Frank Kennan Dutton
SCOB (20 May 1949 – 20 January 2022) was a South African police officer.
The dominant theme in his career was the investigation and prosecution of people guilty of committing
war crimes and
crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
during South Africa's
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
era. Dutton's work took place in South Africa as well as abroad. In South Africa, he helped expose the apartheid military's destabilization machinery, and later headed the Scorpions, the country's elite police force. He also worked with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Uncovering the Third Force
Trust Feed massacre
Dutton, with his teammate
Lwandle Wilson Magadla, solved the case of the
Trust Feed massacre, a massacre in a village of supporters of the
African National Congress
The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...
in the township
Trust Feed in
Natal
NATAL or Natal may refer to:
Places
* Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil
* Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa
** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843)
** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...
in December 1988. Taking on the system they worked for, Dutton and Magadla sent a prominent policeman
Brian Victor Mitchell to prison for this in 1992, the first senior policeman during the anti-apartheid struggle to be tried and sentenced. Subsequently, his superiors
Ronnie van der Westhuizen and
Christo Marx discouraged him and dissolved his unit. But Dutton continued to expose the involvement of the apartheid-era
South African Police
The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the ''de facto'' police force in the territory of South West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981. After South Af ...
hit squads so-called "
Third Force" involvement of the
South African Defence Force
The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence F ...
in destabilising large areas of South Africa.
Eugene de Kock
In 1992, on the recommendation of
Jacob Zuma
Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan name Msholozi, and was a former anti-aparth ...
,
Richard Goldstone
Richard Joseph Goldstone (born 26 October 1938) is a South African former judge. After working for 17 years as a commercial lawyer, he was appointed by the South African government to serve on the Transvaal Supreme Court from 1980 to 1989 and ...
appointed Dutton the chief investigator for the
Goldstone Commission
The Goldstone Commission, formally known as the Commission of Inquiry Regarding the Prevention of Public Violence and Intimidation, was appointed on 24 October 1991 to investigate political violence and intimidation in South Africa. Over its three- ...
, a judicial commission looking into political violence. This led to the exposure of the workings of the Third Force, and the imprisonment of security police colonel
Eugene de Kock
Eugene Alexander de Kock (born 29 January 1949) is a former South African Police colonel, torturer, and assassin, active under the apartheid government. Nicknamed "Prime Evil" by the press, De Kock was the commanding officer of C10, a counterin ...
, known as "Prime Evil". Goldstone said of Dutton: "He is a man without strong political feelings but with a deep belief in the need for complete integrity in police investigations, regardless of the consequences."
Magnus Malan
In 1995, Dutton became the head of the Investigation Task Unit of the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...
.
He investigated and arrested the former defence minister
Magnus Malan
General Magnus André de Merindol Malan (30 January 1930 – 18 July 2011) was a South African military figure and politician during the last years of apartheid in South Africa. He served respectively as Minister of Defence in the cabinet of P ...
and 10 former military officials in connection with the 1987
KwaMakhutha massacre
General Magnus André de Merindol Malan (30 January 1930 – 18 July 2011) was a South African military figure and politician during the last years of apartheid in South Africa. He served respectively as Minister of Defence in the cabinet of P ...
.
Renamo affair
Dutton exposed the shadowy relationship between the special forces of the
South African Defence Force
The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence F ...
and
Renamo
RENAMO (from the Portuguese , ) is a Mozambican political party and militant group. The party was founded with the active sponsorship of the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) in May 1977 from anti-communist dissidents oppose ...
rebels in
Mozambique
Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
. He showed this as continuing for many years after the non-aggression
Nkomati Accord
The Nkomati Accord (officially known as the ''Agreement on Non-Aggression and Good Neighbourliness between Mozambique and South Africa'' ) was a non-aggression pact signed on 16 March 1984 between the People's Republic of Mozambique and the Rep ...
was signed between South Africa and Mozambique in 1984. Three of the accused – Brigadier
Cornelius van Niekerk, Brigadier
John More and Colonel
Cornelius van Tonder – were directly involved in coordinating support for Renamo in direct violation of the Nkomati Accord.
Investigations in the former Yugoslavia
In 1994, on the recommendation of
Richard Goldstone
Richard Joseph Goldstone (born 26 October 1938) is a South African former judge. After working for 17 years as a commercial lawyer, he was appointed by the South African government to serve on the Transvaal Supreme Court from 1980 to 1989 and ...
