Government withdraws ten police officers from service

Following an interim report of the Goldstone Commission, which probed allegations of a Third Force in political violence, President F.W. De Klerk announced that a further ten unnamed officers implicated in the report were being withdrawn from service without loss of privileges. He further warned that if the officers turn down the arrangements the government would suspend them. The possible major standoff between the generals and De Klerk seemed to have been resolved when on 25 March Commissioner Johan van der Merve proclaimed that Deputy Police Commissioner Lt.-Gen. Basie Smit and Lt.-Gen. Johan Le Roux voluntarily suspended themselves.