd hours, being followed, photographed, and the office across from hers being engaged in regular surveillance of her activities.
A new explosive documentary on Ducie September’s death Murder in Paris, directed by award-winning filmmaker Enver Samuel, will be aired as a two part series on Human Rights Day on SABC3 on March 21st and 28th. The documentary reveals new information relating to her murder which never formed part of the initial French investigation. In the documentary it is alleged that the French authorities had closed the case four years after September’s death without having interviewed a number of her close work colleagues, friends, and even a French journalist who she was particularly close to. The French investigation claimed to have found no evidence to enable them to prosecute the assassins.
A later investigation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission produced no conclusive finding. Swedish Colonel Jan-Ak Kjellberg had travelled to Paris to investigate, along with a former South African policeman.
Dulcie September’s family submitted a court summons to the French authorities on February 16th this year to reopen the case into her death with the backing of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. French lawyers have taken on the case on behalf of the family, and have applied to the French court in relation to article L141-1 of the judiciary institution which states, “The state has the duty to repair the damages caused by faulty functioning of its judiciary. This responsibility is engaged only in cases of gross mistake or denial of justice.” The legal team is maintaining that September’s death was an apartheid crime and as such a crime against humanity.
There is great hope that justice may finally be served more than three decades after Dulcie September’s murder. At her funeral in 1988 ANC President OR Tambo had said, “The ANC makes this solemn vow that these murderers, who today arrogantly strut the globe will be brought to justice. It might be tomorrow, it might be the next year, but they will be brought to justice.” It is time to fulfill Tambo’s promise.
* Ebrahim is Independent Media Group Foreign Editor.