, chief prosecutor of the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...
, Dutton successfully applied for a post with the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
in the investigation section of the Office of the Prosecutor for that tribunal at
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
, Netherlands. In this role, he worked with detectives from more than 90 countries and proved himself to be a world-class detective. In 1995, he was promoted to head of the court's investigating mission in
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...
. He was again promoted to Commander of Field Operations in
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
in 1999, when Director of Public Prosecutions
Bulelani Ngcuka
Bulelani T. Ngcuka (pronounced ; born 2 May 1954) is a South African attorney, prosecutor and activist, who served as the first Director of Public Prosecutions in South Africa, and is the husband of former Deputy President of South Africa Phumz ...
asked him to return to South Africa to set up the elite unit, the Scorpions.
Setting up the Scorpions
In 2000 before his retirement, he set up the
Scorpions
Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always end ...
, the Directorate of Special Operations, modelled after the American
Untouchables and
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
. Dutton was at the time the only member of the organisation with a public image, and gave it its motto: "Loved by the people, feared by criminals, respected by peers." This once again placed him in the firing line.
Later life and death
In October 2007, Dutton was selected to serve on the panel to review the case against police National Commissioner
Jackie Selebi
Jacob "Jackie" Sello Selebi (7 March 195023 January 2015) was the National Commissioner of the South African Police Service from January 2000 to January 2008, when he was put on extended leave and charged with corruption. He was also a former Pre ...
.
In October 2011,
Seychelles
Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...
police announced that Dutton had been appointed to create an elite police unit against serious crime there.
On
Freedom Day 2012, Dutton was awarded the
Order of the Baobab
The Order of the Baobab is a South African civilian national honour, awarded to those for service in business and the economy; science, medicine, and for technological innovation; and community service. It was instituted on 6 December 2002, and i ...
in Gold, with the citation: "for his exceptional contribution to and achievement in his investigative work as a dedicated and loyal policeman, for exposing the apartheid government’s "Third Force", for his role in working for peace in KwaZulu-Natal, his international work in investigating and exposing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Bosnia‚ Kosovo and Darfur and assisting in establishing the causes of violence in East Timor and Sudan". He received this honour at the same time as his late long-time friend Lwandle Wilson Magadla, who was honoured posthumously.
In the 2010s, Dutton acted as a private investigator for several legal cases about
political violence
Political violence is violence which is perpetrated in order to achieve political goals. It can include violence which is used by a state against other states (war), violence which is used by a state against civilians and non-state actors (forced ...
in the 1980s. He was approached by the family of
Nokuthula Simelane, an
uMkhonto we Sizwe fighter who went missing in 1983, to find the truth about her death. In 2015, Dutton submitted an affidavit (along with another affidavit from the former Truth and Reconciliation Commission member
Dumisa Ntsebeza
Dumisa Buhle Ntsebeza (born 31 October 1949) is a South African lawyer, public speaker, author and political activist born in Transkei, now the Umtata, Eastern Cape.
Professor Lungisile Ntsebeza is his brother. He is the chairman of the Desmon ...
) saying that state-sanctioned extrajudicial killings had become part and parcel of the apartheid regime, particularly the police, during the 1980s. This led to several police officers being prosecuted for murdering her. Similarly, Dutton investigated for the reopened inquest into
Neil Aggett
Neil Aggett (6 October 1953 – 5 February 1982) was a doctor and trade union organiser who was killed, while in detention, by the Security Branch of the Apartheid South African Police Service after being held for 70 days without trial.
Life a ...
's 1982 death in detention, after being approached by the Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa in 2015.
In September 2015, Dutton was appointed to the
National Planning Commission of South Africa
The National Planning Commission of South Africa is a South African government agency established in May 2010, responsible for strategic planning for the country.
The head of the commission reports to the President, and works with various mini ...
.
In 2019, Dutton started serving as the lead investigator for the
Zondo Commission
The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector including Organs of State, better known as the Zondo Commission or State Capture Commission, is a public inquiry established in Janu ...
, a public inquiry into alleged state capture, corruption, and fraud.
Dutton died at a hospital in Hillcrest from a heart attack on 20 January 2022, at the age of 72. He also suffered a stroke few days prior to his death.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dutton, Frank
1949 births
2022 deaths
Order of the Baobab
South African police officers
White South African people
People from Bela-Bela Local Municipality