The apartheid regime committed a triple murder without firing a single shot, President Thabo Mbeki submitted in a Truth and Reconciliation Commission amnesty hearing in Pinetown on Tuesday.
Mbeki submitted a statement through advocate George Bizos, who is representing the family of Benjamin Langa.
Langa was shot and killed by two Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) members on May 20 1984 after being identified as a suspected informer.
The two MK members - Clement Payi and Lucky Xulu - were misled by the security forces that Langa "was selling out comrades" and that he should be eliminated.
Payi and Xulu were subsequently convicted and executed for the killing.
Mbeki's statement follows the amnesty application by former MK operative George Martins, who was also involved.
Martins told the commission he accompanied Xulu and Payi to Langa's house.
"Xulu and Payi had been advised by a person known only as 'Ralph and Fear' that Langa had been selling out comrades and should be eliminated. I took them to Langa's home.
"I knocked on the door. He knew me and so he opened the door. Xulu and Payi then shot him," Martins said.
He said he later learnt Ralph had been recruited by the security police.
Mbeki said: "In one of the most painful examples of this nature, a state agent with the name of Fear ordered two cadres to execute Langa. Once the facts were known to the leadership of the ANC, (ANC) president Oliver Tambo met with the family to explain and apologise for this action.
"A triple murder had been achieved by the apartheid regime without firing a single shot themselves," Mbeki said.
Bizos said the Langa family, of which several members were present, were not opposed to the application but had wanted to place before the TRC that Langa's death was a "set-up".